By Brendan Rees
Like many, Declan Foley hates catching a connecting bus home.
His reason, he says, is due to the poor connection timetable between bus and train services at Berwick railway station.
Mr Foley, who catches the train home from the city on week days, says when his train arrives at Berwick station at 4.26pm, the bus departs.
He’s therefore left to wait for the next bus – a situation he describes as “unbelievable”.
It’s an ongoing problem for the last three to four years, he says.
Mr Foley says he’s tried speaking with Ventura Bus, which runs the bus service from Berwick railway station, who he says “claim their contract does not oblige them to connect with any train timetable”.
He’s also called the state’s public transport authorities about the issue – which he says is only met with “waffle” on the phone.
“Surely, in this day and age with radio and mobile phone communication, a bus should not depart a railway station when a train is either approaching or standing on the platform disgorging passengers?” Mr Foley says.
Mr Foley, a Berwick resident of 22 years, even emailed the Premier’s office saying “common sense has now officially departed all of the members of this Labor Party Government”.
“Many of us try to reduce our car driving by using public transport, yet no one appears to be able to make a simple connection between a train arrival and a bus departing,” he says in the email.
A Department of Transport (DoT) spokesperson said Berwick Station is serviced by 11 different bus routes, “co-ordinated with trains to get passengers wherever they need to go.”
“DoT is always evaluating future improvements and welcomes feedback from the community to deliver better services for locals,” the spokesperson said.
Bus services to and from Berwick station were revised in August 2018 when additional rail services were added to Pakenham/Cranbourne lines.
According to DoT, for bus services where Berwick station is the “primary coordination location,” connections will be timetabled with the five to 10 minute connection in the peak direction of travel.
During the evening peak period, trains arrive at Berwick station from the city as frequently as every seven to eight minutes, DoT says.
In a statement, DoT says in some circumstances, it may be possible that a bus departure from Berwick may be at a similar time as a train arrival from the city but coordinated with an earlier train arrival.
“For example, there are train arrivals at 5.59pm and 6.07pm the bus route 847 departure at 6.08pm is coordinated with the 5.59pm train arrival to provide a nine minute connection”.
