Public Transport and Our Community

       In our community which is in the north of Melbourne there is a public transport issue; well in reality there are two, the first one involves train services and the second has to do with tram services. We have a situation where the train costing changes for the last two stops making it more expensive if one remained on the train. If you elect to get off at Fawkner you would only pay a cheaper zone 1, but if you remained on the train you pay a higher fare of zone 2 for only two stops more. My stop is the second last one ,Gowrie and still is in the suburb of Fawkner. When local Government/council were contacted they indeed supported our initiative, but referred us to contact a higher body being state parliament and indeed the Premier of our state.When they finally replied they stated that with zones it was not a question of stops and being unfair to some passengers it was a case of distance from the city of Melbourne, that there were no plans for change at this time. The curious part about this is that with a zone 2 one could travel far and wide from the rural destinations to the most distant sea-side destinations yet they would not budge on two stops.

     There is also a tram service which stops at the end of a tram line which is North Coburg here in Melbourne. This leaves passengers who desire to travel further to depend on a bus service which runs on the half hour and is not frequent on weekends with their working of logistics they had established a new bus route bowing to public pressure which would make one giddy and rolling with stomach upset with all the twisting and turning into small streets was unbelievable. The plan was put forward to State government last year to extend the tram lines and ensure the service ran to the Northern shopping centre. It was denied and labelled too expensive; yet the budget from the federal Government had already came through to spend on roads. We had tried again but as stated no plans are destined for our community. It was noticed that a politician had jumped aboard another tram which lobbied for a move of extension and was running with media coverage as it gathered momentum our local members were quoted to be supporting another tram service rather than ours.