General News
22 July, 2024
Survey finds local public transport network is “fragmented” and calls for a system overhaul
A recent survey report has called for major reforms to the Central Goldfields Shire’s public transport system, with current services labelled “fragmented” and “impractical”. The report published last month highlighted key issues voiced by...
A recent survey report has called for major reforms to the Central Goldfields Shire’s public transport system, with current services labelled “fragmented” and “impractical”.
The report published last month highlighted key issues voiced by the Central Goldfields Youth Council, who conducted the survey so it can be “used as an advocacy tool for improved public transport services in the shire”.
Of the 84 responses, over 80 percent said they only use public transport for long-distance services and 73 percent said they use services less than once a week.
Nearly half of respondents rate their experience with local services as good or excellent and 43 percent evaluated the service as neutral or mixed.
Despite their enjoyment of the service, the survey identified key barriers experienced by responders, which include “fragmented networks, infrequent services, services at impractical or unsafe times of day, poor disability accessibility, and inadequate geographic coverage, [which] discourage regular use across the shire”.
Someone who frequently experiences these barriers is Central Goldfields Shire youth councillor Tara Siroky, who said the lack of accessible services in her hometown of Dunolly dictates her days.
“From Dunolly there is only one bus a day and there are no buses that run on Wednesday and Sunday, so we are very isolated from the rest of the community,” she said.
“That one bus arrives at 7.13 am and there is one bus back which arrives in Dunolly at 4.20 pm, so that is a big piece of our day to sacrifice just to do some simple errands.
“There are also a lot of towns like Majorca, Bowenvale and Bealiba where there is no transportation at all.”
According to fellow youth councillor Talos Adcock, the lack of a consistent and expansive network forces fellow youth to consider moving away from the Central Goldfields.
“During the survey, I learned that I’m not the only one who is very annoyed at our public transport, I like being the spokesperson for all the other people that aren’t in the youth council,” she said.
“Both of my jobs have to be in Dunolly for me to know that I have a guaranteed way to get there, I can’t go see my friends whenever I want, I can’t get involved with groups like the Maryborough Community Garden, you feel somewhat detached from the community.
“I would like to see more transportation and more youth to stay here and I want to live here for the rest of my life, but a lot of people have to move away because of the lack of opportunities that transport gives us.”
As stated in the recent report “research for the Central Goldfields Shire Integrated Transport Strategy has previously highlighted the impact that a lack of adequate public transport networks in the shire has on the local economy, education opportunities, and growth of communities”.
“I’m not entirely surprised [by the survey], the results sort of match what we were expecting in terms of things that the youth council and staff members have observed and it feeds into the disadvantage that we see in some parts of the community,” Central Goldfields Shire Council youth worker Gemma Simpson said.
“Young people who don’t have access to a reliable and regular transport system to attend university or TAFE in Ballarat or Bendigo are forced to either go online or move out.
“The flow-on effect is that for our employers, it makes the recruitment process challenging because it means we are telling potential recruits that if they want to work here, they have to commute by car.”
According to Ms Simpson, who wrote the report on the survey, work has already commenced to inform the State Government of the timetabling and service planning issues in the shire.
“From the State Government’s perspective, we need to be able to provide them a very clear ask around the service changes that need to happen to meet our needs and how it can be done in a cost-effective way,” she said.
“We are in conversations with universities to see if we can partner with them to work through some of that and develop a plan around some of those asks.
“Otherwise down the track, we would be looking at working with a transport planning firm — we are also in conversations with departments about where this work can go from their end in terms of their decision-making process.”