By CASEY NEILL
USING taxis as a ‘quasi bus service’ was one suggestion to beat the Yarra Ranges’ transport woes at a regional transport forum last week.
It took O’Shannassy Ward councillor Jim Child two hours to drive to the Eastern Transport Coalition’s (ETC) Commuters Count Transport Summit at Springvale Reserve on 9 April.
“It would have taken three to four hours on public transport,” he said.
“So I’ve blown the whole day coming here.”
Cr Child said the region’s bus services were inadequate.
“We’ve got to be able to entice people out of their cars,” he said.
RACV roads and traffic manager Dave Jones suggested regional councils could work with taxi companies to run a set route at a set price each day, a ‘quasi bus service’.
RACV public policy general manager Brian Negus said buses were the forgotten transport mode and needed more attention.
Urban planner Professor Roz Hansen agreed, and suggested offering bus services in three levels – local, rail link and longer journeys – to improve usability and patronage.
“And we need to give buses priority on arterial roads,” she said.
Ms Hansen said the Public Transport Victoria website did not even show a bus network map.
“I think that reflects how we treat buses in our system,” she said.
ETC chairman and Knox councillor Peter Lockwood said one reason people didn’t take buses was they didn’t “want to go on tour, just from one suburb to the next”.
But he said Myki had stopped buses being delayed by people buying tickets.
“It makes the buses more efficient,” he said.
Cr Lockwood said politicians would do what was popular, and urged people to keep pushing the public transport message.
Plans to lower fares for Zone 2 travellers was another hot topic at the forum, which about 60 people attended.
The State Government – regardless of the election result in November – will cap maximum daily fares at the Zone 1 rate across Melbourne’s public transport network from 1 January.
Cr Peter Lockwood said the move would increase patronage but cut revenue by $100 million.
“I’d rather see better services than cheaper services,” he said.
Ms Hansen said she would “much rather see that money going into public transport”.
She also scoffed at last week’s announcement that V/Line passengers would receive free wi-fi, and said she was worried about government priorities.
“This isn’t going to solve some pretty fundamental problems,” Ms Hansen said.
