Wednesday, 26 August 2026

 Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (19:08): (1801) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Public Transport, and the action that I am seeking is more support for passengers when buses replace trains, particularly at the East Pakenham station. When this happens we have a situation where passengers have to walk a long way from the train to the bus or vice versa. Last Saturday we had one elderly woman with a heavy bag and a walking stick who was making this journey. As she went past Public Transport Victoria staff, rather than being given a hand, she was told, ‘Not too long to go now. Keep up.’ When she got to the coach bay she tried three buses. All were full. She finally found a couple of seats on a bus behind the driver – having loaded her own bags, I might add – only to be told that those seats were reserved. She thought they would be reserved for priority passengers, those with a disability or seniors, but she was told they were not to be sat in.

The whole situation is poor. When buses are going to replace trains because of some works on the metro line, we have to have additional staff to help people on their journey – perhaps someone to assist the elderly passengers and the frail passengers getting from the train to the bus and vice versa. Put on some staff to help them load their bags onto the bus and vice versa. Put on some staff to tell them ‘No, sorry, this bus is full. You’ve got to get onto the next one.’ Just help people. These changes get put on with very, very short notice. They leave people having to move over to a bus when they did not realise that was going to happen, and they just do not have the support. So I say to the Minister for Public Transport: when these changes occur, please put on the appropriate staff to help the frail and elderly in our community get from A to B.