A SMALL band of protestors stopped traffic on Sunday morning in a two-street bus blockade in Yarraville.
A group of about 13 men, women and children lined Yarraville’s Canterbury St at 11am to block the 409 Yarraville-to-West Footscray bus route to rally against the service upgrades that were introduced on 30 June.
The protestors held the bus up for about 10 minutes before it reversed out on to Fehon St.
During the hold-up, the 432 Newport-to-Paisley bus entered the street three times and reversed out on to Birmingham St or turned into Bunninyong St to avoid the protest.
The 432 was later stopped by the protestors on the corner of Anderson and Fehon streets.
The blockade caused a traffic pile-up of about eight cars.
One disgruntled motorist got out of the car and yelled at the protestors.
The protestors, made up mostly of residents from Canterbury St, want the State Government to reverse the changes made from the Hobson’s Bay, Maribyrnong and Moonee Valley bus service review.
From 30 June, hours of operation were extended to 6am-9am on weekdays and 8am-9am on weekends and public holidays.
Six services were also rerouted and one new service was introduced.
Canterbury St resident Catrina Witham said the new services were an unnecessary and environmentally unsustainable option for the area.
“The streets are very narrow with cars parked either side, and the buses just disregard anything – they don’t give way,” Ms Witham said.
“You’ll find that one will enter our street from one end to get to the bus stop, the other one will leave the bus stop, which means that they’re blocked and one has to reverse.
“The other day we had 20 buses for 25 passengers.”
Ms Witham is one of many annoyed residents who say that neither the State Government nor Maribyrnong City Council consulted residents before the changes were introduced.
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Ms Witham and her fellow protestors made their presence known at last week’s council meeting, where they bombarded councillor’s with questions during public question time.
Transport manager Ian Butterworth told the residents that the council had written to the Department of Transport (DoT) to request a consultation period with residents, and to enquire about smaller, more energy efficient buses.
The council also advised the residents to contact their local MPs. Ms Witham said the group was trying to organise a meeting with the MPs.
“I kind of expected that would be the council’s reaction, although my attitude is, they did approve it, (but) they were saying to us it had nothing to do with them,” she said.
But DoT spokesperson Christopher Veraa said community consultation was a central part of the bus review.
He said public workshops were held in each municipality, while a public submission process was promoted in local newspapers and on board buses.
Maribyrnong City Council also had extensive input.
“Representatives of Maribyrnong City Council attended two separate bus review workshops, (they) had a representative on the bus review working committee, (they) made submissions to the review process and received personalized briefings from the DOT on the bus review recommendations,” Mr Veraa said.
