Liam McNally
Mt Atkinson Residents Group held a demonstration to highlight the need for more public transport in newly developed areas in Truganina on Saturday, May 20.
The group held a “Bus Marathon“ walk to highlight the distance residents need to walk to their closest bus stops, including along roads that don’t have footpaths.
The Truganina area comprising the Mt Atkinson, Grandview and Olivia estates currently hosts more than 1400 houses, but is yet to be allocated a bus route, requiring residents to walk more than 30 minutes to access public transport.
Mt Atkinson Residents Group member Girish Khara said the lack of public transport is creating “island communities” in new estates.
“Public buses are the last mile connectivity, we don’t have access to basic things like train stations, shops, medical centres or the wider world,” he said.
“This situation is compounded by the surrounding roads in the new estates not being accessible for pedestrians or cyclists.”
Mr Khara said the lack of public transport is having severe knock-on effects for the community, which is largely made up of first generation immigrants and single-car households.
He said once the only car in the house leaves for the day, there’s no easy option for the rest of the household to get around, leading to social isolation and economic disempowerment at a time of rising costs.
Mr Khara said that on a macro-economic level it can lead to a “vicious cycle” where Australia needs more migrant workers to fill gaps in the workforce, but then is not providing opportunity for all of those migrants to engage in the economy.
“In worst cases it’s leading to depression where residents don’t feel like they are part of the developed country they have moved to,” he said.
“First generation immigrants have bought into this Australian dream, but if we can’t get to the world because of public buses, how can we make that dream happen?”
A state government spokesperson said the government is working to “deliver a more modern, efficient and reliable bus network in Melbourne’s west“.
“We’re reforming the bus network and through Victoria’s Bus Plan, we’re also improving existing routes and adding new ones, as well as rolling out more electric buses to support our transition towards a cleaner and more sustainable bus fleet.”
