Transport is ‘pivotal’

A GOOD public transport system is “pivotal” for everyone in the community, says Greater Dandenong councillor Roz Blades.
Cr Blades, who has been a strong advocate for better public transport in Greater Dandenong for 15 years, said a better bus service and the Springvale level crossing grade separation were the biggest priorities in the area.
“I have been passionate about transport for so long, as it is pivotal to everyone,” she said.
“It helps people get to school, reduces traffic congestion, reduces emissions and allows people to get to their place of employment.
“A better bus service would provide better linkages for the community,” she said.
“On the weekend, people should be able to get around.”
“Also Keysborough is in desperate need of a bus service. There are 3600 homes in Keysborough, with no public transport available.”
However Dandenong MP John Pandazopoulos believes the transport issues in Dandenong mostly relate to rail.
He said there were full carriages during peak hour, poor perceptions of safety on the system and services needed to be quicker.
“We will deal with this congestion by ordering more carriages to meet the increased demand since zone three fares were abolished,” he said.
“We will deal with safety with an extra 100 transit officers that we have announced that will patrol the system at night. “The staffing of currently un-staffed stations will also help.”
Lyndhurst MP Tim Holding said when talking to the community frequency, reliability and safety were the things people wanted from their train and bus services.
“We are also delivering improvements to our local rail services – in June this year we added 71 new services every week on the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines,” he said. “Labor has now added 391 new weekly services to the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines.”
He also said the extended SmartBus Route 901, which now runs every 15 minutes along Springvale Road during peak times, has been a huge success since it began in April.
Liberal candidate for Lyndhurst Tony Holland said an effective transport system required investment in public transport as well as roads infrastructure to cope with the growing population and to effectively meet the needs of local industry.
“In addition to delivering 940 new protective service officers to restore safety to our public transport network, a Baillieu Coalition Government will put in place a comprehensive roads and public transport strategy for Victoria.”
Mr Holland said he had also secured $140 million towards fixing the problems at the notorious Springvale level crossing if elected.
Greens candidate for Dandenong Matthew Kirwan said he believed the biggest issues were frequency and location of bus and train services, poor linkage of buses with trains and some people’s safety concerns at Yarraman and Dandenong Railway Stations.
Mr Kirwan said the Greens had a number of plans to help address these issues.
“The Greens Public Transport Plan includes doubling public transport capacity within eight years and tripling passenger trips by 2020,” he said.
“The Greens will also create a single Public Transport Authority to plan, manage and integrate all public transport services across Victoria.
Greens candidate for Lyndhurst Nina Springle agreed that the lack of co-ordination between buses and trains was a major issue.
“Greater frequency of trains would go a long way to rectifying the co-ordination problem,” she said.