Liam McNally
Both Labor and the Liberals have talked about the need for new bus services but Melton council is calling for a full network review to provide accessible, frequent, connected bus network.
Only five of the 47 bus routes in the City of Melton meet the minimum service level criteria, and only one per cent of Melton City residents use the bus as their regular commute.
Mayor Lara Carli said the west is in “desperate need” for a comprehensive review of our bus networks to boost use and reliability.
“The buses in our city aren’t meeting our growing community’s needs. Whole suburbs and many other areas in our community have no access to bus services. Frequency is low and unreliable, services are indirect, and travel times are close to twice that of travelling by car,” she said.
Council said it has drafted a plan for a reconfigured bus network that updates some existing routes to build a more integrated, responsive, and accessible local transport system for no additional operating cost.
The network would be more expansive and have with 20-minute frequencies at peak times.
Nearly 20,000 City of Melton residents who are not currently serviced by a bus route would have one within a five minutes’ walk.
The Victorian government is currently undertaking a review of bus networks in Melbourne’s north-east as part of Victoria’s Bus Reform Plan. Melton City Council is asking for a similar
comprehensive approach.
Labor has made a pre-election commitment to add a new bus service between Eynesbury and Melton, and announced a new service between Sunbury and Diggers Rest stations.
Victorian Liberals have made a broad commitment to new and expanded bus services state-wide but have not yet made any specific announcements for the City of Melton or the western suburbs.
Modelling of possible bus network reconfigurations is available on council’s new interactive transport prospectus, Moving Melton.
Cr Carli said council has done the work already.
“All we need is a commitment to deliver a network review for the north-west like has been promised for the rest of the north,” she said.
