Established in 1902 as the
proudly serving Wyndham
10 JULY, 2024
Let’s run
Point Cook Runners club president Stephen Fee with club members at Saltwater Reserve. (Damjan Janevski) 417448_01
Normally clubs put a call out for new members when they’re struggling for numbers or when they’re new themselves. The Point Cook Runners Club is neither of these things, yet is still on the lookout for people who want to join, particularly those from other parts of Wyndham. Established 10 years ago, Point Cook Runners now has about 100 members, aged from their early teens to late 60s and running in all sorts of events and distances. “It’s a bit of everything,” club president Stephen Fee said. “We have about 50 members who do parkrun on Saturdays and also volunteer. We have people who can do a 17-minute parkrun or a 55-minute parkrun.” Like a lot of other running clubs, Point Cook Runners have benefited from parkrun, the social running phenomenon which has exploded in popularity in recent years. “One hundred per cent,” said Mr Fee when asked if it had boosted their numbers. “Parkrun’s a massive thing for running clubs because it gets people started and then when they get a little more confident they join a club.” If that club is Point Cook Runners, new members will have access to five Athletics Victoria accredited coaches who run sessions on Tuesday evenings, either at Point Cook’s Saltwater Reserve in winter, or at locations all across Wyndham during the summer. Details: pointcookrunners@gmail. com, pointcookrunners.com.au
Call for rail plan revival By Cade Lucas A leading transport expert is calling for the western rail plan to be revived following the release of a report which found almost half of Melbourne residents lacked access to public transport. An analysis conducted by the Climate Council, Next Stop Suburbia: Making Shared Transport Work for Everyone in Aussie Cities, highlights how a lack of public transport and a reliance on cars was creating congestion and pollution. While the report found 52 per cent of Melbourne’s population did have access to
regular public transport, the second best result among Australian cities behind Sydney, access dropped dramatically more than 15km from the CBD, an area that includes much of the western suburbs. Institute for Sensible Transport associate director Liam Davies, peer reviewed the report. He said a long term solution for public transport access in Melbourne’s west would be a rail line connecting Werribee and Wyndham Vale stations. Connecting the Werribee line and Regional Rail Link was part of the western rail plan announced in 2018, but which is now in limbo
after successive budget cuts. Mr Davies said building the Werribee to Wyndham Vale rail link would be transformative for commuters in Wyndham, Brimbank and Melton. “It would give a direct quick connection for people living in Sunshine to Werribee that doesn’t involve driving or getting a bus and being stuck in traffic,” he said. “It would also connect out to some of the areas near Caroline Springs which would then connect out to Melton and what that would do is it would strengthen both activity centres (Werribee and Sunshine) as employment hubs
by allowing more people to go to and from those areas, so it would build the interrelation between the two hubs while strengthening each one individually.” A federal government spokesperson said the government was investing $30 million toward the Western Rail Plan – further planning project. “This investment aims to identify ways to improve access to transport for more Melbourne residents, supporting a reduction in congestion and travel times through better passenger rail service,” the spokesperson said. The state government was contacted for comment.
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