By DANIELLE GALVIN
A DISABLED Pakenham man was told to wait for an hour for the next bus after the one he wanted to travel on was not wheelchair accessible.
John Copeland said he was hoping to travel on the 926 bus from Pakenham station to Fountain Gate recently when a bus with steps and no wheelchair access arrived.
He said the bus driver was “lovely” and very helpful, but in the end, he was told he had to wait for the next bus to come in the hope that he could travel on it.
“The bus had been replaced with one that had steps, but on the timetable it says it has a disabled logo which means the route is wheelchair accessible,” Mr Copeland said.
“That means it is supposed to have wheelchair access.”
Mr Copeland said the bus driver radioed the company to find out what had happened.
“It just made me frustrated that they were running buses that were not accessible for people in wheelchairs,” he said.
“It’s not the first time – and unless people know about it, it might happen again.”
Cardinia Transit Lines depot manager Cameron Nicholls said out of the 38 buses, only two were not wheelchair accessible.
He said every 18 years the buses get replaced, and one of the two buses would be “retired” later this year to make way for a better, improved fleet.
“I’m guessing that one of the spare buses was used due to break downs, or vandalism,” he said.
Mr Nicholls said most of the time the spare buses were not used, but occasionally, the company had to deploy them due to “unforeseen circumstances” but this was rare.
“It does say in the timetable that the buses are wheelchair accessible, except when something happens that we can’t avoid,” he said.
Mr Copeland said a similar incident had happened the week before, and the bus only runs every hour.
“It’s not like I can just catch any bus,” he said.
