Here are some of the tricks of the trade for getting to uni itself during term time. Or at least what I do
Hey Team, whats the go? Im good, thanks for asking. Well, I know Ive touched on it before, but what is the go with actually getting to uni? Well lets go through it, for planes, trains and automobiles.
DRIVING:
For those of you fortunate enough to have a car there are some places that you can park around Uni so you can drive in. I tended not to drive in as there are really limited places to park, but if you only have one hour of class, it saves a lot of time! I tended to park in the Broadway shopping centre (3hrs free!) and in Glebe (only 2hrs). There are some all day carspots in Glebe and in Arundle Street, but they go really quickly (like 7am early) so its hard to get them. If you come in at 10am and leave before 3pm you can park in the clear way on Parramatta road, but again, this is generally full by 9.59 (people wait round the corner till the tow truck leaves, then literally 1000 cars come out at once and take all the spots). You can park on campus, but it is $15 no matter how long you intend to park, and it is often hard to find spots too.
There is also parking in Newtown and Darlinghurst that you can use, some of it is 2 hrs but some is all day, so you just have to be lucky (and early).
You will notice a trend. Those who arrive early get the spots, but if your in for only an hour, then thats fine too.
BUS:
I catch the bus in to Uni, and it is generally pretty pain free. The time that it is bad is at the end of the hour in the afternoon when heaps of people finish and it is near on impossible to get a spot, but most of the time its not too bad. I catch a bus from home (Crows Nest) into Wynard, then jump on a bus at Wynard. From there buses go down Parramatta Road or down into Glebe Point and Forest Lodge, so depending on how Im going, I jump any of these. Seeing Im an Arts student I am over the Parramatta Rd side of campus, so I stay on the bus and jump off at the Footbridge and walk into Uni. If I get a Glebe Bus, I jump off when it turns the corner into Glebe Point and walk, and if I get the 470 to Forest Lodge I wait till the second stop after it turns off and walk up to the footbridge (is a tops way to go!)
What I did too if I was super lazy and had a class first thing over the other side of campus was jump off the bus at Central at get on a bus to Newtown to go down City Road. For those of you who will do Engineering or Economics, or even Science, its easy to walk from City Road then from Parramatta Rd, so you might want to do that.
Seeing the campus is on such a busy road there are lots of buses that run passed it on the way into town too, so if your coming from the inner or outter west then there are lots of buses coming in too, so thats a good way to go!!
I buy a weekly concession ticket as I need to catch four buses a day, but it also allows you to jump on and off buses all the time, rather then a travel 10 which is only the 10 rides. For my ticket (a red) there is only $2.60 difference between a 10 and a weekly, so its actually a lot cheaper to go that way, so thats what I do (They're $16, so dont forget or lose your concession card!!)
TRAIN:
The campus is about a 10 minute walk from Redfern Station, so its not a bad walk in. For those of you going to the Darlinghurst side of campus it is an easy walk, but for those of you going over the other side Id add another 10 minutes or so. If you dont like to walk you could always go to central and jump a bus, its up to you. Redfern is a major station, so there are services from everywhere that stop there, so its not too bad to catch the train in. It isnt dangerous either despite the wider opinion about the area. If you are worried there is a security bus that does shuttles there in the afternoon and the like, but it really isnt that bad, and on every train most of the time you get about 1500000 uni students walking in so its not too bad at all.
I think that no matter where you live it takes an hour to get to uni via public transport. It takes me an hour by train or bus to get to uni (7 minutes to drive!!!!!!), and it took me about an hour when I lived at Wahroonga too! Just mad! That is half the fun of uni though, its a good time to listen to Wham or Culture Club and do your readings for class, so dont worry, it will all be fun and games!!
Hey too, if you have anything that you want me to write about please leave a comment. I always enjoy responding, so do it! Yeah okay, stay tops, catch ya,
B-Diddy
(Brendon)