Entrance to Cardinia Road railway station

Cardinia calls for integrated, well-planned public transport services across our diverse shire.

Public transport is vital to local communities, supporting access to essential health, education and professional services, transporting workers to and from jobs, and bringing visitors to our region.

However, public transport does not always provide the support our rapidly growing community needs.

Current service timetabling fails to provide good connection between routes and enough frequency, significantly impacting smaller towns and communities accessing larger centres.

Local bus routes have not adequately kept pace with development, and a township bus route review is critically overdue.

Further government investment in a number of important projects is needed to reduce the community’s reliance on vehicle use.

Cardinia calls for investment to create an airport in Melbourne’s south east.

Smart and timely decisions on critical infrastructure are needed now.

The case for Melbourne’s South East Airport was identified in Victoria’s metropolitan planning strategy, Plan Melbourne, to help rebalance growth between Melbourne and regional Victoria and ensure a more liveable and connected state and city that’s globally competitive.

The South East Airport will reduce the need for cross-city travel, ease congestion for the city centre, and fully utilise existing road and rail assets.

The South East Airport will provide a closer air travel option for more than 2 million Victorians, develop thousands of new industries and jobs in Melbourne’s south east, and ensure Australia’s largest cluster of food and manufacturing industries remains globally competitive.

Cardinia is calling for an integrated transport strategy that will future-proof the connectivity of our bus services.

We need funding to improve and upgrade key bus connection services right across the shire.

Vital connections that need immediate action include:

  • increased frequency for Service 838 - Emerald to Fountain Gate Shopping Centre via Beaconsfield and Berwick
  • increased frequency for Service 840 - Pakenham to Gembrook
  • increased frequency for Regional Service - Pakenham to Koo Wee Rup, which also requires a timetable adjustment so that it connects with the Pakenham train line
  • new routes and extra stops for Service 928 - Pakenham station to Cardinia station
  • new routes and extra stops for Service 925 - Pakenham station to Lakeside via The Avenue
  • the 981 NightRider to travel all the way to Pakenham
  • more buses to service our new and old estates in Pakenham Officer and Lang Lang.