Tuesday, 3 March 2020

Gembrook electorate

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (12:52): (1947) My constituency question is to the Minister for Public Transport. A significant number of constituents in my electorate contact me weekly about overcrowding and the lack of train infrastructure on the Pakenham line in the Gembrook electorate. This area is one of the fastest growing in the state, with seven families a day moving in. Despite the large growth in the electorate, the minister and her government have failed to provide any new additional infrastructure for train stations in the Gembrook electorate at all. Residents consistently raise their concerns about and discomfort with overcrowded trains and the lack of shelter and toilet facilities.

The government seems to have turned a blind eye for the past five years to the large increase in patronage at these stations. Constituents have asked that the patronage numbers at the train stations be made public so there is greater transparency as to why and where funding is going on the railway lines. Upon investigation recent figures that were on the Public Transport Victoria website were shown to be not true. We want to make sure of the information has been coming to us and to our local communities since 2014 so we can provide that information to my local constituents.