Joahnna's Beveridge Station Plea

I am writing to urgently advocate for the construction of a dedicated train station in Beveridge.

My husband and I are both healthcare professionals working in the city, and we represent a rapidly growing demographic of working families in this suburb who are currently facing an unsustainable, stressful, and deeply flawed daily commute.

As essential workers, our schedules are rigid. I work long shifts, typically from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. Despite the early hour, the Hume Freeway is heavily congested by 6:00 am, making driving into the city a deeply frustrating and unpredictable option.

Our public transport alternatives are severely inadequate:

• The Craigieburn Route: The closest metro station is in Craigieburn. While it is technically a 15-minute drive, bottleneck traffic along Donnybrook Road routinely doubles this commute to 30 minutes or more just to reach the platform.

• The V/Line Limitation: While the regional line passes nearby, the timetable is spaced too far apart. It completely fails to accommodate early starters or late finishers, making it useless for shift workers.

• Conflicting Rosters: Because my husband and I are both nurses, our shift patterns rarely align perfectly. When our start or finish times differ, one of us is occasionally forced to pay for expensive rideshare services to or from Craigieburn just to connect to the metro train network. Due to current petrol prices, tolls, and skyrocketing car expenses, maintaining a dual-car household is almost financially impossible for us. As a result, one of us must highly rely on public transport to get to work.

Beveridge is experiencing an undeniable population boom. It is filled with working professionals, essential workers, and tradespeople who commute to Melbourne daily. Relying on an over-congested freeway and a bottlenecked road network to reach a neighbouring suburb's station is an outdated model that no longer works.

Building a train station in Beveridge is the most sensible, economically sound, and necessary next step to support this fast-growing community, reduce freeway gridlock, and give essential workers a reliable way to get to work.

Thank you for your time and your urgent consideration of this vital infrastructure project.

Joahnna

Healthcare professional and Beveridge resident