Wednesday, 19 June 2024

Polwarth electorate bus services

Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (19:07): (715) My adjournment this evening is for the minister for transport, and the action I seek from the minister is if she could re-review the recently reviewed public transport bus numbers and routes that are currently operating now in the Torquay–Jan Juc area. Up until recently there were a range of services that provided both more frequency and greater access across the Torquay–Jan Juc area than what the reviewed services do. There is now only one bus route that takes you into Geelong; the other two bus routes circle around Torquay and Jan Juc and terminate at the Marshall train station. Of course the Marshall and the extended V/Line service through to Waurn Ponds have been greatly interrupted now for quite some time, and the levels of interruption will probably continue for quite some time yet. But the net result is that young people, people who are relying on the public transport to get into Geelong for education at Deakin or for employment in Geelong, really are finding the service inadequate. It is not frequent enough. Jan Juc is now down to just one service. It essentially equates to one less bus available a day, which if you work it out means if you miss the bus in the morning, you are pretty much going to have to get in the car because the next service is too far out.

It is not good enough for a fast-growing area and particularly an area where, one, public transport is of high priority; and two, the Torquay–Jan Juc area has a high priority on environment and better ways of doing things. Really, getting as many cars and people off the Surf Coast Highway and back onto public transport makes a lot of sense. It does not make a lot of sense to the local Public Transport Users Association based out of Geelong, who have surveyed the bus users. They have surveyed some of the experiences of the people using the service, and they are clearly finding it is just not working as it is under the new services of 52, 53 and 54. The old services of 50 and 51 have been retired, but those services provided more frequency and better connection into the heart of Geelong.

Minister, I again ask you for a proper review of this service, with a focus on frequency, on availability and on a service that will actually grow and get more people from where they are to where they want to go in a timely fashion in the mornings and evenings in particular but increasingly across seven days of the week. Public transport is best when it is frequent. Public transport is best when it is reliable. These are two critical elements missing from the new bus schedules in the Torquay and Jan Juc areas.