Article: Uni bus on the road to success

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Uni bus on the road to success

Uni bus on the road to success
Adam Carey
February 24, 2012

A TRIAL express bus service to Monash University's Clayton campus is pulling more than 10,000 passengers a week, prompting calls for the state government to commit to it and ease the chronic over-reliance on cars at the campus, which is in a public transport black hole.

The bus, which runs express every four minutes during semester from Huntingdale train station, has been widely embraced by the university's almost 30,000 students and staff as an alternative to paying rising parking fees or vying for one of only 100 secure bicycle spaces.

The government has strongly hinted it will give the service the green light when the trial ends later this year, with Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder saying it was providing a vital transport link.
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Before the trial began last year, a bus ran the 2.5-kilometre route only every 15 to 20 minutes, resulting in overcrowding. The situation was bad enough for the university to begin diverting funds from education to pay for extra buses.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen said: ''The Monash shuttle has been successful at fixing the chaotic queues and horrendously long delays that used to occur for students and staff waiting for buses to and from campus.''

The university recently increased on-campus parking fees to between $360 and $670 a semester, partly to force students off congested roads around campus and onto public transport.

Professor Geoff Rose, formerly the director of the university's Institute of Transport Studies, said the bus was winning people over because it came frequently enough to negate the need for a timetable.

He said its success ought to give the government food for thought before deciding on a rail line to Rowville to fix the area's transport problems.

The government is in the midst of a $2 million feasibility study for the Rowville rail link, which was first proposed in 1969.

''Commissioning a study that only looks at the most expensive option, a train, is not the best way to go about planning,'' Professor Rose said.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/uni-bus-on-the-road-to-success-20120223-1tqn2.htm

... Professor Geoff Rose, formerly the director of the university's Institute of Transport Studies, said the bus was winning people over because it came frequently enough to negate the need for a timetable ...