Lowan MP Emma Kealy has detailed more complaints forwarded to her about the Wimmera’s public transport links to Melbourne and Geelong, including the bus and train connections at Ararat.
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Ms Kealy, who represents the state seat to Ripon’s west, detailed complaints this month from her constituents about elderly passengers suffering long delays and lack of seating when changing from buses to trains at Ararat.
On Wednesday, Ms Kealy detailed more complaints from Wimmera passengers.
She said a a 73-year-old Edenhope resident has contacted her with a experience that demonstrated that public transport got worse the further west you embarked.
The Edenhope resident was regularly required to travel to Geelong to see her heart specialist.
“The lady’s most recent experience was a 9-hour one-way trip from Edenhope to Geelong,” Ms Kealy said.
“This elderly lady was required to travel on a bus from Edenhope to Horsham, a second bus to Ararat, a train to Ballarat and finally a bus to Geelong, resulting in an exhausting 9-hour trip.
“By car the same trip would take just 3.5 hours.”
Ms Kealy said that by the time the resident had got to her motel in Geelong she was exhausted and had to go straight to bed to prepare for her specialist appointments the next day.
She was then required to stay another night in Geelong before starting the same marathon 9-hour trip home.
“This is yet another example of the impact of poor public transport in western Victoria under the city centric Andrews Labor Government with services getting worse under Daniel Andrews’ watch”, Ms Kealy said.
Ms Kealy’s prior comments about Ararat train and bus connections prompted a spokesperson for Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan to accused her of hypocrisy over regional rail.
“Emma Kealy was part of a government who did nothing for four years,” the spokesperson said this month.
“We are getting on with the job of delivering an upgrade to every regional rail line through the Regional Rail Revival, we’ve added additional services to Maryborough and Ararat and we’re delivering the Murray Basin Rail Project.”
In response to Ms Kealy’s prior comments, a V/Line spokesperson said passengers could choose to wait for their connecting service in one of the two waiting rooms at Ararat station, which was staffed from 6am to 5pm daily.
Ararat Rural City Council Mayor Glenda McLean also responded at the time and defended V/Line’s Ararat service.
“The additional daily train services organized by the state government from this February have been a boon to the Ararat municipality and bring so much benefit to locals going regularly to Melbourne,” Cr McLean said.