Country fare cut may lead to overcrowding

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
WARBURTON Highway’s bus providers are pleased with the long-awaited move to cut the country fare but say it could lead to overcrowding as services are already at full capacity.
Commuters will soon be able to travel on public transport with a single ticket after the State Budget confirmed the deal that from 1 July the country fare would be abolished between East Warburton and Allsops Road, Launching Place.
Martyrs Bus Service managing director Wayne Mountjoy said passengers and Martyrs had been campaigning to get rid of the country fare for more than 25 years.
Mr Mountjoy was enthusiastic in his response to the removal of the fare, but said capacity would become more of a problem with the cheaper fares.
“The fact that there’s some follow-though is very good but it would be good to match with cross funding to match the capacity issues,” he said.
“We’re virtually full now on a number of services.”
Mr Mountjoy said ticketing reports, passenger anecdotes and driver observations show the immediate issue is capacity.
“We need more frequency, more buses, more regular services,” he said.
“We have fairly high loadings in between peaks with people trying to go around school times.”
A spokesperson from the Department of Transport said it was investigating a range of options so that passengers travelling the length of the bus route would only need one ticket.