Article: Waiting, waiting... welcome to the suburbs

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Waiting, waiting... welcome to the suburbs

Waiting, waiting... welcome to the suburbs

    * Reid Sexton
    * May 17, 2009

LIKE hundreds of thousands of Melburnians, Brendan Elvey depends on public transport to get to work.

But while others struggle to find a seat on trams and trains, Mr Elvey never has that problem. Because the only public transport for the 4500 people who live at Lakeside Pakenham estate runs just once an hour in each direction during peak times, few are willing to put up with the inconvenience. So there's always room.

Welcome to Melbourne's fringe, where signs of the Government's $38 billion investment in public transport can barely be seen. In the inner city, crowded trams and trains run every few minutes. Out in Lakeside Pakenham, many locals have given up on public transport or have never tried it.

Mr Elvey, 23, recently lost his licence so he has no choice but to use the service. But, he says, it's hardly a "service" compared with the public transport on offer in the inner suburbs.

"You have to own a car around here," he said. "If I miss the bus it's another hour waiting here which means I have to stay another hour back at work.

"There is no flexibility and it's so frustrating ? it is the worst part of my day."

It's a problem faced by many residents on the city's fringe, from Pakenham in the east to Epping's Aurora Estate in the north and Mount Martha in the south.

In the west, Point Cook's population has jumped from 2000 to 22,000 since 2001 but it's still a 40-minute wait between buses, and they don't run after 7pm or on Sundays.

The Public Transport Users' Association president, Daniel Bowen, says the inadequacy widens the divide between Melbourne's inner and outer suburbs by forcing those on the fringe to buy cars.

While hundreds of millions of dollars are poured into upgrading the suburban rail network, little is being done to combat the consequences of mass car ownership on the booming fringe. "We're supposed to be fighting climate change and congestion but people in these new developments are forced to buy one, two or three cars for their families," he said.

Despite the $2 billion budget spend on public transport announced this month, none of it will be directed to improving bus services in new communities. Work on new train stations near Point Cook and Lakeside Pakenham is slated to begin next year and be completed around 2013. But without upgrades to bus services in the interim, the areas will remain transport deprived, says Mr Bowen.

The State Government is conducting reviews on bus services across Melbourne and pointed to the recent upgrade of the Aurora Estate route ? which cut waiting times from an hour to 40 minutes ? as proof that improvements are being made.

But Mr Bowen said the upgrade showed how the Government was failing to convince people to ditch their cars. "If the Government thinks waiting 40 minutes for a bus to take them to a train station is going to stop someone driving to work, they're dreaming."

Last year, 46,000 people ? 61 per cent of all new growth ? moved to the fringe, presenting the Government with more challenges in ensuring practical and equitable access to public transport. And with a new government report predicting urban sprawl will result in at least 50,000 houses being built outside Melbourne's existing boundaries in the next 15 years, those challenges will mount.

Greens MP Colleen Hartland said urban sprawl must be halted until the Government can provide adequate public transport. "We need that option now or else we're locked into people buying more cars and higher rates of carbon emissions," she said.

"People in outer suburbs move there because housing is cheaper, but the cost of their travel is huge."

The Victorian Council of Social Services says car ownership is partly to blame for high levels of debt in Melbourne's outer suburbs.

In 2007, Monash University transport expert Graham Currie identified more than 20,000 households on Melbourne's fringe that earn less than $500 a week but are forced to own two or more cars because of inadequate public transport.

Back in Pakenham, the sun has risen as Mr Elvey enters his 50th minute of waiting for the bus.

He will work all day as a fitter and turner in Hallam before catching a train back to Pakenham station that arrives at 4.02pm ? just in time to miss the 4pm bus service back to the estate. That will give him another hour to ponder what should be done about outer-suburban public transport.

[O_128]

Sorry but these people know that there is no public transport when they move there. This is much like the Springfield/Ripley development area where the people there will be demanding public transport.