Pensioner Maria Zaccaria with fellow residents Ida Poster, Martha Blake, Carmen Galah and Maureen Watson will fight for improved bus services in Noble Park so they can take part in community and social opportunities.By Shaun Inguanzo
A NOBLE Park pensioner has slammed poor access to bus services because it constantly prevents her from visiting terminally ill friends in hospital and taking part in senior citizens’ activities.
The comments come as transport lobby group the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) claims Greater Dandenong’s public transport crisis threatens to create an ‘underclass’ of people who will be unable to access employment and social opportunities in the city.
It also follows an ongoing debate over the lifespan of the councilfunded weekend bus service, which Keysborough Ward councillor Roz Blades has led a community battle to retain, claiming Greater Dandenong is in a public transport crisis.
This week Watson Road resident Maria Zaccaria, 67, said a lack of bus stops within safe walking distance of her home had prevented her and other elderly residents from seeing friends in Dandenong Hospital and South Eastern Private Hospital.
“One friend was in hospital with liver cancer. I could only visit her once (before she died),” Ms Zaccaria said.
“If I have friends or neighbours in hospital sometimes I have to miss (seeing them).”
Ms Zaccaria has to walk 600 metres uphill to Jacksons Road in order to access bus services that enable her and other elderly residents to go shopping, take part in activities and reach services.
She must then pay a fare to take a bus another 900 metres to Waverley Gardens Shopping Centre.
But if weather conditions are too hot or cold or if night falls, Ms Zaccaria said she and other elderly residents could not cope with the walk, or felt unsafe on the streets.
Ms Zaccaria said elderly citizens in her neighbourhood wanted a bus stop, or community service, closer to their homes than Jacksons Road.
PTUA outer east branch convenor Alex Makin said Ms Zaccaria’s case was an example of how inadequate public transport could create social isolation.
“The social disconnection caused by a lack of public transport is startling, and it cuts people like Maria off from the rest of society,” he said.
Mr Makin said people would not be able to access employment or social opportunities if public transport in Greater Dandenong remained in its current condition.
“It is almost creating an underclass of people,” he said.
“This illustrates once again the important role public transport has in connecting people with the local community.”
A spokesperson for Transport Minister Peter Batchelor lashed out at PTUA and Cr Blades’ perceptions of public transport in Greater Dandenong, and said both parties were “absolutely wrong and have little knowledge and interest in what is actually happening in Dandenong”.
The spokesperson failed to provide comments on Noble Park’s situation, but said extended services from Dandenong train station to Narre Warren South including Friday evening services running until 9.05pm, and from Dandenong to Cranbourne had been effective from 1 February.
Mulgrave MP Daniel Andrews said he had met with Ms Zaccaria and other concerned residents and was presenting their case to the Transport Minister.
He said more needed to be done to improve local services, and hinted more announcements would be made for Greater Dandenong following the Commonwealth Games in March.
