Public transport is always a complicated discussion for regional communities. There’s a lot to consider. What if you travel for work? What if you don’t own a car or can’t drive? What if public transport isn’t accessible to you?
In the face of the fuel crisis across Australia, Victoria has announced free public transport over the month of April.
While its widely agreed by locals that any amount of financial support to help ease the cost of travel is a good thing, it begs a lot of questions about the capability of our regional public transport systems, and what Greater Shepparton residents would actually like to see from the government.
The announcement of free public transport immediately brought some longstanding issues to mind, and an increased scrutiny of our public transport system.
While the Shepparton line is often compared to the Bendigo or Geelong lines, which have much more frequent services, the current population of the City of Greater Shepparton currently sits at just under 70,000, while the City of Greater Bendigo is nearly double at 126,000 people, and the city of Greater Geelong at 276,000.
Further, even though the Shepparton Line is still waiting on the last stage of promised upgrades to be delivered by the state government, including five full return services which are yet to run, it has undergone multiple significant upgrades as part of the state and federal governments $4 billion Regional Rail Revival Program.
We reached out to the Greater Shepparton community online to hear your feedback and got a wide range of opinions on the matter from the people it affects.
One commenter mentioned that many other mid-sized regional communities like Mildura don’t have a train service, and rumours have circulated that the Swan Hill line may face closure. “Be thankful that you have a service at all.”
Theres a lot of facets to the issues local commuters face.
One commenter mentioned that speed limit changes on Verney Road make the V/line bus late for the Hospital, Wyndham Street and Shepparton Station stops.
Another argued there was a need for increased services out of Southern Cross station at night, when Shepparton services frequently become packed from concerts, shows and football games.
One reader suggested offering express bus services from Shepparton to Southern Cross as “the buses just take way too long.”
A comment criticised the weekday services, with the last full train service of the day currently leaving Shepparton station at 4.13pm, and the last bus to train service leaving at 4.40pm, making the service inaccessible for many full-time workers.
Other readers mentioned overcrowding, and the availability of local public transport beyond the train line.
While there was an overwhelming positive response to the announcement of free public transport, locals have reported that this move fails to address the many of the pressures regional Victorians face when travelling.
