A group of commuters will take to the steps of Parliament next week to protest the lack of parking at Tarneit train station.
Organiser Arnav Sati said he had invited Wyndham councillors, local state election candidates and MPs to the June 20 protest to highlight the shortage of carparking spaces for V/Line’s second busiest station.
“The huge population growth, coupled with poorly planned basic infrastructure, short-sightedness into future growth and negligible support from the state government has resulted in this problem in the first place and now continuous neglect has turned it into a crisis,” he said.
“Residents of Tarneit are being penalised from all sides. There are no parking spaces left after 7.30am.”
Mr Sati said to add to the pain, the bus timetable only runs every 40 minutes and is not synced with the train timetable, rendering it an unhelpful option.
He said commuters feel forced to park illegally so that they can catch their train.
As reported by Star Weekly, Wyndham council has fined more than 2921 commuters for parking along the Leakes Road entry to Tarneit station since July 1, 2015, with a further 985 fines slapped on commuters parking in the streets adjacent to Williams Landing station in the same period.
At last week’s council meeting, Mr Sati asked why the council continued to fine commuters at Tarneit train station despite the obvious parking issues in the area.
Stephen Thorpe, the council’s city operations director, said residents did not have the right to park illegally if they could not find a parking spot.
Earlier this month, Werribee MP Tim Pallas said the government needed to take action on the lack of parking at some Wyndham stations, including Tarneit station.
Meanwhile, V/Line has blocked commuters from parking on a vacant patch of land at Tarneit train station by erecting fences to prevent access.
V/Line did not respond to Star Weekly’s request for comment by deadline.
