The Nationals Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland MP is calling on Labor to review a V/Line timetable change after affected families contacted her office to raise concerns about the impact on students and commuters, with the change made without any community consultation.
Students travelling from Heathcote Junction and Wandong to Seymour have now been forced to use a replacement bus service, following the timetable change that sees a key morning service now arrive after the school day has started.
Under the previous timetable, the morning service arrived in Seymour at 8:36am, giving students enough time to make their way to school and work before the school day began.
That service is now scheduled to arrive at 8:57am.
The alternative earlier service arrives at approximately 7:46am, meaning school students can be left waiting outside school well before the gates open.
“This is a basic question of whether the timetable works for the people who actually rely on it,” Ms Cleeland said.
“Students should be able to catch a train from Heathcote Junction or Wandong and arrive in Seymour in time for school.
“Instead, families are now being asked to choose between sending their children to school late or having them arrive more than an hour before the school day starts.
“No parent should have their child waiting outside a locked school gate, and not every family can afford to drive their kids to school every day because of the cost of fuel.
“One parent, Gabriel, contacted me after his daughter started at St Mary’s College Seymour. The availability of this V/Line service was an important part of the family’s decision to choose the school.
“What makes this even harder to accept is that regional families are already paying more for public transport through Labor’s secret Suburban Rail Loop tax, which is expected to raise around $8 billion from passengers through to 2062; for a project regional Victorians will never use.
Ms Cleeland said Victorians cannot trust a government that taxes them in secret.
“Ben Carroll and Labor have fundamentally broken the trust of the Victorian community,” she said.
“I have asked Labor to review this timetable change and work with V/Line and affected schools to find a solution that gets students to Seymour safely and on time.
“It’s time for a fresh start.”
