Question about public transport in Perth

[rikamarie]

Hi guys

As I am now starting to apply for jobs in Perth and we are planning on staying in Joondalup, I was wondering...

Is it wise to apply for jobs that are more than 20 km away from Joondalup? We are planning on buying a car but mostly for groceries and trips and will have to rely on public transport as parking is an issue.

So my question basically is: Can I travel with public transport to and from a school that is more than 20km away and not have to travel too long to get there from Joondalup?

Thank you

Rika-Marie

[zetman]

Hi there,

Tricky one to answer for sure without an example start point and destination (also, depends on whether by Perth you mean the CBD or the greater metro area).

From Joondalup there would be no flaws in your wisdom if you had to go by public transport to the CBD. Even though more than 20km away there is a train that runs from Joondalup to the CBD, takes around 40min or so. In the peaks they run every 5 or so minutes; 15 to 30 min apart during off-peak. Thanks to that commuting from Joondalup to the CBD and all along the way is pretty easy, anything diagonal to the main train lines require bus journeys though and becomes harder. Same goes for whether the school is within walking distance from stations, and whether you would be able to take an easy bus, walk or drive to the station in Joondalup. If you need to start taking a bunch of connecting busses to complete your journey it will obviously add to the hassle and the journey time - which may or may not be OK depending on what your expectations are.

Have a look at www.transperth.wa.gov.au. They have a handy journey planner where you enter a starting and ending address and from there tells you exactly how to go, how long it takes, when the next services are running etc.

z

Edited August 22, 2013 by zetman

[rikamarie]

Thanks for the great answer. It makes a lot of sense. Great website thanks!

[Donovan83]

Agreed with the above - I stayed about 2km from Edgewater Stn (one close to the CBD than Joondalup Stn) and it was a hassle. It takes about 30 minutes from Joondalup to Perth, but as soon as you add a bus to that then your journey becomes an hour or more.

[zetman]

I guess from a settling in perspective the answer is that public transport is a viable option when you arrive and are settling in (provided your within reasonably easy reach of the train or bus network), but ultimately you'll most likely opt to get a car each. Unfortuanely it's not as easy to functionin perth without a car (or with just one car per household) as it is in places like the UK.

Z

[Bams]

Rika-Marie thanks for a great post.

We also thinking of mainly using the public transport and only purchasing one vehicle, when we get there.

Thanks for the replies and handy website.

[AndreaL]

Get yourself a cheapie car, too many variables with public transport. How far will you have to walk from your house to the closest bus or train stop, what if it is raining, will your kids be in day care and what happens if they are sick and you need to fetch them.

When was the last time you travelled on a bus? It isn't as much fun as you think, trying to get a stroller on and off and shopping bags too with kids and an impatient bus driver.

I kept public transport for special days out with the kids. I lived 7km from the CBD and the bus trip still took ages with all the stops, then we would get out and walk to get the ferry across the river and walk to the zoo........it is all very time consuming.

Parking shouldn't be an issue if you are not working in the CBD, the school will have parking.

[Cranzy]

Have a look at www.transperth.wa.gov.au. They have a handy journey planner where you enter a starting and ending address and from there tells you exactly how to go, how long it takes, when the next services are running etc.

Yip, and also once here, you can use google maps which is actually integrated with the transperth services ...

So you can specify if you want to leave now, or get there by 17:00 .. it will give you the different options and routes.

When used on the phone in navigation , when you are on the bus, you can see on your phone where you are on the route and also how many stops before you need to get off the bus. Very useful.

Edited August 30, 2013 by Cranzy