"It's more convenient because I would have to take three different modes of public transport to get here," she said. According to La Trobe University, Ms Dang's experience is far from isolated. In expert evidence it has submitted to the Andrews government's North East Link project planning panel, the university says several thousand staff and students at its Bundoora campus are effectively forced to drive because there is no viable public transport option for them. “Melbourne’s population has doubled over the last 50 years, but the transport network in Melbourne’s north-east has barely evolved,” the university said in a submission written by Knowles Tivendale of Movement and Place Consulting. The submission noted that the state government’s environment effects statement for the North East Link is silent about future improvements to the local bus network in Melbourne’s north-east, either while the project is under way or once the toll road is built.

It argued the area was in desperate need of better bus services now and in future. “The number of bus routes crossing the Yarra River on Chandler Highway, Burke Road, Bulleen Road and Manningham Road has not changed since at least 1980,” it said. The Yarra River had evolved to become a major barrier to reaching the university, forcing thousands of students and staff to drive on congested roads, the university said. There are 3000 students and staff who live south of the river. “For many of these staff and students, catching public transport to La Trobe University takes up to four times longer than driving a car.”

Many students and staff do not even want to own or use a car, but are forced to own one, because the public transport network is so poorly designed for their needs, Mr Tivendale wrote. The situation is equally dire for an even greater number of students and staff who live east of Bundoora campus, who also face a public transport journey that would take four times as long as driving. Mr Tivendale argued that university students and staff were paying the price for a long-term government failure to design a public transport network that meets the needs of a growing city. “The only reason the public transport network in the region comes with such a travel time disadvantage, is that the network and service levels in the region have changed in only minor ways while Melbourne has grown from a city of 2.5 million people to more than 5 million.”

The university said it formally supports the North East Link, finding that it will improve travel times to and from the Bundoora campus once the toll road opens in 2027. But it also expects the project to increase congestion while it is being built. And it argued that a lack of good public transport was the root cause of traffic congestion in Melbourne’s north-east. It called on the government to immediately boost service frequency on existing bus routes and introduce new bus routes “to reduce traffic congestion immediately and minimise the negative impacts of North East Link construction activities on existing levels of service for road users”. A state government spokeswoman said bus services were continually reviewed and any possible improvements that could be made as part of the North East Link project would be considered.

“La Trobe University is serviced by nine bus routes and one tram route, including a high frequency shuttle bus introduced in 2016 to provide a direct link with Reservoir station,” the spokeswoman said. “We’ve also begun pre-construction works on the suburban rail loop, which will connect every metropolitan train line with La Trobe University.” Loading The North East Link is a $15.8 billion project. Once it opens in 2027, the toll road will connect the M80 Ring Road in Greensborough with the Eastern Freeway in Bulleen. The Eastern Freeway will also be widened to cater for the extra traffic the North East Link will generate. The road will be used by up to 135,000 vehicles a day, according to the government’s traffic projections, which also state it will reduce travel times through Melbourne’s north-east by up to 35 minutes, and slash the level of truck traffic and rat-running on arterial roads in the north-east.