State Opposition launches petition against Government’s planned bus service cuts

The State Opposition has launched a petition in a last-ditch effort to convince the State Government to reverse its decision to slash bus services, amid claims more than 1170 services will be cut or shortened.

A public transport petition has been launched in a last-ditch effort to convince the State Government to reverse its decision to slash bus services, amid claims more than 1170 services will be cut or shortened.

• Cuts for bus trips that only carry the driver, and some with fewer than five passengers
• Route 150 trippers adamant they want their service to stay
• New bus route would link inner north with leafy easy

A public transport petition has been launched in a last-ditch effort to convince the State Government to reverse its decision to slash bus services, amid claims more than 1170 services will be cut or shortened.

The Opposition says its analysis of the cuts, which will come into effect on January 27, shows more than 720 individual services will be slashed and more than 450 will be shortened as a result of the changes.

However, the Government is standing by its decision, saying 99.7 per cent of commuters will not be affected by the changes, which will save taxpayers $3.5 million annually over the next four years.

Labor members and volunteers will be at various bus stops across Adelaide collecting signatures over the coming weeks.

Labor, which has also made the petition available online, says southern suburbs residents will be among the hardest hit.

Morphett Vale resident Kate Turner, 42, said her family will be severely impacted by the cuts.

“These cuts are just fundamentally going to eat at the heart of family’s budgets,” the mother-of-two said.

“My son is off to high school this year and he, with growing independence, wants to be able to go out and earn a living when he gets older and catch the bus to school and these cuts are going to mean that we are going to have to take him to and from school for him to be able to access his education.

“These cuts are going to impact on so many families that live south and we shouldn’t be discriminated against just because we choose to live in the southern suburbs.”

Christies Beach commuter Llewellyn Jones, 55, said the Government’s justification for cutting services on his local 741 and 750 routes – that the services run parallel to the Seaford train line – was inaccurate.

It’s not a parallel service at all if you look on a map,” he said.

“Those bus routes actually have quite a different group of people using them, so a lot of people rely on the services at Christies Beach to access a range of community organisations in the Christies Beach area; people living with disabilities; aged people, families with young children.

“They need to be able to access Christies Beach and Noarlunga Centre and by cutting these services it actually impacts quite severely on those people who are already transport disadvantaged.”

Morphett Vale mother-of-two Kim Lord, 44, described the cuts as “disgraceful”.

“I’m devastated by it all to be honest,” she said.

“I have two children that access buses to go everywhere at the moment.

“We don’t have the luxury of a car...I’m currently about to have surgery, so public transport for me to get to my appointments.”

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas urged the Government to take heed, saying “public transport is for people, not profit”.

“Of course it is true that the first bus of the morning at 5.30am is less likely to be full than the peak hour service but what that doesn’t take into account is that the people that are catching that service probably rely on it more than anybody else,” he said.

“These are shift workers, getting to work in a hospital as a nurse; people getting into town early to cook breakfasts or make coffees; people who are going into town to clean offices.

“This is just the beginning though - The 1000 cuts to different services that take effect on the 27th of January are only a small fraction of the $46 million worth of cuts that (Premier) Steven Marshall is determined to impose upon commuters throughout South Australia.”

Transport Minister Stephan Knoll said the Government was “committed to delivering these changes”.

“We have bus routes that run right alongside train routes; We’ve got bus routes that have an average of zero passengers that sit on them on a daily basis,” he said.

“This is not good use of taxpayers’ money.

“These bus changes will not affect 99.7 per cent of public transport users.”