RESIDENTS fed up with the traffic chaos plaguing Point Cook will call for better bus links when they meet the Transport Department next Tuesday.
Point Cook Action Group chairman Bernard Reilly said the suburb was crying out for timetable improvements for the Hoppers Crossing-Laverton 413 and 416 routes, which run through Point Cook via Old Geelong Road and Sneydes Road respectively.
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Buses on the two routes run at 40-minute intervals, but are scheduled fewer than three minutes apart.
Mr Reilly said Point Cook deserved a SmartBus service to improve connectivity with surrounding suburbs.
He said the Mordialloc-Altona route 903 should extend through Point Cook, Tarneit and Hoppers Crossing’s Werribee Plaza, to terminate at Werribee railway station.
“Wyndham is the only municipality in the west where a SmartBus service doesn’t cross it at some point,” he said.
“It would give a frequency of service that we’ve never seen in this area, improving access to different destinations like the rail lines. Kids could get to school easier and traffic would be reduced.”
SmartBus services across Melbourne run every 15 minutes from 5.30am-7.30pm on weekdays, every 30 minutes until about midnight, and between 30-45 minutes on weekends.
“We’re going to discuss the bus system in Wyndham, the zonal system, the co-ordination of buses and trains and give the department representative a strong message for [Public Transport] Minister Terry Mulder about what we need,” Mr Reilly said.
Point Cook resident Loren Bartley said bus service improvements would allow her to downsize to a one-car family. “For the first three years of living here I’d have a two-hour round trip before I started my own day, driving the kids to the station, getting stuck in traffic, coming home then repeating it all for my husband,” she said. “If there was some sort of shuttle bus, we’d get rid of the second car.”
Public Transport Victoria spokesman David Stockland said it was conscious there was an increasing demand for public transport.
“PTV representatives will be keen to hear the views of the community representatives and discuss current projects so that these views can be considered in future planning.”