A TOTAL of $243 million is urgently needed to fix Melton’s public transport woes, a damning report reveals.
Auditor-General John Doyle’s report into transport infrastructure
and services in growth areas, released last Wednesday, found that public
transport and roads in growth areas such as Melton, Hume and Wyndham
have been inadequately funded by successive state governments.
The report shows Melton residents have the worst access to public transport. Residents in the municipality have access to 1.5 public transport routes per 10,000 people – half of what is currently available to metropolitan residents.
The report called for the electrification and duplication of the Melton rail line.
As reported by the Weekly, Public Transport Victoria has said the $1.3-billion electrification will be completed by 2027.
Melton Labor MP Don Nardella said residents were sick of substandard transport infrastructure and congestion on trains.
“I have commuters starting to sit on the floor,” he said. “They can’t wait another 14 years to start the electrification upgrade to the train line, it needs to happen now.
“No government should expect to expand communities and get people
to come from the outer suburbs and then leave them here like a shag on a
rock.”
Transport Minister Terry Mulder blamed the former Labor government
for the shortage of transport infrastructure, and said the government
was “addressing this massive backlog”.
Asked how the government will ensure that the infrastructure
backlog in growth areas is addressed, Mr Mulder would only say the
government was on track to deliver a “comprehensive reform agenda which
would bolster the way infrastructure and services were provided in
Melbourne’s growth areas”. – STEPHANIE ZEVENBERGEN, LAURA LITTLE and TARA MURRAY
