May 4th, 2024Lily explores big benefits of using public transport …
Words: Kevin Childs
Public transport is a mystery for many people in Central Victoria. Yet nine buses leave Daylesford on most weekdays to link with trains to Melbourne and Ballarat.
Four go to Woodend, three to Ballarat and one to Ballan and Castlemaine, with an extra one to these last two towns on Fridays.
What’s more, concession fares for people such as seniors are $5.30 for unlimited weekday travel on train, tram or bus across Melbourne or the state. This drops to $3.60 at the weekend. And you can throw in four free travel days a year.
These insights come from Daylesford’s Lily Walden who has passionately taken up the cause of public transport by running free seminars for 70 people over five months and talking to local councillors and transport officials.
Her background in marketing services quickly becomes clear as her presentation starts. Up come reasons for using public transport: the main street of Daylesford is choked with cars, wildlife, the cost of
fuel, potholes and perhaps an attraction to beer or wine.
Then there is the ferocious freeway traffic. And the ease to reach places such as South Melbourne beach, the Victoria Market, Melbourne Zoo and films at the old Pentridge Prison.
Where it gets tricky, however, is that there are three transport ticket systems. V/Line runs trains and buses to the State border, regional services operate between V/Line and the Metropolitan system, which covers the city’s trains, trams and buses.
Daylesford passengers just need to ask for a regional extension ticket for their return journey at a station where they leave their bus.
And for people going to Ballarat for medical appointments there is even a medical zone bus. Daylesford’s buses leave from opposite the CFA in Bridport St, with the first leaving for Ballan at 6.15am. Three minutes later the Woodend bus leaves, with the Ballarat bus going at 7.15.
There is also a 7.25 to Ballarat, 10.23 to Woodend, 2pm to Castlemaine, 3.18 to Woodend, 4.45 to Ballarat and 5.23 to Woodend.
Lily explains that someone wanting to shop in Melbourne or Ballarat can easily be back in Daylesford by mid-afternoon.
And for people wanting help travelling, the century-old, free Travellers Aid offers volunteers and other support to get to appointments, events, work or education. Showers, luggage stores, and change tables are among the facilities at Southern Cross.
“They are available for everybody,” says Lily.
If public transport is not your thing, you may prefer a simpler, more energetic form of travel and do what Lily once did: walk. From Ballarat to Bendigo, as well as Hepburn to Castlemaine.
