Thursday, 2 April 2026

 Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (17:21): (1631) My adjournment tonight is to the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action that I am seeking is for the minister to guarantee train and bus services that will cater for the numbers of passengers in my region. A minimum of six carriages is required on the Bairnsdale V/Line service, simply to meet the need. Given the minister has refused my repeated requests for additional bus services to link with the trains at Traralgon and then provide additional services to the region, she should at least provide the right number of carriages on our train sets. Last week I received an email from Hannah – it might have been the week before, actually – who advised that the 6:14 am train that left Bairnsdale for Melbourne had only three carriages, not six. I note that that they come in sets of three; you either get three or six. We had 100 people standing the whole way to Melbourne from Bairnsdale – 4 hours on the train, standing the whole way. This left the conductor very stressed, and in fact when the train got closer to Traralgon the conductor suggested some people get off the train and catch a later service from Traralgon to Melbourne. That is not good enough.

It also extends beyond trains. That same week we had three TAFE students, aged 16 and 17, who rely on public transport, who could not get on the bus at Johnsonville to get to their education. Now, this is their education, and at times they have had to sit on the floor or stand, but the bus was just simply so full that they could not get on. The scenario that we have, with the announcement of free public transport, is going to exacerbate these overcrowding problems unless we get the rolling stock or we get the bus services to cater for the additional need. When an announcement like that is made, we have already got that problem where the trains are overcrowded and people cannot get on the buses. You cannot make that announcement without providing the additional carriage services to cater for the people. So I ask the minister to please ensure that she caters for the people on our V/Line services and our transport services by ensuring each train has six carriages – the two sets of three – and our bus services are able to cater for the need.