2ND LEONGATHA COMMUNITY FORUM DISCUSSION: PUBLIC TRANSPORT VICTORIA – REGIONAL NETWORK DEVELOPMENT PLAN (22/10/2015). The 2nd Public Transport Victoria Regional Network Development Plan Community Forum at the South Gippsland Shire Council Chambers in Leongatha was a constructive meeting with approximately 40 guests attending throughout the night. Guests included Gippsland Regional Development Committee Chair Richard Elkington, staff from Public Transport Victoria staff, V/Line Traralgon, local community committee members and business stakeholders and South Gippsland Shire Council Mayor Jeanette Harding and Councillor Andrew McEwen. The first half of the forum was dedicated towards everyone participating in an open discussion about the submissions raised at the previous Community Workshop on Thursday the 16th of July and also included online contributions. The night was conducted by Gippsland Regional Development Committee Chair Richard Elkington, who outlined the processes that will be taken towards preparing an integrated public transport plan for South Gippsland and surrounding municipalities over the next 20 years with an emphasis to ‘provide more reliability and improvements to customer experience’. The main issues raised and heavily discussed included: *Investigating the return of passenger rail services to Leongatha. *The need for more bus services between Melbourne and South Gippsland, ideally 16 return services terminating at Leongatha and half continuing onto Foster and Yarram. *Introducing express services to and from Melbourne. *Introducing township bus services in Korumburra, Leongatha and Wonthaggi. *A new bus service from Foster to Sale. *Making ticketing more accessible and efficient. *Improving bus shelter facilities. *Improving connectivity between regional buses, V/Line rail services and metropolitan forms of transport. *Local community bus services for smaller townships and rural communities that can make commuting to V/Line bus and rail services and major townships more accessible. *Road congestion and maintenance issues on major freeways (The Monash Freeway), highways (The South Gippsland Highway) and major aerial roads between Melbourne and South Gippsland. Co-Chairs of the South & West Gippsland Transport Group Max Semken and Cr. Andrew McEwen both played a major role in initiating the discussion with Richard Elkington by emphasising that the reinstatement of rail services to Leongatha is the primary goal of the Regional Network Development Plan for the region and that there will need to be significant improvements made to public transport in South Gippsland in the interim that can be achieved by working with the community, local municipalities and the state government. An integrated transport network that makes South Gippsland, Bass Coast and Wellington Shires more accessible to neighbouring outer South Eastern suburban Melbourne municipalities such as Cardinia, Casey, Baw Baw and the Mornington Peninsula and major townships that namely include Cranbourne, Pakenham, Dandenong and Frankston are all seen as critical towards improving economic prosperity in the region. These messages were well received by most attendees, except for a ‘couple’ of individuals, which meant that the time allocated towards the open discussion had to be reduced once order was restored. The rest of the Community Forum was used as an opportunity to have individual discussions with attendees and officials and most people stayed until the closing time at 7pm. Overall, the Community Forum was a success and provided a clearer perspective on the action and planning that will be taking place over the next few months. The South & West Gippsland Transport will continue to maintain regular contact and negotiations with Public Transport Victoria and the Regional Network Development Plan Committee. The next course of action will be to host a South & West Gippsland Transport Group meeting in November, where all supporters are welcome to attend. Keep posted as details about this meeting, dealing with the current issues affecting our website (http://www.swgt.org.au/) and updates regarding the petition will be outlined over the next few weeks. Continue your support by encouraging family, friends and colleagues to sign our petition on Change.org and join our campaign by getting involved on our Facebook page, 'Victorian Government: Return The Leongatha Pass/South Gippsland Train'. Message from the South & West Gippsland Transport Group: Co-Chair’s Cr. Andrew McEwen and Max Semken and Media Manager Chris Cantlon. “The South & West Gippsland Transport Group aims to improve public transport. It is advocating the return of rail services to Leongatha, to establish a rail loop between Cranbourne and Pakenham and to improve bus services between towns and Melbourne”.