More than 5,500 staff and students took the recent Travel Survey that asked about your trips to and from campus.
Knowing that from 30 September train stations between Epping and Chatswood close for around seven months ahead of the arrival of the Sydney Metro Northwest, key survey findings below are partnered with ideas for staff and students to consider when planning travel during this period.
33% of staff and 47% of students catch a train to campus
Train commuters are encouraged to plan which of the 100+ extra, replacement buses will suit them best. Check out the interactive map on the Station Link website.
Approximately 1,300 staff and 4,000 students currently drive alone to campus
With expected traffic congestion in the precinct, single drivers might consider carpooling.
Around 1,600 staff and students were identified as living 5 km or less from Macquarie University
Locals could try walking, cycling or using the Keoride on-demand service.
Thanks to everybody who went online, shared information and congratulations to the 10 lucky participants who won a $100 Opal card from Transport for NSW, one of whom is Janae Bradshaw-Gross (pictured), currently studying her Master of Commerce with a double specialisation of Human Resource Management and Marketing at Macquarie.
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This is just another example of Macquarie’s spin, pretty images, buzz words and not much substance to anything. Pretty banners, surveys and feel good stories aren’t going to hide the chaos that is going to be experienced by commuters.
Ideas and solutions like car-pooling, cycling and replacement buses sound like what a primary school student would come up with for their assessment, not a “world-class” university. (You)^us …. that’ll make things better for everyone.
I live 95 km from campus and I can drive (1.5 hours – I only drive when I can avoid the peaks) or ‘train it’ 2.5+ hours on public transport – likely longer when MQU station closes. You can see why I might choose to drive sometimes!
Just now I used Co-hop to see if there were any car pools matches for me. Only 5 matches in total, and the closest was 40 km from my place. Not ideal for me but yes, I guess if I car-pooled that would reduce pressure on uni parking. If perhaps LOTS more people look into carpooling that could make a difference, and it would make it easier to find a ‘match’ e.g. someone who travels when you do. We would need many more people car-pooling to make a substantial difference.
QU: Will the university be opening up more dedicated spaces for parking for those who carpool?
Hi Ruth. Yes, the plan is to increase dedicated carpool spots as demand increases.
I realise that this is out of Macquarie’s control… But it isn’t yet possible to plan a trip on the replacement buses, as there is no published train timetable for post 30 Sept – and thus no-one can tell, for instance, how many trains per hour will travel from Central to Epping. The replacement buses information is without context and not yet in any way useful
Hi Niall, the information at http://data.mysydney.nsw.gov.au/documents/FAQStationLink.pdf states that “Existing services that run between Hornsby and the City via the ECRL and North Shore Line, stopping at all stations, will be replaced by limited stops services running via Strathfield on the T1 Northern Line. These services will start or terminate at Central during peak times.”
Trip planning for all services, including Station Link, will be available from early September.
Thanks for the response, Property Team – but the information in that document you link to – with a vague mention of “existing services” becoming “limited stops services via Strathfield” – is not very helpful. Eg. where are these new services stopping, and at what times will they run? Until we have some actual details, it’s impossible to plan a connections between these trains and the proposed buses, or know how long it will take to travel to Macquarie from other parts of Sydney.
Again, I realise this is out of Macquarie’s control.
I forgot to mention: when the advice above is “Train commuters are encouraged to plan which of the 100+ extra, replacement buses will suit them best” – but that “Trip planning for all services, including Station Link, will be available from early September” (i.e. after the line closes) – there is a disconnect (pun intended).
My point is that it is impossible to plan using limited information.
Problem: Approximately 1,300 staff and 4,000 students currently drive alone to campus…
Solution: With expected traffic congestion in the precinct, single drivers might consider carpooling.
I’d just like to point out that this solution (If you could even call it that) is a fairy tale at best. I think you’ll find that practically this cannot work for 99% of the cases. Circumstances change with regards to the time people leave home to get to work, the route they take due to changing traffic conditions, their health and most importantly the distance they’d need to travel to pick someone up. Everything needs to align perfectly for two or more individuals travelling to work in a car pool situation. Then you have people with kids that need to be dropped off, then you also have situations where people are sick, are running late and or need to have a day or half a day off. It’s completely impractical to just come up with literally a one liner for people who travel alone in their car to work. You will find in most cases they do not have a choice, I took the train to work the other day (car broke down, excellent example of issues that can arise), I had to change trains twice and it took me an hour more than usual, also standing up for most of the 1.5 hours in a full train carriage wasn’t pleasant. Carpooling isn’t practical for everyone to do and forcing people one way or the other is not efficient and is quite discriminatory. Please create more affordable (preferably free) parking for staff, we have the space and means to do it. We need to come to work and get to our desks in a timely manner so that the University can benefit from what we come here to do, support our students and fellow staff members.
At the moment staff and student arrivals and departures are staggered throughout the day, and we are under pressure for parking etc.
The situation is worsened at exam time when umpteen thousand students need to get here by a 9 am exam.
What is going to happen if a student allows 3 hours for a trip that would normally take them an hour, but the chaos is such that they are stuck on a bus for 4 hours? I suspect we will be inundated by disruption to study requests (and quite rightfully!).
Also, are the train replacement buses going to be “express” … no pick up or set-down between stations … this could make a difference to those living close to the routes for the replacement buses.