By XAVIER SMERDON
PUBLIC transport ticket prices should be frozen at their current rate until the State Government can improve reliability and comfort, according to a western suburbs politician.
Greens Member of Parliament, Colleen Hartland, said the West would wear the brunt of public transport ticket price hikes announced in Parliament on 6 June during a motion to freeze fares for two years.
“In January they (the Baillieu Government) increased fares by 8.6 per cent which took $26 million out of pockets of commuters. It was the biggest increase in nearly a decade. Last night the government said there would be a second increase of at least the rate of inflation,” Ms Hartland said.
“In the West, we have poorly performing train services, the lowest levels of commuter satisfaction, Zone 2 comes closer to the city and car parks at zone one stations are overflowing because commuters drive there to avoid expensive zone two tickets.”
Ms Hartland said it was unfair to raise ticket prices while train and bus services remained substandard in Wyndham and surrounding municipalities.
“Where else do we have to pay increasing costs for a poor service? Overcrowded, unreliable, delays and cancellations, stations that are rundown with inadequate lighting and staff. And as we’ve seen lately, trains just skip stations,” she said.
“The very least the government should do is freeze fares for two years while they sort out the problems.”
