By Casey Neill
Shuttle buses could ferry workers from the South-East and beyond to jobs in Dandenong South.
At the Monday 23 April Greater Dandenong Council meeting, Councillor Roz Blades suggested a route from Dandenong Railway Station “rather than run buses up and down Abbotts Road on an hourly basis which are mostly empty because there is no need for an hourly service”.
“From Dandenong station there would be a shuttle bus to take people to work at the time of their shift and it would collect them on their way home, and there might be a shift change in the middle of the day,” she said.
Cr Blades asked that the council approach employers in Dandenong South to find out the needs of their workers.
“That way we can tailor a bus service where we can get people to work in their own city,” she said.
“To a lot of the young people, it is the difference between leaving school and starting their working life with a job or starting their working life on unemployment benefits.”
Business group manager, Paul Kearsley, said the council was lobbying the State Government “very hard” for help with a shuttle bus project.
“Ventura Buses have put forward a proposal exactly as Cr Blades has spoken about,” he said.
“Council’s traffic engineers and our business group are assisting Ventura put that proposal together.
“It is something that this council has been pushing for, for a number of years and we now have a bus provider Ventura, in support of that model where previously we had not.
“Now is the right time to push for that.”
In April, the Journal spoke to South East Melbourne Manufacturers Alliance (SEMMA) executive officer Adrian Boden.
He said the sector was booming but employers couldn’t find enough workers to keep up with the growth.
Mr Boden said there were about 4500 new manufacturing jobs in the South-East.
He said companies were struggling “not to survive, but to find people so they can keep growing”.
There are thousands of unemployed people in Greater Dandenong and thousands of jobs available.
Mr Boden said public transport to the industrial areas was still inadequate, and suggested companies could looking into establishing their own shuttle bus from Dandenong Railway Station.
“We’re trying to get a trial in this area,” he said.
