Tuesday, 27 August 2024

Warrnambool public transport

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (19:14): (797) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action I seek is to ensure passengers have access to appropriate toilet facilities on replacement coaches between Melbourne and Warrnambool. For seven years my community has been waiting for the promised VLocity trains to be delivered for the Warrnambool–Geelong rail line. We have been enduring replacement buses for several months while upgrades are underway. But this has been happening for a decade – every time there is a train fault, an issue with the track or an incident involving road traffic. This journey typically takes around 4 hours, a considerable length of time for passengers to be on a coach without access to a rest room. We are now told the upgrades are over, and we have seen testing of one VLocity train on the line. However, we are told it may not be so soon that we will have VLocity trains on every service. Therefore it is likely that we will still see breakdowns requiring replacement buses.

My constituents have been complaining about the lack of toilets on the replacement buses from Geelong to Warrnambool. The department reassured my office that passengers would always have access to bathroom services on board for long journeys such as this, but after receiving many complaints that this was not the case and again approaching the minister, I received communication from the minister last week admitting that 30 per cent of the bus fleet would not have a toilet. The minister even suggested that passengers should approach the bus driver to request a stop when needed. I have also been made aware of instances where it has been suggested to passengers by the bus driver that they go behind a bush or they have been told by the bus driver that they will have to wait until the next scheduled stop. Not only do passengers feel uncomfortable asking the driver to pull over because they do not want to be an inconvenience to other travellers but it is also absurd and totally unacceptable in the 21st century to tell passengers to find a bush to squat behind. It is essential that all passengers, regardless of health and mobility, can travel with dignity and comfort. The current arrangement does not provide that. Common sense would suggest that if a passenger would require a restroom when on board a train for such a long time, the same should surely apply when travelling on a replacement bus for the same journey.

We look forward to the seven-year promise of VLocity trains finally being delivered, but until we see that come to fruition it is unacceptable that replacement buses do not have bathroom access. The minister must ensure that those travelling between Warrnambool and Melbourne are afforded the same dignity that other commuters are afforded. For effectively one in three coaches in service to not have appropriate facilities in this day and age is simply not good enough.