Is Launceston's public transport better or worse today compared to 77 years ago? This thread will look at the level of service, focusing on frequency and coverage, and how it has changed since 1947. 🧵

Part 1: Some background In 1947 Launceston was home to about 40,000 people. Launceston City Council operated a mix of electric trams and diesel buses as Launceston Municipal Tramways (LMT). A fleet of 29 trams and 12 buses operated across 11 total lines.

Since then, Launceston has doubled in population, with most of that growth in the form of post-war suburbia pushing out the city's boundary. State owned MetroTas now operates 50 buses across 22 lines, with regional operators providing additional service to some areas.

Part 2: 1947 network Launceston's 1947 network consisted of five tram lines and six bus lines, with most residential areas within a short walk of these services. Most lines went close to or right to the edge of city limits.

Frequencies amongst the bus lines varied dramatically. The Trevallyn route, which had been a tram service until earlier that year, operated 57 services a day, whilst the Hill St route in West Launceston saw just three buses a weekday total.

The tram network however provided a consistently high level of frequency across the board. Most tram lines began service sometime between 6 and 8am, not super early in every case, though they all ran until at least 11:30pm, later than any bus service in Launceston today.

As of 1947, the least frequent of the five tramlines was the Talbot Rd route, which operated from 7:32am to 11:30pm with 58 total services and clock-face scheduled 15 minute frequencies between 10am and 8pm.

The Basin Rd tramline as well as the Trevallyn and Abbott St bus lines operated nearly identical timetables to the Talbot St line. The Newstead tramline had slightly more service, 65 trams from the city to Newstead starting at 6:46am.

The Mowbray route through the city's north and the Carr Villa (Kings Meadows) route through the city's south saw the most frequent service in the network. Each route had two services running alongside each other, with one service going a little bit further to the city's edge.

The Mowbray route to Button St, Mowbray, saw 100 trams a day with 8 clock-face scheduled trams an hour between noon and 7:16pm. 70 of those trams continued further on to the edge of Mowbray Heights, around Grubb St, at the northern boundary of the city.

The Carr Villa route to Kings Meadows operated almost identical to the Mowbray route. In this case the 7/8 minute frequencies stopped about half way along the route at Peel St, with 68 of the 98 trams continuing all the way to the Carr Villa cemetery on the city's periphery.

This network gave residents in Invermay, Mowbray and South Launceston service as frequent as every 7 or 8 minutes, and residents in every remaining suburb of the city 15 minute service throughout most of the day.

Overall, a very respectable network for a small regional city. A consistent level of service across the board, clock face scheduling throughout much of the day, services running until just short of midnight, plus all the technical benefits of electric rail transport.

Part 3: How does it compare to now? The seven most frequent tram and bus routes in 1947 all have modern day counterparts following the same or very similar route. Most of those routes today see several services combine along the main arterial and split apart in the outer suburbs.

In 2024 there are 84 buses from the city to Newnham Drive, roughly where the 1947 Mowbray Heights route finished. Whilst this is more than the 70 trams that went to that point in 1947, it's less than the 100 trams that went to Button St at the lower end of the suburb.

Looking at the timetables more closely, there are some big differences regarding how service changes throughout the day. 2024 has more service during the morning, whilst 1947 saw slightly better service in the afternoon and much better service later in the evening.

Mowbray's 2024 timetable is the only one today that really competes with the old tramlines for consistent clock face scheduling, with Metro buses leaving the city at regular 10 minute intervals from 7:18am to 5:58pm, plus the occasional regional service.

Kings Meadows is a slightly different story. The number of buses today to Kings Meadows is about the same as the trams in 1947, 70 and 68 respectively. However the 70 buses is far less than the 98 trams that went to Peel St in South Launceston.

That said, the part of the route closest to the city today does benefit from various Metro lines to Prospect in the south west which add additional frequency. Overall, the level of service along the whole route switches multiple times between better and worse compared to 1947.

For the service to Kings Meadows, 2024 sees more frequency throughout most of the morning and even a lot more in the afternoon, though 1947 sees much better service in the evening.

So in the case of both Mowbray and Kings Meadows, despite all the growth these suburbs and surrounds have seen, service hasn't changed much since 1947. If anything, 1947's superior clock face scheduling and late evening service gives it the edge in both cases.

Newstead today sees 44 buses compared to the 65 trams in 1947. There isn't a single hour of the day where 2024 sees more service compared to 1947, and the theme of 1947 easily outdoing 2024 for service in the evening hours continues.

Then it gets real bad. The Trevallyn Rd, Basin Rd, Talbot Rd and Abbott St routes have all seen a severe drop in service. 57, 58, 58 and 59 services on these routes in 1947 compared to just 17, 17, 8 and 9 services respectively in 2024.

That's an average decrease in service of 78% across those four routes. West Launceston also had a bus service up Connaught Crescent to Laura St, complementing the nearby Basin Rd tramline with an additional 14 services a day.

So, when looking at all the routes with a reasonable 1947-2024 comparison, 1947's network provides slightly better service in a couple of cases, and much better service in all the others. Now what about other services that existed in 1947 but not today, and vice versa?

All of the Metro services running today without a clear 1947 comparison serve residential areas that simply didn't exist in 1947. The service in these outer and exurb suburbs varies, though even the better areas are lucky to get half hourly service during most of the day.

Worth noting that Riverside's relatively poor Metro service is aided by the Manions regional service in the West Tamar valley, which provides 27 services on weekdays along West Tamar Highway. The Metro services meanwhile focus on covering low traffic suburban streets.

Another service worth mentioning is the free Tiger Bus which operates a total of four routes. The commuter shuttle provides a direct connection to the city centre from a park and ride facility in Invermay, with 8 services in each of the morning and evening peaks.

The other three routes connect major destinations such as the hospital, popular recreational areas, museums and the city centre, also leaving from Inveresk. These routes each operate between 3 to 5 times a day, and limit their stops to just the major destinations.

It's hard to evaluate the value of a such a service with several quirks. If it ran more frequently, and especially later in the evening, perhaps it would be a larger consideration. As for 1947, there were a couple of routes around that don't have a present day counterpart.

The Mayne St route in Invermay provided 32 services to better coverage in parts of the suburb west of Invermay Rd. And the Mulgrave and Normanstone Rd route provided a similar level of service, 35 buses, to areas of South Launceston east of Wellington St.

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