Trial for bus-rail link

Jessica Benton
GEELONG councillors have plans to ferry Bellarine Peninsula commuters to Marshall Railway Station in a bid to ease parking congestion and travel times.
Buckley ward councillor and transport portfolio holder Andy Richards said the proposal would make using trains easier for commuters to Melbourne from Ocean Grove, Barwon Heads, Torquay and southern parts of Geelong.
Cr Richards said he and joint portfolio holder John Doull were behind the Department of Transport bus system initiative.
Cr Richards hoped the buses would run from the towns and the train station between 5am and 8am and between 3pm and 6.30pm.
“I’m interested in getting the bus routes right on that side of town,” Cr Richards said.
“We’re talking about a bus system, morning and night. It will better link up all public transport services.”
Cr Richards said the bus services could help ease “big” parking problems at the Marshall and South Geelong stations.
Department of Transport would run a trial service from Torquay to Marshall in conjunction with McHarry’s Buslines, he said.
Similar services will begin running from the other towns if the Torquay trial was successful.
Cr Richards said an $80 million public transport commitment from State Government would help get the project off the ground.
“Considering the Department of Transport is putting the money into the Geelong bus system and only spending $3 or $4 million on the bus interchange, the rest can be spent on making the bus network better,” he said.
“A central part of that is seeing the bus system work in with the train system.
“However, this is only one part of the transport solution for Geelong. There’s still the whole issue of public transport on the Bellarine Peninsula and the issue of transport in southern Geelong in general but we’re working hard to try to address these problems.”
Building Bellarine Connections project facilitator Peter Hibbert said the commuter bus service was important to improving public transport on the peninsula.
Reviews of the peninsula’s public transport systems had found that users wanted a higher frequency of services, more-direct routes, simplified timetables, improved access and better connections between services.
Mr Hibbert said residents could attend a public transport community forum at Barwon Heads Community Hall from 2.30pm on March 28.