By Xavier Smerdon
THE State Government has been accused of deliberately misleading Wyndham commuters and giving them a raw deal.
Spokesperson for the Wyndham Greens, Dr Bro Sheffiel-Brotherton, said that a memo from Metro to the Department of Transport shows that Werribee, Hoppers Crossing and Aircraft railway stations will receive the greatest reduction in services of all metropolitan services under new timetable changes.
Dr Sheffield-Brotherton, said that for weeks Metro and the DOT had claimed there will be 185 extra train services per week on the Werribee line to cope with the burgeoning population growth in Wyndham.
“This touted ‘service improvement’ is a complete illusion. Most of these trains don’t come within cooee of Werribee,” Dr Sheffield-Brotherton said.
“Under the timetable changes there is a small increase in peak services and a massive reduction in off-peak services to Werribee.”
The memo, which was released to Greens MP and transport spokesperson Greg Barber on 5 May states that there will be 40 less services from the Werribee line going around the city loop.
“Nine stations lose from four to ten services per day. And then in a class of our own we have Werribee, Hoppers Crossing and Aircraft, each losing 41 off-peak services per day,” Dr Sheffield-Brotherton said.
The accusation from the Wyndham Greens comes as the Minister for Public Transport, Terry Mulder, confirmed that the government would not staff Hoppers Crossing Railway Station full time, as promised by the former Labor government.
Star contacted the Department of Transport for comment but they did not respond by deadline.
