Peninsula buses take holiday leave

Route bus services along Point Nepean Road face collapse over the Christmas/New Year period as thousands of revellers descend upon bayside holiday spots.

“What is supposed to be a relaxing family time of the year is likely to be reduced to bedlam as visitors try to cram on to infrequent bus services, while the road network and car parks overflow,” said Public Transport Users Association spokesman Jeremy Lunn.

Mediocre standard bus services will be unable to cope with the explosion in visitor numbers . The only service on Point Nepean Road which connects with the metropolitan rail network at Frankston, the 788, will only run every 75 minutes on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, 27 December, New Year’s Day and on 2 January. Even during weekdays this increasingly overcrowded service runs at an appalling 45 minute interval.

The 786 bus service between Rye and St Andrews Beach, the 787 between Sorrento and Safety Beach and the 886 between Rosebud and Rosebud TAFE are not scheduled to run at all on public holidays during this period.

Mr Lunn said that “It is obvious that locations with convenient route bus services suffer less from road congestion. It is a complete disgrace that the Baillieu government, which was elected on the promise to fix Melbourne’s public transport system, has ignored the needs of the permanent and visitor population on the Mornington Peninsula.”

Mr Lunn noted that it’s bad economics too, because the travel needs of tourists have never been factored into the Victorian government’s public transport plans for the Peninsula. The Mornington Peninsula attracts four to five million tourists annually. Tourism is the largest single industry and a large employer on the Peninsula. Tourists, local residents and this environmentally precious area, an important part of Melbourne’s green wedges, deserve much better,” Mr Lunn concluded.