Ten areas in Adelaide’s north set to be most hurt by proposed bus cuts

The 10 northern suburbs areas that will be most inconvenienced by the State Government’s proposed bus cuts have been revealed.

• Opposition claims bus cuts are targeting Labor voters
• Petition launched against bus cuts

The 10 northern suburbs areas that will be most inconvenienced by the State Government’s proposed bus cuts have been revealed.

The cuts are set to come into effect this Sunday with more than 10 northern routes affected.

The State Government hope to make $3.5 million in annual savings by cutting runs which have less than an average of five people, or are close to rail lines.

Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas met with residents at Salisbury Interchange last week alongside local MP Zoe Bettison.

“This will hit older South Australians, students and people relying on public transport to commute to work the most,” Ms Bettison said.

“Public transport should be about people not profit.”

Parafield Gardens pensioner Bill Monks catches the 224 bus two or three times a week.

Under the proposed cuts, the 224 will have limited services outside of peak hours.

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“You’ll have to rebuild your journey and maybe change buses or get a train at Salisbury or Mawson Lakes which obviously adds time to the journey,” Mr Monks, 70, said.

“The problem with the train is that the station is about a kilometre walk from where I live, whereas the bus is a two minute walk from my front door.”

Mr Monks said he worried about how the cuts would impact older commuters.

“It’s a vital service for people who don’t have a car or can’t walk the kilometre down to the train station,” he said. “It will do nothing to help them, that’s for sure.”

Transport minister Stephan Knoll said last week the first round of cuts only affected 0.3 per cent of public transport users and told the Opposition to stop “playing politics”.

“Most of the changes are minor and often only affect the first and last bus on each route,” Mr Knoll said.

“The bus routes identified either have extremely low patronage or run duplicate to a much more efficient, faster train line. By making efficiencies … we can invest more in the highly used areas of our system.”

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