Eastern Transport Coalition – Advocating for fair public transport fares

Published by Alex Makin on Thursday 17th of August, 2006

The Eastern Transport Coalition is a coalition of seven outer eastern councils that are united in demanding better public transport for the outer east.

While service improvements are urgently required it is also necessary to look at the pricing structure of public transport to ensure that it is competitive with car travel. With the existence of zone three serving the sole purpose of taxing outer eastern public transport users councils are united in the call for reform of public transport fares.

The arbitrary nature of zones two and three means that Hurstbridge, which located in zone two, is located further away from the CBD than Belgrave which in zone three. Likewise the baseless boundary which places Ringwood in zone three is inconsistent with aims to encourage public transport usage within the Ringwood Transit City and causes costly traffic congestion through the centre of Ringwood as people choose to park at Heatherdale Station (zone two) resulting in unnatural and unnecessary demand for parking simply due to arbitrary zone boundaries.

Rather than simply ignoring issues relating to the price of public transport fares the State Government must commit to reforming zone boundaries and deliver fair public transport fares.