Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to share with the House today some very exciting news in the electorate of Lalor: the opening on 21 June of the Regional Rail Link. This has been a much awaited opening. I have caught trains myself across the last eight weeks whenever I have had to travel to the city so that I could listen to commuters and see what they had to say about the Regional Rail Link, and the excitement is palpable. This will mean 200 extra services between Geelong and the city across the week. It will mean, in peak hour, trains every 10 minutes on the new line that will be servicing Wyndham Vale and Tarneit. This will do lots of things for locals. It will maximise our use of public transport. People are hoping that it will reduce the need for people to stand on the Werribee-line trains in peak hour in the mornings and afternoons, because people will be using this other line. It also connects locals with jobs in other employment areas like Deer Park, Ardeer and Sunshine, which have been incredibly difficult to reach in public transport in the past. We are also celebrating the fact that we will be getting double-decker buses to connect the buses to the trains in Lalor after 21 June. This is really exciting. It also demonstrates so clearly that this party, the Labor Party, stands for public transport.