From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 27 October

Perhaps we should halt, for all-time, the ill-conceived notion to vandalise the beautiful Sturt Street Boulevard and turn our attention to fixing Ballarat’s unsatisfactory bus service.

THE timetable on offer is, by any standard, inadequate. There are better services in down-town Mumbai – and that is in no-way pejorative. I am reminded of Mumbai every time I see the glorious building on the corner of Sturt and Lydiard Streets, which highlight the ugliness of the Commonwealth Bank on the opposite corner. One would like to meet the person responsible for allowing developers to destroy the original. Equally, there is a number of buildings surrounding Her Majesty’s Theatre, the ugliness of which lies beyond my descriptive capabilities.

Ballarat was promised a revolutionary bus service which has been in place for two years. Regardless of government propaganda to the contrary, it is a dismal failure. Regular users will affirm it falls far-short of what was pledged, and criticisms have been dismissed, or ignored.

The problems are multifarious. It would interesting to know the punctuality success rate. Certainly, the number 11 Wendouree service, on which I travel regularly, has not once been on-time from the Bridge Street stop. It can be anything from five to 15 minutes late. Many of the bus routes are so circuitous they more resemble a Cook’s tour than a large, and ever-growing, regional city bus service. In response to complaints, we are told, disingenuously, by the Labor upper house MP Jaala Pulford, how the government has put more buses on the road. Indeed, that is correct; however, they have reduced the number of bus routes; a folly which they seem determinedly unwilling to acknowledge. Ballarat does not need fewer bus routes, it needs more, and more regularly. The growth of Ballarat has reached a point where the majority of services should run every 20 minutes. Hourly services discourage customers from using the facility. They are a hangover from when Ballarat was a sleepy country town and should be replaced. Also, there are those routes which are travelled in only one direction. That is almost as absurd as the failure to duplicate the rail line between Melbourne and Ballarat and to implement an outdated system of spurs. It is an obvious: a seriously delayed train, needing to pass to continue, is going to leave passengers stranded on a spur, waiting, like patience on monument.

It begs the question: Who in their right mind would locate a bus terminus on the other side of railway boom gates? I would not presume to insult your intelligence by articulating the bleeding obvious consequence. It is almost as preposterous as deeming surplus to requirement, and selling, railway station land. One-hundred years hence, the Ballarat Station will require up to eight platforms to accommodate the population growth and its transport demands. Someone will ponder the wisdom, and shake their heads incredulously at the lack of vision displayed by those who made the lamentable decision.

Public transport is the heart of a city. While Ballarat is slightly smaller than many international regional cities, it is fails miserably when it comes to its public transport.

It is time for the department to dispense with its defensive diatribe in supporting a system which fails to serve its purpose. To those who use it, its shortcomings are flagrantly obvious. Everyone is aware of the amount of money which has been spent. It is no more than was promised, nor expected. It is time to give the travelling public a service which allows them to move around the city with a greater freedom, and regularity! Unlike previously, and importantly, the service should be designed and implemented by those who live and work in Ballarat; those who are cognisant of its drawbacks – which are numerous!

Roland can be heard every Monday morning at 10.30 on radio 3BA, if the buses run on time. He can be contacted via [email protected].