Residents in Melbourne’s booming west are facing a daily commute from hell thanks to our failing public transport system.
It’s so bad, they’re now accusing the State Government of abandoning them. @_StephAnderson #9News pic.twitter.com/9SzaNAlcSi
— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) March 7, 2024
An Indian migrant has blamed Victoria’s state government for crowds on his morning commute, but others say mass immigration is the underlying problem.
George Jose told 9 News that even the early morning trains from Tarneit in Melbourne’s West are packed, and video footage shows carriages crammed with passengers, the majority of whom appear to be of non-Australian background.
“Everyone is going for a battle (sic),” George said.
“I don’t think I deserve this kind of treatment, just because I’m staying this side of the city.”
Another resident of the area, Preet Singh, said locals were waiting too long for much needed infrastructure upgrades while construction on Melbourne’s Suburban Rail Loop was taking place only in the city’s east.
“Majority of people will be well dead by the time it comes to Werribee so it doesn’t solve anything for us,” he said.
But while some social media users were sympathetic, others blamed Australia’s mass immigration program, which saw a record 737,000 immigrants arrive during the last year.
“Existing infrastructure unless upgraded cannot handle the increase in immigration clearly,” said one person.
“Out of control immigration is the problem. There’s no way the public transport infrastructure can keep up with these insane levels of growth,” another said.
One commenter on the 9 News X post said that Mr Jose’s gripe was like “buying next to an airport and then complaining it’s noisy” while another wrote:
“I love how they come here and complain. It’s probably way better than their own country but no, it’s still not good enough. The entitlement”
Another simply asked: “What country is this?”
According to the 2021 Census, Tarneit was just 37.5% Australian-born, and only 10.3% of residents had both parents born in Australia. 28.8% were born in India.
In 2011 the figures were 54.6% Australian-born, 30.4% with both parents born in Australian, and 7.9% born in India.
