PUBLIC TRANSPORT WOES CONTINUE TO COMPOUND

CHAD Van Estrop’s report (GA 16/9) on V/Line’s failure to reach its targets should come as no surprise to anyone who lives south of Lara, and their failure is reflective of the problems with our governments.

The most disappointing aspect of this report is the delusional comments from V/Line’s chairman and Public Transport Victoria’s CEO, Jeroen Weimar. It only serves to illustrate to us the exact mentality our leaders have with this issue. A 1.9 per cent improvement from last year is not encouraging, especially when their failure is now in its fourth consecutive month.

Moreover, adding 80 seats to two services on weekdays is also not going to improve anything if the services are still running late or even cancelled. Even if services aren’t late or cancelled, additional seats will not be enough when the trains are already overflowing during peak hour.

Despite poor performances in managing Melbourne transportation services, the government thought it wise to appoint this person as V/Line’s chair, and herein lies the problem. The government simply does not care about Geelong residents or is incredibly incompetent — or both.

Daniel Andrews is almost onequarter into his second term, and nothing substantial has been done to fix Geelong’s transport woes. Our local MPs are also silent on the issue, further compounding the issues we face. Is there any hope for Geelong? Joshua Lim, Belmont