Member for Western Victoria, Gayle Tierney has taken up the fight for Geelong public transport commuters in the Parliament.
Ms Tierney today raised the severe lack of parking available at Marshall Station, after V/Line has put in place further measures to stop motorists parking on grass areas near the station.
Ms Tierney said there is a clear need for more car parking at Marshall Station and that there has been a need for an extension of car parking for well over a year now.
“V/Line staff at the Marshall station have now put up signage threatening motorists who park on the grass or other areas outside of the car park bays that their vehicles will be towed.
“A section of grass near the car park has also had large wooden poles concreted in to stop cars parking on the grass area.
“Commuters have been calling on the Napthine Government and local Liberal Andrew Katos to improve car parking at Marshall for nearly three years and the Government has failed to act because it doesn’t care.
“People use public transport to take the stress of grid locked traffic out of their commute to work.
“However under the Napthine Government they have the stress of fighting for a car park, fighting for a seat, and fighting with their boss because they are constantly late due to V/Line’s poor record.
“Mr Napthine must explain how spending $8 billion on a dud tunnel helps commuters and improves parking facilities at local stations,” Ms Tierney said.
Recent performance results show that V-line has again failed miserably to meet its punctuality target of 92 per cent, with July’s punctuality rate significantly lower than the Government’s own target.
Ms Tierney said the Coalition Government made clear promises to address public transport issues at the last State election, promises it has failed to deliver.
“Many public transport user I speak to say they have to fight for a park at Geelong’s train stations, stand on a crowded train during peak times and constantly explain to their boss that the train has made then late for work again.
“Just like Jeff Kennett, the Napthine Government is ignoring regional commuters.
“Denis Napthine thinks regional commuters don’t matter and they will accept a substandard train service. These problems have been caused by the Napthine Government failing to invest in infrastructure upgrades for V/Line services.
“It just isn’t good enough,” Ms Tierney said.