Moonee Valley City Council says residents near the Melbourne Showgrounds are facing traffic “bedlam” this week unless the state government offers free public transport for the last weekend of the Melbourne Royal Show.
After two years of hiatus, the Royal Show has attracted record crowd numbers but residents of nearby Ascot Vale have complained of unprecedented traffic and gridlock.
Stalled traffic on Langs Road on Sunday morning.Credit: Stephen Rowley
For the first time in more than a decade, the show will coincide with a 12,000-person-strong race meet at Flemington on Saturday, meaning no on-site parking will be available to an expected sell-out show crowd of 50,000.
Moonee Valley Council said nearly 1000 tickets were issued to drivers parking illegally in residential permit spots, on nature strips and across driveways last long weekend. Victoria Police was also called in to direct traffic to clear tram tracks.
Ascot Vale resident Richard Turnbull has lived on Charles Street, 50 metres from the showground boundary, for 20 years. He said he had never seen anything like the traffic that engulfed his suburb last weekend.
Turnbull said the first day of the show, which coincided with a Thursday public holiday for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, was the worst, as on-site parking at the showgrounds quickly filled and drivers began crawling suburban streets looking for rare permit-free parking.
Richard Turnbull has lived near the showgrounds for 20 years and said he’s never seen traffic as bad for the Royal Show as last weekend.Credit: Eddie Jim
“It was absolutely gridlocked,” he said. “I was trying to get home at 11.30am after being out in the morning and I got to one street away from home on Doncaster Street and no one was moving. You couldn’t even do a U-ey and get out of it.”
Turnbull said he ended up leaving his car a kilometre away, walking home to get his parking permit sticker, walking back to the car and then home again, in which time the traffic hardly moved at all.
He said some drivers heading to the show were getting so frustrated they were intentionally parking in illegal spots and walking on foot to the grounds.
“Somebody who parked outside my place copped a $110 ticket,” he said.
Congested residential streets around the showgrounds last weekend.Credit: Todd Monaghan
Moonee Valley council, which does not capture Flemington Racecourse or the showgrounds but does oversee Ascot Vale, rushed through an urgent motion at its Wednesday night council meeting to call on the state government for help.
“It’s the only way that we’re not going to have bedlam around Ascot Vale and that will potentially lead to some really unsafe outcomes,” said Independent councillor Rose Iser, who put forward the motion to request that public transport to the show be made free this weekend and more trains, trams and buses are put on to accommodate the crowds.
Iser suggested part of the problem could have been that people are using their cars more now than before the pandemic.
Wyndham Vale resident Goldy Kumar, 42, spent nearly two hours in traffic just outside the showgrounds last Thursday trying to get into the on-site parking at the racecourse.
“The line to get into the show from Ballarat Road was ridiculous,” he said.
“Only two people [were] traffic managing the area upon entry. This was after 100 minutes roughly, mind you. Once we entered the showground premises, we were in queues waiting to pay for parking. This ordeal was further 40 minutes, roughly.
“Whilst in the queue, we saw pedestrians were walking on the opposite road towards the show parking area with oncoming traffic. No one in the vicinity monitoring [or] patrolling the area.”
Kumar said his family would have used public transport if it was free for ticket holders and said show organisers needed to do more to communicate that driving was not recommended. He also said he thought show capacity needed to be reviewed.
Pedestrians walk around idle Melbourne Show traffic on Langs Road on the weekend.Credit: Pea Scout
Moonee Valley Mayor Samantha Byrne said she wanted to see the state government make public transport free for ticket holders in future years.
A spokesperson for the state government did not answer whether public transport would be made free for show-goers, saying only that “we encourage Victorians travelling to the Melbourne Royal Show to take public transport” and that extra train and tram services were already running throughout the school holiday period.
Between Thursday and Sunday, there were an average of just under 11,000 Myki touch-ons at Showgrounds station each day, according to figures from the Department of Transport. During that period, there were at least 50,000 patrons who attended the show daily, according to show organisers.
A spokeswoman for the Melbourne Royal Show said there would be signage around the showgrounds on Saturday telling drivers there was no parking available in the area and they should drive to Moonee Valley Racecourse instead.
“A free shuttle bus service [from Moonee Valley Racecourse] will shuttle patrons to and from the venue with the bus drop-off located on Langs Road,” she said.
“We are communicating directly with the purchasers of the tickets for the day to advise them that where possible, they should utilise public transport, in particular, Metro trains. Our website and ticketing platform advises people of the restricted parking.”
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