Bus plan to end car chaos

By Sarah Schwager
AN EXPRESS bus service along the Monash Freeway to the city has been proposed to help ease traffic congestion and Dandenong railway line capacity, which, according to the council, is ‘at breaking point’.
The proposed bus service, an initiative of Dandenongbased Grenda’s Bus Service and helped by the City of Greater Dandenong, would run along the Monash Freeway emergency lane to bypass heavy traffic.
This would provide another option other than driving for those in the southeast, and much needed public transport.
Greater Dandenong transport strategy internal consultant Roy McCartney said other public transport plans such as adding a third track on the Dandenong railway line would take a minimum of five years to implement at a cost of nearly $1 billion.
The bus service was a speedier and more costeffective alternative, he said.
The bus service would include a 900space carpark on the corner of Stud Road and Monash Freeway, where patrons could park their cars before taking the bus.
Mr McCartney said the bus service, known as a park and ride facility, would take cars off the freeway, thereby easing traffic congestion.
Grenda Transit general manager Kevin Norris said the company had been putting proposals to the State Government for 15 months to implement the Stud Road service, which was later extended to include some of the outer suburbs.
The proposed route starts at Dandenong North, runs as far out as Berwick and Narre Warren and through Endeavour Hills and Doveton before reaching Stud Road where it will travel express along the Monash Freeway to the city.
He said it would first need to be determined whether it was safe enough to run a bus service along the emergency lane.
“I suspect there’s not much they will have to do, perhaps install traffic signals on the onramps to give a guarantee the buses can get through,” he said.
Greater Dandenong director of engineering services Tim Tamlin said council had had discussions with VicRoads and the Department of Infrastructure about the express lane.
“A service like that would be great for reducing traffic during peak hours,” Mr Tamlin said.
The proposed service would run every 10 minutes during peak hour and take about 45 minutes to travel from Stud Road into the city, including a city loop.
With rising fuel costs, which have hit $1.40 in some areas of the southeast, the need for public transport options has been very strong and highly supported in the area.
Mr Norris said rising petrol prices were becoming a problem, especially as there were not many transport alternatives and parts of the southeast were quite poor.
Greater Dandenong infrastructure planning manager Peter White said with the growth corridor between Springvale and Dandenong the current public transport system just did not have the capacity to cater for the corridor.
Mr White said in the future, they would look at links from the bus service to other areas of Casey and Cardinia.
Mr Norris said council had already helped them identify land for the car park, currently owned by Melbourne Water and, provided the Government approved the park and ride concept, he said they were happy to sell it to them.
Keysborough Ward councillor Roz Blades said she was really happy with the idea of an express bus service.
“The more people that use it the better,” Cr Blades said.
She said tests with similar bus services overseas had been very successful.
“I just want people to have a decent public transport system,” she said.
A Department of Infrastructure spokesperson said the number of validations during the weekday on the Dandenong line has increased by about three per cent since May.
He said an extra sixcarriage weekday train service was added to the morning and afternoon peak times from July to cater for increased demand on the Dandenong line.