Boring bus ride

A GREATER Dandenong councillor has described a bus tour of EastLink on opening day as an ‘incredibly boring’ experience.
Cleeland Ward councillor Paul Donovan was one of two councillors aboard a council-chartered bus that took elderly residents and school students from Greater Dandenong on a tour of the EastLink tollway on Sunday.
“I found it incredibly boring,” Cr Donovan said.
“But at the same time it’s a road and is an impressive work of engineering.”
Cr Donovan wrote what he described as a ‘diary entry’ on the back of an EastLink flier in which he questioned why people were so excited about driving along a new road.
“I think by and large they (the other people on the bus) were impressed with it,” Cr Donovan said.
“We were all impressed with the travel times but there were jokes about it being a large car park for the first 10 minutes on there (when it was congested).
“At that point the claims looked ridiculous about time savings and fuel savings.”
EastLink is running toll-free for its first for weeks of operation.
The tollway, which links Melbourne’s east in a north to south direction, is yet to withstand its first day of non-school holiday peak traffic.