Wyndham’s bus network will be boosted regardless of which party wins Saturday’s election.
Last week, Labor pledged to fill the missing links in the city’s bus services as part of a $100 million investment in Victoria’s bus networks.
The need for improved bus services in Wyndham has featured heavily on the council’s election wish- list, with Cr Glenn Goodfellow saying the services were critical to the outer suburbs.
The city has the most infrequent and indirect bus services in Melbourne, with many residents living more than 400 metres from a bus stop.
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Cr Goodfellow has urged both major parties to spend money on the city’s bus network sooner rather than later.
“Four years from now, Wyndham will have another 12,000 households [and] 40,000 residents,” he said. “Buses, in political terms appear to be the ugly duckling of the transport system.”
Altona MP Jill Hennessy vowed, if her party is elected, to improve the municipality’s bus routes, boost services for people living in Sanctuary Lakes and establish new routes to service the Wyndham Vale and Tarneit Regional Rail Link (RRL) stations.
The changes will be in addition to the proposed services outlined by Public Transport Victoria in its recent network review.
The opposition pledge follows the announcement of a Coalition plan to also deliver new services for the RRL stations and Sanctuary Lakes, and improve train and bus connections on the Werribee line.
Western Metropolitan Liberal MP Bernie Finn said the Coalition’s plan would deliver a high-quality transport service to move more people more often.
Ms Hennessy said that if Labor was elected, it would consult local communities and councils to establish the new routes and discuss routes that were axed by the state government last year.
