A GROUP of senior and disabled Mt Hawthorn residents escalated a dispute with Transperth over bus routes to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, but with no success.
SANDBAG (senior and disabled bus action group) has been up in arms since Transperth diverted route 15 in August last year, leaving a swathe of suburbia around Brady and Tasman streets poorly covered.
“Transperth’s drastic change to the number 15 produced an immediate impediment to those of the most vulnerable in our community – those who require assistance for their mobility,” SANDBAG convenor Tad Krysiak wrote in a submission Parliament after the change.
Transperth introduced a temporary route 14 to cover the affected area, but it’s to be cancelled this week due to low patronage.
Loaded consultation
SANDBAG claims the PTA’s consultation process was loaded, producing different results to its own survey.
Transport Minister Dean Nalder told parliament 50 per cent of submissions supported the change to route 15, 30 per cent were neutral, and 20 per cent negative.
“…Transperth has many competing demands for services”, Mr Nalder told Eleni Evangel, who’d raised the issue for SANDBAG.
He said the change provided a more direct connection between the new Perth bus-port and the Glendalough train station.
“That’s no reason to change an 80 year old bus route for some bloody transport fetish that’s fashionable right now…connecting train stations?” Mr Krysiak thundered.
Mr Krysiak’s 88-year-old mother Eugenia launched this week’s Supreme Court injunction, but on Wednesday the judge found there weren’t grounds to stop the withdrawal of route 14.
by TRILOKESH CHANMUGAM
Perth Voice Interactive 
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