News

Public Transport | January 23, 2018

Hamilton to Adelaide via Ballarat – seriously!

The Nationals Member for Lowan, Emma Kealy MP has been contacted by disgruntled Hamilton residents required to travel to Ballarat to get a connecting public transport service to Adelaide.

Under the current V/Line timetable Hamilton residents traveling to Adelaide are required to leave Hamilton at 6.30am and travel by coach to Ballarat arriving at 9am. They then take a train to Ararat, coach to Horsham and then coach to Adelaide, arriving at 6.50pm.

The service is available Monday to Friday but there are no services on Saturday or Sunday.

South Australian company Premier Stateliner run a service from Mt Gambier to Adelaide but there is no connecting V/Line service unless travellers stay overnight in Mt Gambier.

“It is unacceptable that a Hamilton resident travelling to Adelaide is required to go via Ballarat to get there in one day”, Ms Kealy said.

“The same trip by car would take 5.5 hours but Hamilton residents are expected to endure a 12-hour marathon to get there via our public transport system and can’t get there at all on the weekend.

“Western Victoria’s public transport services are seriously lacking and the further west you travel the worse it gets.

“V/Line staff and contractors are doing the best they can under Labor’s city-centric public transport timetabling which gives zero attention to connections and services in western Victoria.

“The simple fact is for western Victoria to get moving again we need better access to public transport.

“I’m asking local people to keep sharing their stories to help get our voice heard in Parliament about how better public transport services would improve the lives of the 110,000 people who live in our great part of the State”, she said.

To tell your story and have your say visit haveyoursayvictoria.org/westernpublictransportservices or phone Emma Kealy’s electorate office on 5382 0097 or 5571 9800.