Melbourne CBD foot traffic climbs as Victorians return to school and work after COVID-19 pandemic

Another busy sensor location for CBD morning peak foot traffic is the Flinders Street Station underpass, where 1114 pedestrian were logged between 8am and 9am on Monday.

The last Monday morning with so many people in that area was March 16, directly after the weekend of the cancelled 2020 Melbourne Grand Prix, when coronavirus first-wave case numbers were on the rise and many Melburnians started working from home.

The government expects the public transport network to return to 80 per cent capacity by mid-2021, with public transport use climbing to 40 per cent last week and ridership on Wednesday reaching 44 per cent. Roads averaged about 90 per cent of capacity.

Flinders Street Station was quiet at lunchtime on Monday, with a few students and workers seen wearing face masks and headphones and keeping to themselves.

Some commuters told The Age trains and trams were emptier than they were pre-COVID, while most commuters socially distanced and wore masks.

“It’s pretty spacious at the moment,” said Myles Baiden Assan, a construction worker from Reservoir, of the train he took to the CBD on Monday morning. “There aren’t that many people on the train, so you usually get a seat.”

Mr Assan said most people were trying to socially distance, but a few sat close together and a minority refused to wear masks.

“Probably 90 per cent of people have a mask on, so it’s usually pretty good. People figure it out after a while if they look around and everyone else has got masks on.

“But some people are making a point of not wearing masks, it’s a bit weird.”

Madhu Choubey, a hospitality worker from Southbank, took the tram to the CBD at 6am on Monday and said the carriage was empty.

“I felt safe. Before COVID public transport used to be more crowded, but now it’s pretty empty most of the time – 90 per cent of the time I get a seat.”

Loading

Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said patronage had been climbing steadily each week, but travel patterns had probably changed, with fewer CBD-bound peak-hour trips and more off-peak suburban trips.

“I don’t think there are instances of crowding yet, but certainly the system is continuing to get busy,” he said. “There were a few odd reports on the weekend of tram patronage appearing to be closer to normal.”

But the days of workers going into the office on 9-5 schedules might be gone forever, “so patronage may never come back to what it was”, Mr Bowen said.

The government’s approach of rolling out masks, extra services and off-peak myki discounts was key in curbing the virus’ spread and encouraging people to use the network again, he said.

Jess Mitchell, a high school graduate from East Brighton, said she had noticed trams had become more crowded during peak times in recent days.

She took the train from Gardenvale into the CBD on Monday with a friend.

“Everyone wears masks,” she said. “I’ve also been on when it’s been packed recently, like coming home from work time around 5-6 pm and everybody has masks on.

“So I think everyone is complying really well with it. And I feel safe, I feel fine, I think we don’t have any cases so I feel fine to use public transport.

“I also think that it’s really quick, to drive would take way longer, it only took us 15-20 minutes from Gardenvale. It’s quite far away, but it makes it quite quick on the train.”