New calls for public transport relief in suburban Sydney

After another week from hell on the city’s trains and buses, Real Sydney commuters won’t be surprised to learn that they’re paying more than anywhere else in the country for one of the nation’s most unreliable public transport networks.

Sydney is already the most expensive Australian city to live in, and public transport costs further demonstrate that fact, with someone heading on a 25-minute trip from Parramatta to the CBD in the morning paying between $1-$5 more than their Brisbane and Melbourne counterparts every trip, depending on the time of day they leave.

A Sydney commuter from Parramatta will pay over $5 from 6.30am to 10am - or the 'peak' period of Opal usage where prices increase.

In Brisbane, a similar trip costs over a dollar less - and importantly, the 'peak hour' period only lasts two hours, not three and a half. Meanwhile, the same trip in Melbourne is free provided commuters tap on before 7:15 - and the Victorian capital also has free zones in its public transport set up.

Live in Sydney and thinking of driving instead? If you're from the west, you’ll pay a comparable amount to the rail charge by taking any of the plentiful toll roads that have been shoved between Real Sydney and the CBD - and that's before petrol costs. Or you could risk your tyres and sanity by taking some of Sydney's worst-maintained roads, like the stretch of Parramatta Road in Auburn that was recently voted the worst in the state in the NRMA's 'Rate My Road' survey.

With unreliable services, poor quality roads and an Opal card cap of $50 per week, it’s no wonder more people are choosing to work from home, with data from Transport NSW indicating that the number of people who used Sydney public transport in February was at just 74% of pre-pandemic levels.

While that number gives a good indication that working from home has been well embraced in some industries, that decline in usage also poses a risk to the hip pocket of those who still rely on the rail network. If passenger numbers fail to rise or continue to decline, there’s a chance that increased operational costs per person could be passed directly on to commuters, making their journeys even more expensive. It could also lead to a reduction in services.

Even worse, it could lead to both.

A number of solutions have been proposed, including lowering the Opal cap by a trip or two per week, reducing the duration of ‘peak’ travel times that attract a maximum charge during the busiest parts of the day, or even instituting a ‘free travel zone’ in the City, not unlike the Melbourne CBD.

With even more rail infrastructure on the cars or already here - from the Parramatta Light Rail to the Aerotropolis Link - there are a number of issues and concerns that clearly need to be addressed. Yet while the NSW election is just over a week away, the recent and profound issues with the rail network have not entered the campaign discourse, despite both leaders regularly appearing in the west in recent weeks to remind us how important we all are.

They mustn't have caught the train...

How much is your morning commute? What's your preferred means of transport? Have you been forced to catch the train over the past few weeks?