Melbourne bus route 601 is operated by

CDC Melbourne CDC Melbourne is a bus operator in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It operates 55 bus routes under contract to Public Transport Victoria. It is one of the brands of CDC Victoria, which is in turn a subsidiary of ComfortDelGro Australia. As a ...

between Huntingdale station and

Monash University, Clayton campus Monash University, Clayton campus is the main campus of Monash University located in Clayton, which is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in the state of Victoria. The campus covers an area of over 1.1 km2 and is the largest of the Mo ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia.

History

Prior to opening the route, there were numerous complaints about the inadequacy of the public transport service from Huntingdale station to the Monash University Clayton campus, because route 630 and

SmartBus SmartBus is a network of bus services in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Overseen by Public Transport Victoria, the network comprises nine key cross-town and orbital bus routes around Melbourne. Key aspects of the service include more freque ...

route 900 failed to provide a service that met demand.Huntingdale chaos brings renewed call for Monash/Rowville

Public Transport Users Association The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) is a community-based public transport lobby group in Victoria, Australia, based in Melbourne. It is run entirely by volunteers and has no full-time staff. History and aims The organisation was fou ...

18 April 2010 Eastrans began operating route 601 on 18 July 2011, allowing students and staff at Monash University to travel to the campus more quickly and efficiently. Initially, the route was launched as a trial run for one year. The service immediately became very successful and doubled patronage on the corridor. Its success ensure that the route would become permanent. By 2014, the route was Melbourne's busiest, with an average weekly patronage of 22,000. If the

Suburban Rail Loop The Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) is a rapid transit system currently under construction in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria (Australia), Victoria and second largest city of Australia. The system is divided into four distinct sections. The two ma ...

is constructed, route 601 will likely be connected with the rail line at Monash University via Monash station. In 2022, route 601 was chosen by CDC Melbourne to operate trial runs for its new electric buses.

Route

Route 601 operates from Huntingdale station to Monash University via North and Wellington Roads. The journey time for the 2.5-kilometre trip is five minutes on average. It is one of the most heavily patronised bus routes in Melbourne, with buses running every few minutes, and usually being crowded even during peak frequencies.

Vehicles

Route 601 was initially operated by a dedicated fleet of three

Volgren Volgren is an Australian bus and coach body manufacturer. History Volvo Buses, VolGrenda Corporation, gren was formed in 1977 by Melbourne bus operator Grenda Corporation in Dandenong, Victoria. Because Grenda held the Volvo Buses dealership i ...

-bodied

Volvo B7RLE The Volvo B7RLE is a low-entry single-deck bus chassis manufactured by Volvo. It was superseded by the Volvo B8RLE in 2013, with production of the B7RLE continuing until 2018. Specifications The Volvo B7RLE is similar to its predecessor, the ...

s, painted in a white and orange livery. More recently, it has been operated by buses in standard

Public Transport Victoria Public Transport Victoria (PTV) is the brand name for public transport in the Australian state of Victoria. It was previously the trading name of the Public Transport Development Authority (PTDA), a now-defunct statutory authority in Victo ...

orange livery. In December 2022, Volgren-bodied

Volvo BZL The Volvo BZL is a full-size zero tailpipe emissions battery electric bus chassis for both single-deck buses and double-deck buses, manufactured by Volvo AB since 2021. First launched in 2021 for the United Kingdom and Ireland markets, fea ...

electric buses were introduced, and Australia’s first off-site bus

charging station A charging station, also known as a charge point, chargepoint, or electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), is a power supply electrical device, device that supplies electrical power for recharging plug-in electric vehicles (including batter ...

was installed at Monash University.

References

{{Melbourne public transport, state=collapsed Bus routes in Melbourne Monash University