reckoning, with a bus route if walking isn't convenient for whatever reason. I'd think Melbourne would have to increase in density significantly to justify having stops closer together than they are around that area. Having said that, I do think it's a disgrace that if I wanted to get to Southland by PT from Hawthorn it would take me over an hour, vs less than 20 minutes by car. The same is true if I want to get to, say, Preston. Better bus routes seem to be the obvious solution. Southland is next to the railway line and would add significant patronage to the line, including lots of inter-peak and counter-peak patronage that would use existing services with plenty of space. It would attract thousands and thousands of passengers per day and be in the top 20 patronage stations on weekdays and probably the top 10 on weekends. Better buses are needed but where a major patronage generator is next to a railway line then it should have a station to serve the rail corridor directly. No, that is a recipe for a dysfunctional system. Witness Brisbane's nonsense in trying to run buses from outer suburban Siberias all the way into the CBD, where they clog several bottlenecks into standstill (Google buses and Victoria Bridge) with often nearly-empty buses and make the larger bus stations a nightmare to use. I hate a system that relies too much on buses but acknowledge they are a necessary component but they need to