Improve Western Crescent public transport links

The petition of certain citizens of the State of Victoria draws to the attention of the Legislative Council the poor state of public transport between Geelong and Ballarat, Ballarat and Maryborough, and Maryborough and Castlemaine. These links, along with the good public transport link between Castlemaine and Bendigo define the Western Crescent which links Victoria’s second, third and fourth largest cities. The Geelong to Ballarat link, which was serviced by passenger rail until 1978, is currently served by three weekday return V/line coaches. The Ballarat to Maryborough link is currently served by two weekday return V/line trains and the Maryborough to Castlemaine link is currently served by five weekday return V/line coaches. There are now 600,000 people living along the Western Crescent and around 280,000 jobs making existing services clearly inadequate.

The petitioners therefore request that the Legislative Council call on the Minister for Public and Active Transport and the Minister for Transport Infrastructure to reinstate the Geelong to Ballarat passenger rail services and upgrade Ballarat to Maryborough passenger rail services to hourly frequencies with connecting hourly coach services between Maryborough and Castlemaine.