News

Public Transport | April 16, 2018

New V/Line timetable continues to frustrate

The Nationals Member for Lowan, Emma Kealy MP continues to hear stories from local residents about poor public transport services in the Lowan electorate.

A Warracknabeal resident has contacted Ms Kealy to advise that the new V/Line timetable introduced in August no longer allows her to travel to Ballarat to visit her specialist or see her husband who is a regular patient at St John of God Hospital and return home the same day.

The current V/Line service departs Warracknabeal at 8.50am, arriving in Ballarat just before noon. The return service departs Ballarat at 1.42pm leaving less than two hours in Ballarat.

The previous V/Line timetable allowed travellers over three hours in Ballarat before the return service departed.

“This lady needs to travel to Ballarat regularly to visit her specialist and husband and now has no choice but to stay overnight which she cannot afford to do on a regular basis”, Ms Kealy said.

“As she is elderly and no longer has the confidence to drive herself to Ballarat her only other option is to impose on family and friends, something she is reluctant to do.

“The lady is aware of a number of Warracknabeal residents who have been negatively affected by the new timetable and are simple not using the service because of this.

“This includes students who used to come home to Warracknabeal on weekends but can no longer get home without having to leave school or University early on a Friday.

“This is just another example of how seriously lacking western Victoria’s public transport services are - and the further west you travel the worse it gets.

“The Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan is correct when she says “All passengers deserve reliable and punctual services – no matter where they live”, but unfortunately Minister Allan has shown time and time again that under an Andrews Labor Government country Victoria gets nothing.

“The simple fact is that for western Victoria to get moving again we need better access to public transport”, she said.

Ms Kealy is asking local people to keep sharing their stories to help get local voices heard in Parliament about how better public transport services would improve the lives of the 110,000 people who live in western Victoria.

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.