Low public transport on Tasmania’s east coast limits access to jobs, services

Kayla Newton loves living on Tasmania’s picturesque east coast but getting her family around can be a daily battle.

Public transport is limited and jobs and services are spread across the region.

“My husband doesn’t drive and the buses that are available wouldn’t get him to work on time, so I have to drive a 40km round trip to drop him off and pick him up,” she said.

“That’s on top of anything else that I need to do for work or as part of my volunteering.”

Ms Newton said her fortnightly fuel bill could reach $300 as she got her family to school and work and ran errands.

“Of course some of it is to be expected living rurally,” she said.

“But for a lot of people the cost of getting to work is more than what they’d make in a short shift or more than they can afford.”

Elderly and unlicensed ‘dependent’ on services

Delivering transportation services is tough in a region with a small and dispersed population and in a state with one of the highest levels of car ownership in the country.

A recent local transport survey found a third of respondents needed to carpool and 57 per cent expected to use public transport.

Fingal Valley Neighbourhood House manager Greg Barnes is acutely aware of how elderly and unlicensed residents can fall through the cracks.

He said his service opened its own store when the only supermarket in town closed.

“We started off as a small service for the community and it’s grown in size because people can’t travel into St Marys all the time to get their necessities and essential items,” he said.

Mr Barnes said the house and its volunteers also managed several community cars so residents could access services and attend medical appointments in regional centres, Launceston and Hobart.

Resident Keri Webb said many older locals were dependent on the community cars, which were generally used every day.

“So they rely on friends, on the house, on volunteer drivers.”

Jobseekers stranded without transport

A lack of transport options can also be a major barrier for job seekers, according to Community Transport Services Tasmania chief executive Lyndon Stevenson.

“A high per cent of people looking for work don’t have a driver’s licence or are unable to get public transport or there’s not family or friends to actually give them transport,” he said.

One solution could be a transportation service run by his organisation called Area Connect, which combines the scale of public transport with the flexibility of a taxi.

Job seekers can use the Area Connect “jobs bus” to get to work, or to be connected to existing transport options.

“It’s responsive, it’s very nimble and very flexible,” Mr Stevenson said.

Area Connect was launched in Derwent Valley and will be expanded to regions including the east coast this year as part of a $20.5 million state government package.

Workforce Growth Minister Roger Jeansch said he hoped the service would help more than 2,000 Tasmanians get into work over the next three years.

“Area Connect fills a gap where there are no other convenient transport options, or when regular transport services are not running, so people can get to where they need to be for work or learning,” he said.

“As each service comes online it will be tailored to specific community needs and integrate with other public transport options to make journeys as seamless as possible.”

Locals understand that you can’t live in a rural area and expect city-level services, but mayor Mick Tucker believe these initiatives will go some way to addressing the transportation challenge.

“When you’re in a rural community, if you can get to where you’ve got to be whether it’s go to school or turn up to your job, guess what, shanks pony doesn’t always work out,” he said.

“Small communities punch above their weight and we try to make sure no one is left behind.”