Families are struggling to find $15 a week for their children to use public transport to get to school, or even to find enough money to buy Myki cards in the first instance.
It’s a key finding of Fare Go: Myki, Transport Poverty and Access to Education in Melbourne’s West, a report by Victoria University and WEstjustice Sunshine Youth Office, which found “significant problems” for young people, aged 14 to 17, finding enough money to get to school on public transport.
“Travel to and from school on the Victorian public transport system is too costly for a significant proportion of students in the west of Melbourne,” it found.
“This is creating transport poverty.
“The first hurdle for the young people of Melbourne’s west is access to public transport.
“Many students in Melbourne’s west are having trouble accessing between $13.50 and $19.50 each week to travel to and from school.
“There are many poor families … who can’t even feed their children breakfast.”
Many can’t afford to pay for Myki, it said.
It revealed some students spent money normally reserved for school textbooks on fines, describing the application process for a secondary student concession card as a “complex process” and “long winded”.
The report called for free public transport for all students, for schools and institutions to hand out free Myki travel cards to students and for the cancellation of all outstanding Myki fines incurred by people under the age of 18.
WEstjustice spokesman Denis Nelthorpe said he knew of several Brimbank schools whose wellbeing co-ordinators “routinely wrote letters on behalf of students looking for waivers from Public Transport Victoria”.
The report also called for the axing of CAYPINS – the Children and Young Persons Infringement Notice System – which had an “over representation of young people from the west … in the system”.
