Infrastructure Australia’s priority list confirms what Frankston residents already know – and endure every day. That is, their public transport connectivity is bad, substandard, that better rail services are urgently needed, and that existing bus services fall short of community needs.
Despite being in Government for 16 of the last 20 years, Labor has not considered the needs of Frankston commuters as a priority - the Liberal Party has.
In 2018 the Liberal Nationals committed to extend, duplicate and electrify the Frankston line to Baxter along the current Stony Point line. The commitment also included two new railway stations, one at Frankston East, near Monash University and the Frankston Hospital, and one at Langwarrin. The Baxter station was also to be upgraded.
Better bus services for Frankston were also planned as part of the Liberal Nationals’ $70 million bus package and included improvements to bus connections between Frankston East, Langwarrin, Baxter and the Mornington Peninsula. Key routes such as the Route 788 (Frankston-Portsea) bus and the Route 783 (Frankston-Hastings) perform badly and need additional services.
Performance on the Frankston rail line has plummeted, failing to reach punctuality targets in even one month of 2019.
With massive budget blowouts on Andrews’ ego-driven projects, Frankston commuters are faced with two likely scenarios under Labor – more public transport failures or more taxes – but sadly, the statistics say they’ll probably get stuck with both.
Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Public Transport (Metropolitan), David Davis:
“Public transport services in Frankston are already deficient and will only get worse.
“Andrews must respond to calls from the community for better transport, more services and better connectivity, as a matter of priority. A call that is clearly justified by Infrastructure Australia’s acknowledgement of these works being recognised as a priority project in its latest report.”
Comments attributable to Member for Hastings, Neale Burgess:
“The Mornington Peninsula is a great place to live, work and play but to keep it that way we need to keep well ahead of population growth by investing in urgent catch-up and new plan-ahead transport infrastructure.
“Andrews must stop taking the Frankston community for granted and fund the Frankston priority projects identified in the Infrastructure Australia report, in its next budget.”
