Public transport issues have continued to dominate discussion in the Victorian State Parliament with Phil Honeywood, Member for Warrandyte commenting on the Bracks Government’s failure to improve public transport services along the Ringwood/Belgrave/Lilydale lines:

Mr HONEYWOOD (Warrandyte) — Ringwood has always been well positioned for public transport. As a regional hub at the junction of the Belgrave and Lilydale rail lines, it services thousands of train commuters every day. Public transport users in my electorate travelling into the city not only have to bear the burden of high ticket costs due to travelling through all three metropolitan public transport zones but in addition are faced with an inadequate, slow and unreliable daily service.In 1999 the Bracks government promised to improve this abysmal situation, by committing $9.5 million to construct a third railway track between Blackburn and Mitcham. That would have allowed for the introduction of Belgrave and Lilydale flier trains, as the government named them in 1999, that would have run express from Ringwood to Box Hill and from Box Hill to Richmond.

That would have significantly reduced travel times for those passengers travelling long distances from Ringwood and beyond, including, of course, when returning home during the evening peaks.

Cr Alex Makin, a spokesman for the Public Transport Users Association, said that:

… the east, including Maroondah, had definitely missed out compared with other regions.

He also said that even simple and much-needed projects like the Ringwood station upgrade still lay in uncertainty.

(Source: Victoria, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 1/06/2006, p1536)

Despite earlier election promises it is clear that under the Transport and Liveability Statement the Ringwood (Belgrave and Lilydale rail lines) will not see any significant improvement while bus services will receive marginal upgrades at best.

The Transport and Liveability Statement must be recalled so that a truly comprehensive and visionary can be created.