Skip to content | Change text size
 

Students join the push for better public transport

28 July 2008

Monash University, together with Knox City Council, is using the latest technology and social networking trends to help lobby for a rail connection to the university's Clayton campus and surrounding suburbs.

Knox Mayor Cr Jim Penna and Monash University's Vice-President (Administration) Peter Marshall today launched a new on-line petition via a new Facebook group called pt4me2.

Staff and students are able to log-in and call for a State Government commissioned feasibility study into public transport in the area.

Monash University wants a proposed underground rail line from Footscray to Caulfield to be extended to include a line past the Clayton campus terminating at Rowville in Melbourne's outer-east.

Mr Marshall said the University had taken a leadership role in the development of a transport strategy for the Clayton campus, but support was needed from the State Government to improve transport options.

"Poor public transport forces the majority of staff and students to come to the Clayton campus by car," Mr Marshall said.

"Monash University supports the need to extend rail services to the Clayton campus and onto Rowville, so we can better serve students, staff, the community and industry partners.

"Students are switched on to this need and we encourage them to log on to Facebook and sign the petition to support us in our endeavours."

Knox Mayor Cr Jim Penna said the petition made it easy to send a message to the State Government.

He hoped thousands of Monash University staff and students would register with the petition.

"It's time for the State Government to get serious about public transport in the East and conduct its own feasibility study," Cr Penna said.

"The rail extension should be on the agenda -- a 2004 feasibility study outlined the practicalities of the Rowville rail extension."

The University has made the call in response to the Sir Rod Eddington's East-West Link Needs Assessment Report.

The Monash University submission to the State Government said the Clayton campus generated 21,000 one-way trips each day due to a lack of public transport.

Mr Marshall said there was a need to support sustainable alternatives to motor vehicle transport including increased public transport options and development of urban areas conducive to walking and cycling.

He said the Clayton campus was based within a "knowledge centre" which includes the Australian Synchrotron and the CSIRO, and played a key role in the development and promotion of the Victorian economy.

The submission said the extension to the rail network would provide:

  • faster access to the city during peak times;
  • single-mode connection to the city;
  • less traffic congestion;
  • reduced carbon emissions;
  • easier access for staff and students to the Clayton campus; and
  • greater access to the area for non-drivers.

To access the petition see the Facebook group or the pt4me2 website. See also Monash University's submission (pdf 327kb).

For more information or copies of the Monash University submission please contact Shaunnagh O'Loughlin, Media and Communications, Monash University on +61 3 9903 4843.