Page 4492 - Week 12 - Thursday, 26 October 2017
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meaning she has to wait around outside regardless of the weather, or a late bus that arrives after her first class starts.
I share with the Assembly the difficulty that this young public school student now faces getting to school each day in order to highlight how essential it really is to have good public transport for all areas of Canberra. I worry that those of us in this chamber who make the decisions sometimes forget what it is like to be completely reliant on public transportation. For very many Canberrans, this subject is indeed a matter of public importance.
To highlight this point further, I wish to share a few more public transportation concerns that constituents have shared with me. A number of residents in Latham have raised with me the difficulty they have accessing Transport Canberra buses on the weekends. On week days the bus route includes Macrossan Crescent, but the weekend service completely skips over this loop. This means that the nearest bus stop to residents who live in or near this crescent is located more than one kilometre away in Onslow Street.
For an older child or younger adult, this is an estimated 16 to 20-minute walk. But a number of older Canberrans live in this area of Latham. They have told me that the hike to Onslow Street is just too far for someone using a walking stick or a walking frame, or even just for someone whose gait is unsteady or whose joints are a bit stiff. Lack of a good public transportation option leaves these seniors socially isolated each weekend. Worries about confusing and often reduced weekend bus services are, in fact, one of the more common concerns that I hear from constituents in my electorate of Ginninderra.
Others have shared with me, for example, their frustration with the fact that the blue rapid 300 bus travels from Tuggeranong to Kippax on weekdays but not on weekends. This exact same route terminates at Belconnen requiring passengers to transfer to another route, including the waiting that that entails. I realise that many of those who work in this building travel reliably Monday through Friday, but many Canberrans do not.
Nurses, shop assistants, servicers, aged-care workers, cooks, disability workers and so many others work across the entire seven-day week, often with rosters that are constantly changing. Many of them have said that the weekday and weekend bus routes and timetables are so different that basically they have to master two different bus networks. Sometimes getting to or from work on the weekends simply is not possible.
One west Belconnen resident said that he had to give up his much-needed weekend shifts because the only way home afterward was in a taxi, which took nearly all of the money he earned by working that shift. Just this morning, I heard from another Canberra resident who has given up on public transportation entirely. She previously used a Transport Canberra bus to get to and from work, a distance of not quite eight kilometres. The trip used to take her a maximum of 20 minutes. Now with the latest network changes, her travel time comes in at just under an hour. This woman thankfully has the option of using private transportation and so can continue working.
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