2017-03-22
Ms DUNN (Eastern Metropolitan) — I would like to talk today about public transport. I commend the efforts of my colleagues, Greens MPs and Greens councillors in Victoria, who were out last week talking to commuters about the troubles they are facing on our public transport system. I particularly want to relate the story of three commuters I talked to at Nunawading station. They certainly had a lot of time on their hands to talk to me, because they had been waiting 45 minutes for the 902 SmartBus. It was not that the SmartBus did not arrive; it was that two buses did arrive, but they could not get onto those buses.
In terms of integrating with the public transport system, it is all very good and well to have buses, but if you cannot actually get on them, they do not really suit the purpose of what they are there to deliver in the SmartBus network. It was extraordinary to hear the stories of commuters out there who were waiting to interchange with the buses, and particularly about the GPS tracking on those buses. A bus on the GPS system will seemingly be 1 minute away from the bus stop and then all of a sudden completely disappear into thin air, as it was, from the digital system. I just want to sympathise with the frustrations of those commuters.