Chronic Car Parking Problems for Melbourne rail commuters

I used to commute by train to work in Melbourne, but since my previous employer started at 8am, I never had a problem finding a parking space. Judging by my experience today, I'm thankful I no longer have to.

I had a meeting in Geelong at midday so I thought I'd take the train from Werribee. I arrived at 10.15am for a 10.27am train. I searched for a parking spot for ten minutes, and found zilch. Nada. Nothing. It must be a common problem here at Werribee, looking at how many cars were parked illegally, and right across the city. 

The Age wrote a piece last year saying commuters were 'being fined in their thousands because they cannot find a car parking space.' In fact they quoted Werribee as the worst affected, with over 1100 fines issued last year. 

Sure, as the article says, more car parks are needed. But why are so many taking their car to the train station in the first place, just to leave it there all day (and with a high chance of getting it broken into?) Like me today for example. Especially when the bus fare to the station is included in one single fare. And there lies the issue. "The average bus frequency is 30 minutes, it's far too low to convince people to leave their cars at home.'' If there's a bus service at all. If I'd wanted to bus to Werribee, just 15 minutes away by car, I'd have had to catch at least two buses. Unbelievable. There appears no commitment by the government to get the bus network fixed.

And they say Australia has some of the highest green house gas emissions in the world, busting its emissions from transport by a gas guzzling 45% in the last 5 years. I wonder why.

Meanwhile we commuters will just keep getting up earlier and earlier, and still use our cars.