Article: Monash goes private as staff, students struggle with delays

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Monash goes private as staff, students struggle with delays

Monash goes private as staff, students struggle with delays
DEBORAH GOUGH
April 18, 2010

MONASH University has been forced to hire private buses to ferry students and staff from Huntingdale railway station, with hundreds of students and staff waiting for up to 45 minutes for a public bus during peak periods.

The queues at the two bus stops, which are around the corner from each other, are so long they often stretch into one another, and students and staff complain they are regularly up to half an hour late for work or class.

The situation has become so intolerable that the university recently hired buses at a cost of about $1500 a week to cover the morning peak period.

The delays have revived calls to put the Monash-to-Rowville rail link back on the agenda, but in the short term the university has called for an express shuttle bus from the station.

A similar service now runs from North Melbourne to Melbourne University.

Monash University's director of environmental sustainability, Paul Barton, said it was unacceptable for students to have to wait long periods to get to university, adding there was a clear need for an express service.

Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said the university should not be forced to ''prop up'' the bus service and it was time to revisit a rail link to Monash.

''Monash University was built on a promise of a railway station to be built later when the need arose. Even with 10 to 12 buses an hour it is not enough and you would have to say this shows the need,'' Mr Bowen said.

Jonathon Woolven, a librarian, said he had seen queues of up to 200 passengers at times, and sometimes preferred to walk the seven kilometres to the university than wait for a bus.

''Students are paying a lot of money to study there and if they can't get there by public transport from the city, on time, it is a problem,'' he said.

Science student Tina Trang told The Sunday Age that on one occasion the poor bus service had made her half an hour late for her laboratory class.

Had it not been for understanding lab demonstrator, she would have been locked out and forced to find another time to do the compulsory class.

The Department of Transport said it was aware of the problem. A spokeswoman said 19 new bus trips per day had been temporarily added last week to help cope with demand.

She said the department was investigating the feasibility of a permanent increase in services.

Mr Barton said university transport staff had noticed the increase in buses but these had merely reduced rather than removed the need for additional private buses.

''We have observed more buses coming through, but it is about how they come through. Do they come through in clusters? Or are they spread out evenly to meet the trains?,'' Mr Barton said.

Preliminary figures for 2010 show the Clayton campus, including Monash College, had increased by 3000 on last year to 28,264 students. It is not known how many students and staff use the bus services.

[#Metro]

Does Monash charge a fare for these?
Rail line is a good idea. Or a supertram.