I have been campaigning for a long time now for improved public transport services in Adelaide and South Australia as a whole. Public transport is a very important and essential service. Many thousands of people rely solely on public transport as there is no other option available to them.
Improving the services is important and should be a priority of the Weatherill Government however, AdelaideMetro services should be expanded to service area's that are either poorly serviced or in some cases not serviced at all and this is despite their relative close proximity to the Adelaide CBD.
Currently, AdelaideMetro services operate to Gawler in the North which is approximately 40 kms from the CBD, Mount Barker in the East which is 31 kms from the City and then to Sellicks Beach in the South which is almost 60 kms from the City. You can see that there is a huge discrepancy in service coverage and people in the East and North could feel hard done by.
Using the 60 km Southern distance as a benchmark you would see AdelaideMetro services operating to:
Strathalbyn (currently country fares)
Clarendon
Kangarilla
Mount Compass
Brukunga
Callington
Gumeracha
Birdwood
Kersbrook
One Tree Hill
Mount Pleasant
Williamstown
Freeling
Lyndoch
Roseworthy
Mallala
Two Wells
Dublin
Many of these towns are well within the current boundary but for some inexplicable reason the Government has forgotten them. The residents who live in these area's pay taxes just like anyone else and are deserving of improved public transport. Currently, the people in Strathalbyn which is 55 kms from the City have to pay 'Country' fares and only get serviced by a handful of buses on weekdays, yet people in Sellicks Beach which is about the same distance from the CBD have hourly AdelaideMetro services 7 days a week.
The unfairness of our system needs to be rectified and soon.
