Wyndham residents have their own shuttle service to Melbourne airport again, seven months after Gull Airport Services stopped picking up passengers from Werribee.
The new service by Cheap Tours Melbourne is taking travellers to the airport from various locations, including the D’Olive hotel in Point Cook, Werribee Mansion, Wyndham Harbour Marina, and Comfort Inn, Best Western and Quest in Werribee and Sanctuary Lakes.
Cheap Tours operator Raelene Hallmark, who lives in Werribee, said she began the service about a month ago and was expanding her pick-up zones.
She said she got the idea to expand her bus tour business to include the shuttle service after being asked repeatedly by hotels and motels displaying her pamphlets whether she offered trips to the airport.
“The demand was so great I decided I’d do the shuttle to the airport and buy a second bus just for the tours,” she said. “I used to use the Gull shuttle service myself.”
Ms Hallmark said bookings on the bus, which holds 11 people, were required.
The shuttle runs four times a day, seven days a week but can charter at other times on demand.
The airport shuttle replaces the popular Gull service, which was axed in August last year after servicing Wyndham for more than 30 years.
At the time, Gull operations manager Scott Leeds told Star Weekly that increased traffic in the Werribee CBD forced the company to ditch its pick-up outside Kelly Park community centre.
“At peak times, it can take up to 30 minutes from entering Werribee at the south end to exiting Werribee at the north end, or vice versa,” Mr Leeds said.
“Several new subdivisions in the area are now under way and more are planned, which will further impact on our ability to run to a timetable.
“We’ve been monitoring this for years and, with no solution to traffic congestion in sight now or in the future, the decision was made to end our long association with Werribee.”
