Tuesday, 13 May 2025

South-Eastern Metropolitan Region bus services

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:02): (1607) My adjournment is for the Minister for Public and Active Transport. The action I seek, Minister, is for you to support the Fix Dandy Buses community campaign, which is advocating for the route 802, 804 and 814 bus services in Dandenong North and Noble Park North to be included in the minimum bus service standards for this state. The minimum standard includes a seven-day bus service until 9 pm, and this has been rolled out for other less busy bus services since 2006. There is evidence that people in the Greater Dandenong area do use local buses providing there is a service available, but there are six Greater Dandenong bus routes that do not run seven days a week. So I am calling on you, Minister, to find a way to get the 802, 804 and 814 in Dandenong North and Noble Park North funded in the 2025 state budget, which will be delivered next week.

The 802 and 804 are the only transport in parts of Dandenong North. They also serve popular destinations like Dandenong Hospital, Dandenong Market, Monash University, Oasis swimming centre and Chadstone Shopping Centre, with many having significant weekend activity. In addition, these are hubs that provide services to many people throughout the south-east region. The 814 in Noble Park North is also important since its timetable is still based on shop trading hours of 40 years ago. Long gaps between buses are also an issue in Greater Dandenong, with routes such as the 804 having a 2-hour gap in the Saturday afternoon timetable. The 814 in Springvale and Noble Park North finishes as early as 1 pm on Saturdays, and the 802 does not run on weekends at all.

Every Victorian depends on infrastructure, and they use road to rail to reach work, study and services. They use public facilities and spaces to learn, play, exercise, socialise and receive care, and they depend on infrastructure to get energy and water to their homes and to connect with each other by phone and internet. As Victoria’s population grows and changes more Victorians will need to use many types of infrastructure. A large bus upgrade program between 2006 and 2010 rolled out longer operating hours and a seven-day service to over 100 bus routes across Melbourne. Such minimum standards guaranteed a bus at least every hour until 9 pm seven days a week to suburbs across Melbourne. These improvements led to a big upsurge in bus patronage.

Current public transport timetables are often unsuitable for suburban retail, hospitality, industrial, weekend casual and part-time workers, as services are often not operating when people need to get to or from work. Increasing bus operating hours across Melbourne would be a welcome change to support the most disadvantaged areas, which are shown to have the least public transport. This includes areas in Mulgrave. High housing costs are forcing people to compromise on location, moving further away from jobs and services, and the current transport is scarce unless it is near a train station.