A Victorian public transport lobby group is up in arms about mismatched bus-tram connections in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs
April 28, 2010
A study recently completed by the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has revealed long wait times on the Knox Transit Link in Melbourne’s outer east.
The PTUA claims just 16 percent of tram services are met by a connecting bus service timed within two minutes, while 163 tram services each week have no connecting bus.
“Outer east residents have been lied to and deceived over the Knox Transit Link,” PTUA outer east convenor Jeremy Lunn says.
“We were promised that this bus service would be just as good as a tram all the way to Knox, but it’s far from it.”
Lunn says there are long waits and ‘gaping holes’ in the service.
“Some buses leave just before the next tram is due to arrive and vice-versa,” he says.
“While Knox O-Zone is bustling with life in evenings, every bus to Vermont South misses each tram.”
Lunn says passengers are left waiting 15 minutes for the next tram.
He claims the last three tram services on Friday and Saturday nights also lack a connecting bus service, leaving passengers to wait over five hours for the next bus.
“It shows that the Department of Transport can’t be trusted to manage public transport services in Victoria.”
Lunn has called for the establishment of a Public Transport Development Authority in Victoria.
“The authority has to be headed by someone who isn’t part of the existing failed system.
“It would be unacceptable if the new public transport authority were led by a current hack from the Victorian bureaucracy.”
Lunn says outer eastern residents were promised a seamless connection between trams and buses.
“We were told that bus timetables would be synchronised with the tram timetables.”
He says overcoming these problems would be a simple achievement for the Baillieu Government.
“If they can’t fix the bus, they’ll have to extend the tram.”