Melbourne Soundwave Public Transport Issues Flare Up [Updated]

This coming weekend's Soundwave Festival event in Melbourne is facing a crisis of commuting in the wake of news that there will be no extra public transport services directly to or from the Melbourne Showgrounds, where the two-day concert tour is being held.

In a statement, organisers blamed the lack of additional transport on "other citywide commitments" that resulted in Public Transport Victoria advising that "no public transport will be made available for the 2015 Soundwave event".

"This includes all train, tram and bus services to and from the venue," the statement said.

However, the face of the festival, AJ Maddah, has taken a more conspiratorial tack, claiming that not just Soundwave but 14 other events across the city had had promised public transport services pulled in some sort of anti-competitive strike by state Premier Daniel Andrews to benefit official Melbourne City event White Night Melbourne.

In a series of tweets at the weekend, Maddah labelled both the Transport Department and Andrews "lying scumbags" who pulled the public transport from a number of events "that may compete with City Of Melbourne event for morons staring at the pretty lights … while pickpockets, perverts, drunken louts and quite possibly ISIS sympathisers prey on them".

"It gets even better," Maddah tweeted. "Dept of Environment warned us IN WRITING that we are NOT TO mention 'No Public Transport' & 'not to complain' or … they would cancel #SW15.

"Will be going public with all the documents on Monday. Imbeciles."

Public Transport Victoria, meanwhile, said yesterday that Soundwave "didn't provide PTV the 150 days minimum notice so there won't be train services running to Showgrounds; however, route trams are running every 5-10mins between 5pm-1am due to White Night Melbourne, so route 57 might be an option".

However, Maddah asserts that the "minimum notice" argument is "nonsense", and that the department has had the festival dates since April last year but is using the event's change of venue in December as an excuse to deny it services.

Premier Andrews has since responded to Maddah's "colourful" outburst, telling the Herald Sun: "The most important thing [now] is not to be arguing with each other, but getting on to see what we can actually deliver."

Andrews did not address Maddah's specific charges regarding services physically being pulled from several other events, but did concede the weekend was a particularly busy one for the city, with not just Soundwave and White Night taking place but the Cricket World Cup, an A-League match against Perth and gigs at Rod Laver Arena.

As recently as last Friday, 13 Feb, Public Transport Victoria issued a statement saying, "Customers can get public transport to and from the Soundwave Festival on Saturday 21 February and Sunday 22 February 2015."

"Customers can also utilise a 'park and ride' option from Moonee Valley Racecourse and a 'park and walk' option from Flemington (Riverbank)," PTV said. "Please note, customers parking at Flemington must have four or more passengers in the car."

Although PTV acknowledged there would be "no additional services" for metropolitan trains to the venue, "Customers are advised to catch a train to Footscray or North Melbourne stations and then catch a pre-paid shuttle bus direct to the Showgrounds".

"Shuttle bus services will be operating at a five-minute frequency and tickets must be pre-booked via the Soundwave Festival website," PTV advised. The shuttle will operate direct to the Showgrounds, to and from Footscray Station, North Melbourne Station and Moonee Valley Racecourse.

In addition, buses that travel on routes 404 (Footscray to Moonee Ponds) and 472 (Williamstown to Moonee Ponds) will be operational and passing close to the Showgrounds. The shuttle bus services will cost $5 a day.

theMusic.com.au has reached out to Public Transport Victoria for a response to Soundwave's assertions but has not yet heard back.

For more news and information about Soundwave, head to our Festivals hub.

UPDATE, 4.35pm AEST: Public Transport Victoria have issued a statement saying that it will be stepping in to provide free shuttle buses for patrons to and and from this weekend's Soundwave event, labelling the apparently last-minute organisation of paid shuttle services "entirely inappropriate" and maintaining that the reason for the lack of transport is an issue adequate notice.

"Event organisers completely failed to give PTV enough notice about the event in order to provide additional services, on a weekend that is already packed with other major events," PTV chief executive Mark Wild said in the statement.

"Soundwave was told months ago that due to the lack of notice about their event and other events that had already been planned, no trains would operate to the venue, but decided to continue selling tickets knowing that options for patrons would be limited.

"Claims by the promoter that requests for public transport for the event were made in April last year are incorrect. Soundwave has not submitted an event notification to PTV nor applied for public transport."

"Soundwave has known for a long time that they would need to organise shuttle bus services, yet they did not take the necessary steps to provide them or include the price of these buses in the admission price," Wild continued. "It is entirely inappropriate that Soundwave organisers did not let their patrons know of this arrangement well in advance, with organisers only deciding they would provide the shuttle services in the last week.

"PTV believes the shuttle services should be free, and that is why we are taking this step to provide them at no cost for attendees."

The statement continues to lay the blame at Soundwave organisers' feet, saying that their "haphazard approach to planning for the event did not just impact on the provision of public transport services but almost resulted in the event being cancelled".

"In fact, Soundwave began selling tickets for the event before they had even secured a venue.

"People attending Soundwave are advised there is no longer a requirement to purchase shuttle bus tickets for Soundwave - these services will now be provided free of charge by Public Transport Victoria."