By Western Metro Legalise Cannabis MP David Ettershank
When I look out the window of my Braybrook electorate office I see bus chaos. On Ballarat Road there are bus stops on both sides of the road – and there are the commuters trying to pick up so-called connecting services … only they don’t connect, one bus often runs late, the other early. I see the wash-up. People running the gauntlet, diving between eight lanes of traffic desperate to get their bus because the next one won’t be along for a long while. What a mess!
A major problem is that buses aren’t taking people to where they want to go. For others there are no bus services within walking distance. It’s been more than a decade since Melbourne’s bus routes were reviewed. In that time, many new suburbs have been created in the west.
This month I will raise the inadequacy of Melbourne’s bus services in parliament – and that includes the need for a redesign of bus routes. I can’t wait to hear the transport minister’s response. It’s time buses took us to where we want to go.
Half of Melbourne’s 400 bus routes pick up fewer than 20 passengers an hour. The 2023 Infrastructure Victoria bus report found that people don’t want to take bus services that snake around the suburbs, instead people want buses that take you to where you want to go – to big service hubs and shopping centres, or directly to university. We also want limited-stopping buses that travel on main roads, like the Sydney services.
In addition, we want services to be frequent, and by frequent, I mean at least every 15 minutes. Around the world people use frequent services and will walk further to bus stops with frequent direct services.
Many parts of Melbourne’s west have waiting times longer than 30 minutes, sometimes exceeding an hour. In my electorate there are public transport deserts, where services are non-existent or infrequent, such as in the Point Cook-Werribee–Tarneit area.
More than 3,000 locals signed a Friends of the Eather petition, which calls for ‘at least $100 million additional annual operational funding in the next budget cycle, as well as a capital investment of at least $100 million, to reform the bus network across the western metropolitan area into a fast, frequent, and connected grid, serviced by clean, electric buses before the 2026 election’. I had the privilege of tabling that petition last month.
I will also call for a 12-month trial of free buses in parliament. Let’s get bums back on bus seats! By making buses free – at least for a year – the government will help people in a cost-of-living crisis and make sure buses are actually being used. Better buses mean people save on petrol, cut emissions and have improved community connection. Better buses deliver parents to part-time jobs, seniors to community groups, and uni and school students to class.
Better bus routes and free and frequent services would make Victoria a public transport powerhouse with a network that delivers quality public transport to everyone who needs it. It’s time we got back on buses. Buses are the key to getting people to leave their cars at home.
