ANGER OVER BUS CHANGES

RESIDENTS living outside Hobart say changes to their bus services are not working and have led to children arriving late to school. A public meeting yesterday was told how an increasing number of commuters are reverting back to driving their cars, adding to traffic woes.

STUDENTS, workers and families in the Derwent Valley gathered at a packed public meeting in New Norfolk yesterday to discuss the “havoc” resulting from a recent shakeup in public transport.

Infrastructure Minister Jeremy Rockliff said “teething problems” could be expected as passengers and drivers got used to the transition.

The Department of State Growth labelled the changes “significant improvements”, saying they would “make travel simpler” and pave the way for a single, integrated statewide transport network and a common ticketing system.

But Selina Daley, of Magra, said the department had ruined what was previously “a working system”.

“My daughter’s bus, that she has been catching for the past four years, use to leave New Norfolk at 7.15am and have her at school by approximately 8am,” Ms Daley said.

“The new bus now leaves at 7.05am, goes via Glenorchy and waits for another New Norfolk bus to meet up and have passengers get on, then goes along the main roads instead of the highway.

“She arrived at school at 8.52am on Wednesday, meaning she was late on her first day of Year 7.”

Ms Daley has resorted to starting work later and driving daughter Caylin to St Mary’s and son Kyle to Elizabeth College, saying she could not see how they would ever arrive on time with the new timetable.

“I don’t want my kids missing 25 minutes of school every day on an overflowing bus.”

She said the meeting at the New Norfolk football clubrooms was packed to capacity, with another meeting planned.

Karen Stevens, of New Nor- folk, said her bus to work now arrived in Hobart up to 30 minutes later than before despite there being only a two-minute difference in the boarding time.

“I’m lucky enough to work relatively close to where the bus drops us off but I know there’s a lot of people that then have to walk,” Ms Stevens said.

“Many have turned to taking their cars so they can get to work on time. It’s just creating a bigger problem because you’ve got more cars on roads which are already congested.”

Labor leader Rebecca White said it only became clear last week the changes were causing “havoc” across the state.

More than 85 people commented on a Facebook post Ms White shared about the new network, with social media users describing it as a “joke”, “disaster” and “disgrace”.

Labor Member for Lyons Jen Butler said her office had been flooded with concerns from workers and parents.

“They are questioning why a service that was working needed to be tinkered with and why they are now being forced back into their vehicles,” Ms Butler said.

She said locals wanted to know why a service that used to travel directly into the city now had an interchange in Glenorchy, prolonging the trip.

Mr Rockliff said the changes equated to an increase in bus services across the state.