Buses backed for main drag

Jessica Benton
Moorabool Street is the best place for a new Geelong bus interchange, according to a public transport lobby group.
Public Transport Users Association Geelong branch convenor Paul Westcott said a central city interchange would be in line with interstate and international services.
“The interchange is the heart of the public transport system,” Mr Westcott said.
“It’s a bit like a body; when there’s no heart it doesn’t function. You could say it’s dying in Geelong.
“Quite clearly, since the previous bus interchange was removed from Moorabool Street public transport patronage has dropped.
“Patronage should be rising for all sorts of reasons, as is happening all around the world. There’s concern for the environment and rising petrol prices are pushing people toward public transport.”
The Independent reported last week that State Government’s Department of Transport and City of Greater Geelong had two options for an interchange in either Moorabool or Malop Streets.
The Moorabool Street option was a site between Malop and Little Malop streets. The Malop Street option was between Moorabool Street and Westfield Geelong.
The interchange would be a drop-off and pick-up point, with authorities planning bus shelters, an information stand and staff to help travellers.
State Government has announced $80 million for Geelong region bus services, including development of the interchange.
But traders in both Moorabool and Malop streets option areas slammed the interchange plan in last week’s Independent, fearing damage to their businesses.
But Mr Westcott said Moorabool Street was the “logical” solution because it was easier to access and could provide a thoroughfare for services around the city, the Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast.
“The shopkeepers are cutting their own throats by trying to exclude a system that, if run well, would bring people into the city and increase business,” Mr Westcott said.
“There are some shopkeepers who are opposed but there are others who have realised that, since the Moorabool Street buses were removed, the area has hardly flourished.
“There’s vacant shops, less people and it’s hardly conducive for a cosmopolitan shopping strip.”