Melbourne buses? Don’t get me started.
When I lived in Sydney I didn’t own a car. I caught buses to just about everywhere I needed to go, along with the occasional train. Between buses and trains I was sorted.
Sydney is a bus city. Melbourne is not. And the western suburbs of Melbourne is possibly the worst place for catching a bus that I’ve ever lived. Even Perth has a better bus service than us. Our buses don’t even display their route number and destination on the side or rear of the bus. You have to make a mad dash to get in front of your bus in order to see where the bus is going.
Given that buses are a comparatively cheap form of public transport to plan, purchase and operate it defies logic that so little is being done to provide an adequate bus service here.
The State Government released its Bus Plan in 2021 but not much has happened on the ground since. Well not in the west.
So, it’s up to ‘people power’ to push government to act in our best interests, and that’s exactly what Westies are doing, again. Melbourne’s western region is one of Australia’s fastest growing (Melton takes out top spot), and more and more resident community groups are springing up to advocate for improved bus services, or any bus service for that matter. And they’re getting angrier. Labor politicians in the west ought take note of the recent Queensland by-elections where one of their ‘safest’ seats was lost to the LNP and another suffered a huge swing in the deficit.
Transport costs are a massive burden for people struggling on the breadline in outer suburbs. A reliable cheap bus service is not much to ask for when billions of dollars are being funnelled into road and tunnel projects that seem to mostly benefit commercial interests. Seriously. How much longer do we have to wait for a bus?
Read more about the Better Buses campaign.
