The Melbourne suburb where 1.2 per cent of people use public transport

The mayor of an outer Melbourne community is calling on the state government to urgently fund a train station in his growing community, where just 1.2 per cent of people regularly catch public transport. 

Beveridge, at the northern edge of Melbourne’s growth boundary, is set to boom. 

Council data shows the area is already home to about 11,000 people, and that’s expected to double in the next five years. 

Sydney has just announced a suburb of 10,000 people with a train station to be delivered. Why is it the case Transport Planning just does not work at all in Victoria? Is it because we have terrible resources in Victoria or does politics just get in the way or is it both?

Earlier this month, the state government also approved plans for a new suburb, Beveridge North West, which will see a further 47,000 residents move in by 2052. 

How could you begin to approve this suburban without a rail line even a spur line to the main area of the suburb as planning has been so poor the development of the suburbs on the northern fringe of Melbourne are away from rail lines. We need to take the rail lines to the suburbs.

But Mitchell Shire Mayor, John Dougall, is scathing of the level of infrastructure investment he sees from the state government to support his growing community.

“We’re still waiting for the basics,” he told a forum of Outer Melbourne Councils in South Morang. 

Council data shows just 1.2 per cent of people who live in Beveridge catch public transport. 

“And it’s not because they don’t want to, it’s because they can’t,” he said. 

He urged the state government to fund a train station at Beveridge, where the Seymour Vline train passes land that is “shovel-ready” for the station. 

The trains on the line are already at capcity and we need electrification to Wallan as a basic design with 20 minute services from Wallan to the city being able to run via either Essendon or Upfield.

“This is our chance to get it right,” he said, urging the state government to build the station now, before more residents move in. 

“Beveridge station is a test: deliver it now, not in 10 to 15 years,” he said. 

Scott Reid is one of the 98.8 per cent of Beveridge residents who don’t regularly use public transport.

“I try to avoid PT like the plague just because I’ve heard far too many stories about services being cancelled,” he said. 

He said the daily commute to work in Clifton Hill takes about 40 minutes if there’s no traffic, but it can take up to an hour and a half, if the Hume Freeway is busy.

“We’re funnelling people into a car park,” he said. 

He recently went to pick up the kids from school, but got stuck in traffic at the freeway overpass. 

“It took me half an hour to go 2 kilometres,” he said.

“I was fuming. I could walk faster.” 

He said the state government should fund a train station in Beveridge, to give people options. 

“It’s well and truly overdue, having a decent method for myself and my kids to get in and out of the city, in and out of Wallan, proper infrastructure in place,” he said. 

Calls to improve outer suburban public transport

Congested roads and a lack of reliable public transport options were common themes of the meeting of Outer Melbourne Councils in South Morang, in Melbourne’s outer north. 

Mayor of the Yarra Ranges Shire, in the outer east, Jim Childs, called on the government to build an extra train station between Mooroolbark and Lilydale, where a new development at Kinley will create an extra 3,000 homes. 

That would mean duplicating the tracks between the two existing stations, which were first built in the 1890s.  

“We’ve got to get this infrastructure correct,” Cr Childs said. 

“The infrastructure is not there to get all the cars off the roads.”

Population boom puts pressure on transport

In the city’s west, Melton is the fastest-growing local government area in Australia, with an annual growth rate of 6.5 per cent, well above the state average of 1.9 per cent.

The council’s manager of city strategy, Travis Conway, said access and transport is the number one issue people raise with the council. 

“We have a population growing day by day, and using largely one road – the Western Highway,” he said. 

Some clown from the liberals wants to build an 8 lane freeway into Melbourne rather then improve pub;lic transport so anyone wondering why they are never elected should read this.

That was illustrated this week in Thornhill Park, where a road upgrade means the only local road connecting the community to high schools and the train station will be shut until December – forcing locals onto the freeway for every school drop-off and pick-up, adding up to 45 minutes each way. 

Just to the south, Wyndham’s population is growing at 4.3 per cent a year, making it the sixth fastest growing area in Australia. 

“Six-to-nine car trains don’t cut it when it comes to growth corridors,” he said.

Dean Ellis, Wyndham’s coordinator of transport planning, said electrifying the train line should be a priority, so commuters aren’t relying on Vline diesel trains.

He pointed out Tarneit train station is the second-busiest Vline station in Victoria, with nearly 1.5 million annual entries. 

And this service is still a diesel train, extraordinary. You could not create a bigger mess if you tried. But lets push on with a $40B road one one asked for called the North East Link.

Melbourne’s Southern Cross tops the list with nearly 6 million entries, while Geelong station recorded 969,600 annual entries. 

And we still have diesel trains to these locations, it it simply shameful the lack of planning from the department.

“People can’t get on the train,” he said.

In Melbourne’s north-east, Nillumbik Shire is not predicted to grow as much as other outer councils, but mayor John Dumaresq said the area still struggles with access to transport, particularly buses. 

“Right now, transport gaps are closing down peoples’ lives,” he said. 

He said increasing access to public transport, particularly for young people and the elderly, is critical to connecting communities and keeping roads free from congestion.

“There’s thousands of trips being made in cars that don’t need to be made,” he said. 

President of the Public Transport Users Association, Tony Morton, said increasing the frequency of bus services is critical. 

“We have a lot of examples of lines on a map for bus lines that sometimes only come every hour or every half-hour,” he said. 

“That’s when you get people looking at the service and saying, ‘this is not providing a viable alternative to my car’.” 

Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, Josh Bull, told the forum the government is delivering “a long list of projects” that will help ease congestion in Melbourne, including the Metro Rail Tunnel, due to open later this year. 

This is another bloke who is clueless. Tell us all how you are addressing the above issues.

“It’s about unlocking a rapidly growing city and state,” he said. 

He added big projects, like the Suburban Rail Loop, take time. 

“I wouldn’t want to be standing here in 30 years’ time and saying, ‘if only we’d done that’,” he said.

The opposition’s Richard Welch said Victoria is “already behind schedule” when it comes to infrastructure planning. 

“The population is growing on the fringes, and you do not have the infrastructure,” he said. 

Back in Beveridge, John Dougall said the community is still angry the state government approved a quarry as part of the new precinct structure plan. 

The council should be demanding a rail connection to the quarry and they are not which means they do not understand the other side of freight planning.

He said, along with a new sports field, a train station would be one way to give back to the community. 

“The quarry has pushed the community in Beveridge to the edge,” he said. 

“For us, Beveridge train station would be an appropriate return for underpinning that infrastructure development.” 

The ABC has contacted the Victorian government for comment.

ABC News