By CASEY NEILL
KEYSBOROUGH parents are turning to taxis to get their kids to medical treatment and school, and built-in bus stops in new estates are going unused.
Tijen Kor’s children attend Sirius College on Chapel Road in Keysborough.
She told a public transport meeting at nearby Mt Hira College on 16 August that her job often required travel and her husband left early for work.
But she can’t just send her teenage children to school on a bus – there isn’t one.
“We have to order taxis,” she said.
Mt Hira College principal Pat Gay said more and more taxis were arriving at the Perry Road P-12 school, which also had no public bus access.
“Even at the primary school at least a couple of days a week,” she said.
Ms Gay sends two teachers out on car park duty every afternoon to manage the traffic chaos. The school runs four small mini buses, but they’re at capacity.
City of Greater Dandenong councillor Roz Blades said a Keysborough mother without access to a car had to get her sick child to a doctor.
“So she had to call a taxi,” Cr Blades said.
“This is the human face of it.”
On 8 August, the Star reported that poor bus access in Keysborough and Dandenong South was putting children at risk and threatening jobs.
Residents have decided to start a petition, calling for bus services and are encouraging letters to Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder.
“I’d like a collective voice from this area – not just Roz again,” Cr Blades said.
The council’s city improvement manager Dino De Melis said it built bus stops into new estates and they were ready and waiting for services.
“It’s been planned, it’s been designed properly,” he said.
Cr Jim Memeti said the situation made it “very difficult for kids to get a job and maintain a job”, with many teenage apprentices not yet allowed to drive but unable to rely on public transport.
Isaacs MP Mark Dreyfus said the bus routes that did exist were often circuitous and saw students and workers backtracking, more than tripling their travel time.
“It’s going to be a matter of everybody writing letters,” he said.
Kusum Wijeyasinghe from the Dhamma Sarana Temple said people were missing out on grief counselling because they couldn’t reach the Buddhist centre by bus.
Mt Hira College founding principal and board chairman Ekrem Ozyurek said nearby mosques faced similar issues, and religious festivals at several centres in the area created parking chaos because cars were the only transport option.
A Public Transport Victoria (PTV) spokeswoman said the authority was always looking at ways to improve public transport services.
“And we’ll continue to monitor demand for public transport throughout these regions, with priority for new bus services given to areas where population growth is strong,” she said.
“In the meantime, Dandenong South and Keysborough South are currently serviced by six local bus routes.”
She said four operated until 10pm seven days a week, and the SmartBus Route 902 operated along Springvale Road from 6am to midnight six days a week and 7am to 9pm on Sundays.
