Tuesday, 1 April 2025

North-Eastern Metropolitan Region

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:02): (1502) My question today is to the Minister for Public and Active Transport and relates to the connection between the Box Hill bus interchange and the Box Hill Central shopping centre, specifically the escalators. The escalator that takes people down from the rooftop bus terminal to the shopping centre has been broken and out of action since November last year. This bus terminal is one of the busiest in metropolitan Melbourne and connects not only to the shopping centre but also to the train station below and nearby trams. Many older people rely on this bus terminal to reach Box Hill Central, and the lift access is at the other end of the building. It is unacceptable, frankly, that the escalator has not been fixed over the last five months. While I am not sure if it is the shopping centre itself or Public Transport Victoria who are directly responsible for the repair of this escalator, it should be a priority of PTV to make sure the bus passengers are able to easily exit the terminal and that this escalator is working. Minister, what are you doing to ensure that this is the case?