Questions about commute (1 Viewer)

[Kolmias]

Hey everyone,

I'm a student going into Year 12 and I live on the Central Coast (near a major train station on the southern end of the Coast). I'm interested in Macquarie but I'm really annoyed at the closure of the train station. MQU's the closest uni to me (apart from ones I'm not considering) and has a good rep for commerce.

Does anyone know how long the closure is going to take place for and what the government is going to do as an alternative? And does anyone have any comments about being a Central Coast student commuting to Macquarie for uni?

Thanks you wonderful people!

 

[ilikecats]

I've met quite a few students who commute from the central coast to Macquarie.

The closure between Epping and Chatswood is currently listed as 7 months from late 2018. Additional busses are being added between Epping and Chatswood to cater for this. Remember also you will probably be on your break for most of December, January and February which means you won't be affected by the full 7 months.

If your coming from the central coast, your train will pass through Epping no matter what. A bus from Epping to campus should take no more than 10 minutes outside of peak (there are already a lot of busses that go between the campus and Epping station). In peak hour the road can be quite busy and I expect that will increase, but they are saying some routes will go via the M2 which should help speed things up. (Even in peak, the M2 between Epping and Macquarie takes no more than 10 minutes).

From Epping to Central takes anywhere from 30 to 45 minute, depending on if the train is express or not.

My suggestions to you to minimise the impact would be: Travel outside of peak, or arrive and depart campus outside of peak where possible. If you can, try and schedule your tutorials for afternoons. Lectures are all recorded so you should have little issue catching up if you are late or can't make it. Also rather than travelling to campus every day, if you can condense it down to two or three it will save you a lot of hassle.

Then only major issue (besides obviously angry bus queues and traffic) would be if you had to be on campus early say for an exam or a complusory class. Do you have any friends or family in Sydney you could stay with the night before? There is some paid accommodation you could stay at worst case scenario, but obviously this costs more money.

 

[BLIT2014]

Alternatively you could delay your starting date till midway through 2019 to skip the train problem.