MANEUVERING between her various responsibilities as a mum, Stella Lillywhite has been given a bit more breathing space.
The mother-of-three can delete ‘taxi driver’ off her daily list with the launch of the 497 bus route last weekend – the first service for Point Cook’s Saltwater Coast estate.
The route, which runs to Williams Landing station via Saltwater Promenade, Point Cook Road and Palmers Road, is among five new bus routes designed to connect suburbs with the train network.
Ms Lillywhite said she would spend less time ferrying her two teenage sons to and from Aircraft station.
“Every day, morning and afternoon, I’m driving to the station. One’s at Melbourne Uni and the other at high school in St Kilda, so they’re on different timetables,” she said.
“I’m having to pick up one at 4.30 and the other at 6.15.”
In Point Cook’s peak-hour congestion, Ms Lillywhite said the station trip could take 25 minutes to drive six kilometres.
“There are a lot of one-car families in the estate and it’s a very long walk to the station.”
Ms Lillywhite said having a bus stop a two-minute walk from home was a “massive relief”.
“It really is going to give me a lot more flexibility and I don’t have to interrupt my three-year-old’s naps when I drive back and forth.”
Evian Delfabbro, of estate developer FKP, said six bus stops in the estate, coupled with arterial road Saltwater Promenade, had improved public transport connectivity.
