Melbourne’s outer suburbs left behind with poor public transport

Large swathes of Melbourne have been left behind by years of inaction, with figures showing the number of suburbs forgotten by public transport has grown.

Large swathes of Melbourne have been left behind by years of inaction, with figures showing the number of suburbs forgotten by public transport has grown in the past two decades.

A higher share of the city’s population now walks, cycles or catches public transport to work than two decades ago.

But a Sunday Herald Sun analysis of Census data reveals the rapidly expanding urban fringe has bucked this trend as poor infrastructure has created traffic bottlenecks and large journey times for motorists.

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Melbourne's outer suburbs have been left behind by poor public transport infrastructure.

In 1996, Greenvale, Rowville, Hampton Park and Carrum Downs were the Melb­ourne suburbs with the highest percentage of residents who drive to work, but over the past two decades an outer ring of traffic gridlock has expanded to areas such as Melton, Croydon North and Cranbourne.

More than 72 per cent of employed residents in these suburbs now commute by car.

University of Melbourne transport planning lecturer Dr John Stone said this change meant journey times had surged outside of peak hour.

“On the weekends people are finding congestion similar to a weekday afternoon,” he said.

“It’s really quite alarming … transport disadvantage is growing in the outer suburbs.

“We basically haven’t kept pace with suburban growth …

“The conventional wisdom is people need to be within 15 minutes of a good rapid transport service.

Gridlock is common in the city, but it is increasingly becoming a problem in the outer suburbs too.

“You can put a railway out to Mernda but a lot of people still can’t get to the train.”

It comes weeks after a ­report by Infrastructure Australia warned Melbourne’s outer suburbs were being “left behind”, with many commuters forced to travel more than 80 minutes to work.

Dr Stone said transport disadvantage affected cost of living for everyday Victorians.

“People are spending a large proportion of their income on housing and transport,” he said.

In 2016, 74.4 per cent of ­employed people in Melbourne travelled to work by car, compared to 77.9 per cent in 1996.