News
Chadstone’s failure in Public Transport – Boxing Day
Tue, 25 Dec 2018 05:08 pm
By Admin
Boxing day last year (2017) was a debacle when it came to public transport at Chadstone –
Daniel Bowen even blogged about the systemic failures and poor planning on behalf of Chadstone’s Centre Management and PTV.
For a long time, the Centre invested heavily to cater for one mode of transport – the humble passenger vehicle. Only in recent years has it done anything about public transport, being the new bus interchange adjacent to the David Jones carpark. However, the priority given to public transport is still heavily dwarfed by the ever increasing number of carpaking spaces.
Boxing Day 2017 saw the centre clogged with cars, so much so that buses struggled to travel to and from the interchange facility. A lack of dedicated bus lanes aggravated the situation. Some bus operators even bypassed the Centre altogether during the peak, leaving many passengers stranded at the interchange.
The blame is on both parties – firstly, Chadstone’s failure to cater properly for public transport, and secondly PTV for failing to run extra services. Had the frequency of public transport on these critical days not been so dismal, more people would be encouraged to take public transport rather than clogging up the carparks and delaying buses. It would appear there is no common sense when it comes to important events such as Boxing day.
Update 26 Dec 12:30pm:
Centre Manager Michael Whitehead said more than 190,000 customers were expected. "It's almost an event in itself" Whitehead told 3AW.
More than 45 Traffic Controllers were on site to direct traffic to and from the carparks.
