Wednesday, 29 July 2026

 Kathleen MATTHEWS-WARD (Broadmeadows) (19:22): (1748) My adjournment is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport, and the action I seek is to invite the minister to join me to celebrate the full rollout of new off-peak evening and weekend services on the Upfield and Craigieburn lines, giving us trains at least every 20 minutes on both lines. I have worked hard alongside the minister and many colleagues along the corridor, including the member for Pascoe Vale here next to me, to advocate for these new services, which will be so beneficial to locals, including my husband, who is on the train nearly every day for work and to the footy on the weekends. These services and the new X’trapolis trains will see an end to the overcrowding that you often see even at 10 pm. They will also be great for the many local workers in my electorate who finish late, just like the new evening and Sunday services on bus 536.

I had a ball jumping on the first 103 bus on Sunday with transport expert Peter Parker and Andrea Bunting and Maggie Cowling from Climate Action Merri-bek, who also advocated for improvements to this route, as well as local residents Nick Zull, Bronwyn White and her gunzel son Kieran, a future secretary of the department of transport, in my view.

Together with the member for Pascoe Vale, we are continuing to advocate for additional services on route 534 and for the duplication of the Upfield line. I also continue to push for improvements along other bus routes in the electorate, particularly in Campbellfield and Broadmeadows. I was really pleased to secure funding at the last budget for additional evening and weekend services on route 542, which begins at Pascoe Vale station and which serves Oak Park, Glenroy West, Jacana, Broadmeadows, Dallas and Coolaroo.

During our bus journey we also chatted about the history of the Upfield line, and I promised I would mention it in Parliament. It is an incredible story. From about 1920 a rail motor called the Beetle ran from Fawkner to Somerton. In February 1955 the then Minister of Transport announced the line would be closed. About 300 residents protested at Campbellfield, and they won a reprieve. Bolte won the May 1955 state election, and in July the new transport minister announced the Fawkner to Somerton section would be closed. There were again rallies, and the closure was delayed; however, Saturday afternoon and Sunday services on the Fawkner to Somerton section were stopped. In 1956 the link to Somerton was closed and the Campbellfield station was demolished. The line was then electrified to Upfield to service a new Ford factory. The Lonie report of 1980 threatened to close this and the other train lines entirely. Other threats came later, in the 1980s, and again in the early 1990s under Kennett. The tenacity of the community saw that proposal off. Many reps of our community here in the gallery today are from our wonderful ALP branches, and I welcome them and thank them for their advocacy and tenacity too. Improvements were made to the Upfield line throughout the 1990s, including the upgrade of timetables to run seven days and signalling improvements. More recently, level crossings have been removed and the magnificent new stations built.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind members not to acknowledge the gallery.