source : the age
With Sydney’s new airport up and running, a key question has lingered amidst the excitement: how does one get there?
Armed with fake luggage and a keen eye for bus routes, the Herald’s western Sydney reporters set a challenge to see who could make it to the airport the quickest via public transport for a real flight. Our goal was to arrive the recommended two hours before a Jetstar flight to the Gold Coast.
In theory, it’s easy: get the metro. But the Western Sydney International Airport metro line is not due to be completed until December 2027 at earliest, so there are currently limited public transport options, in addition to driving.
We picked the three largest western Sydney hubs – Parramatta, Penrith and Campbelltown – as the starting points for our journeys.
9am: My plan to get this flight has just changed for a third time. I’d initially wanted to take WSI’s much-advertised $25, 50-minute “super shuttle” bus service that runs direct between Parramatta and the airport. But it’s only running twice a day – and the first service leaves after my flight is meant to take off. Next best option was getting a FlixBus, the infamously cheap European green bus company now operating in Australia. Its website boasted about a $3 ticket for a bus leaving at just the right time. But now it has disappeared from the website.
10.30am: It’s going to take me longer, but I’m getting the train to St Marys to join the dedicated free shuttle bus. The train is empty, and I’ve made a discovery: I thought the FlixBus service had disappeared because it was full, but it turns out the company just cancelled the service for today.
10.55am: St Mary’s train station is incredibly noisy because it’s almost surrounded by a construction site for the new metro station – the one that was meant to be ready by the time the airport opened to connect the rest of Sydney to WSI. It’s not.
11.06am: After heaving my luggage through the main street of St Marys, I arrive at the new WSI shuttle bus stop, which is admittedly not much of a bus stop. Three men are constructing a shelter (which is amusing, considering this airport opening was not exactly a surprise) that has left about two dozen passengers waiting for the bus in the sun. The bus arrives as I pull up and join the queue. It’s free, but you need to tap an Opal card to record passenger numbers.
11.16am: It turns out that despite this bus being full, I’m the only one with a suitcase. The other people on this bus are here for fun. A group of elderly women tell me they’ve heard the airport is beautiful and want to explore it for fun. Another couple tells me they read in the Herald that there weren’t many food options at the airport, so they considered bringing their own lunch for a visit.
11.20am: We’ve just turned off Mamre Road onto Luddenham Road, and it’s a reminder of how developed this area is yet to be: the bus is hurtling along this narrow two-lane track that is crumbling at the sides.
11.39am: We’re here, at just over the hour mark.
9am: Normally, a trip to the Western Sydney Airport from Penrith would only be about a 25-minute drive for me. It’s convenient and faster than travelling to Sydney Airport in Mascot, which often takes me over an hour. So, while many from Sydney’s east may dread travelling to Badgerys Creek, I’m very excited to do so. Normally. Today, however, I’m catching a bus to the new airport and my expectations for a smooth and quick trip are low. Google Maps tells me it will take me one hour and 11 minutes to arrive.
10.40am: While I’m waiting for my 11.05am bus (I’m very early), another airport bus pulls up at 10.40am. One person gets on. Five minutes before my bus comes two other people who look lost join me. There’s a bit of a language barrier, but they mime a plane landing, and I’m able to figure out they’re also travelling to the airport. They seem excited to see the planes, and it’s a good reminder of how many people have been looking forward to visiting the airport.
11.06am: My bus arrives almost right on time and three other people get on. I put my suitcase on the luggage rack and pick one of the many seats available. No one else has luggage. Exactly six minutes later we make our first stop. If this is how often the bus will be stopping it’s going to be a long journey. I wish I had a coffee.
11.27am: We finally make it onto the Northern Road and start driving away from Penrith and towards the airport. It’s still very quiet with only three other passengers on board. I fear I might fall asleep. One person stands up to get off, and the bus driver gets cranky at him for not getting his Opal card out fast enough. I make sure mine is still in my pocket.
11.40am: I’m just under 10 minutes away from the airport and my verdict on the journey so far is: it wasn’t as bad as I expected. The few passengers onboard were quiet, the air conditioning on the bus was working, and the bus didn’t stop at all the places listed on the bus route, which made the trip feel fairly quick. I’ve definitely had worse bus trips. But maybe I’m just used to commuting from Penrith to Sydney Airport and this feels like a walk in the park in comparison.
11.48am: End of the line. The remaining two passengers and I disembark into the very hot sun after what ended up being a 42-minute bus ride. Despite what Google Maps told me, I don’t have to walk 30 minutes to get to the airport from the bus station. It’s a huge relief, and I’m already looking forward to experiencing the airport’s airconditioning. And getting a coffee.
9am: My flight is at 2.10pm, and I don’t like hanging about at the airport for too long, so I figure I need to get there at roughly midday. The 845 bus route arrives at the airport by 12.21pm, which feels close enough. It leaves Campbelltown Mall at 11.18am, so I have time to kill.
11am: I need to be at Hurley Street before Dumaresq Street Bus Stop and it will be a quick five-minute walk. Excellent. Past the Dumaresq Street Cinema (which is offering $9.50 tickets to any movie session, an absolute bargain), I find my bus stop and am dismayed. It has no shelter, I am early, and the sun is sweltering.
11.18am: After 10 minutes contemplating every detail of the bus stop sign as I hide in its very small shadow, the 845 finally arrives, and I jump on, full of hope and wonder. The bus is essentially empty except for someone in a Mad Mex fast-food chain uniform and a school student sitting in the back playing games on his phone.
I clunkily drag my bag to a seat in the middle of the bus. There are no luggage racks on this bus, so my bags sit neatly next to me on the bus seat. Google Maps tells me this trip will be more than an hour long, so I lean back and lament the lack of a footrest.
11.30am: Despite my reservations, this bus ride has so far been about as smooth as possible. Maybe it is the relatively new roads in Sydney’s far south-west, perhaps it’s this expert bus driver, but there are very few bumps or stops on this route.
We stop around Narellan and almost everyone gets off and one man, Daniel Schembri, gets on. He’s wearing an Australian Rugby League jersey, and tells me he’s not actually going to the airport. He’s going to St Mary’s and using the airport route as a “shortcut” through western Sydney.
“It would take me hours to take a bus or train to get from Campbelltown back home to St Mary’s,” he says. “But this route is a shortcut, I just change over at the airport, and I’m on my way.”
“It’s a bullshit route though,” Schembri adds. “Because they should do this every ten minutes when there are flights. That way more people can use it.”
11.45am: I’ve gotten deathly bored now. We’ve made only two stops, and are flying past mostly green fields. Thankfully the bus is air-conditioned and comfortable, but at this point not much else is happening. I check the route, and it says there is still nearly half an hour left.
12.10pm: I can tell we are getting closer because the roads feel smoother and there is construction about. I can sense the airport’s energy now, having spent the past hour thinking about it.
12.13pm: We are pulling into the airport precinct now, faster than anticipated. Either this bus driver really did speed or there was less traffic than expected. I am excited again.
12.15pm: We have arrived, and I am both earlier than I anticipated and also the last of my colleagues to arrive. So I am both a winner and loser today.
