Actual daily commute from Baulkham or Castle hill
 

Hi ... I've been a member here for a long-time but I only use this for research (not really a brit though I worked the past 3 years). Hope you guys don't mind me asking from those who actually live or lived in either Baulkham Hills and Castle Hill - can you tell me how's the actual daily commute (via public transpo) to CBD (Central, Town Hall or martin place) - say if you need to be at work by say 8:30 am. My wife and I are considering some places to buy a property and the hills area keeps coming up a lot but my concern is the daily commute to the city.

I've done some research here and using sydneybuses.info but they seem to be conflicting. I've cut-and-paste some address in realestate.com.au into sydneybuses and it always comes up with a commute time of around 1-hour upto 1 hour 13 mins (but this involves a walk of 700++ meters to martin place).

I've also read a complaints on the internet like these (I know it might be exaggerated but it's still in the news):

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/new...-1225713050048

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/...677850264.html


Short of actually going there in the morning and seeing it for myself, can someone please tell me their "Daily" experience on this. Do you take the bus all the way, ride a bus/drive to a train station and so on? Are there really queues - (more on baulkham hills and castle hill areas - especially baulkham hills).

Re: Actual daily commute from Baulkham or Castle hill
 

I can't exactly help, but we do have friends that lived in Castle Hill and worked in the CBD.

After a couple of years they moved to Crows Nest because of the commute !

Re: Actual daily commute from Baulkham or Castle hill
 

I know people who have moved because of the commute and lack of life. Other issues to consider include lack of frequency off peak and lack of buses elsewhere. I would rather go central coast than hills but each to their own.

No one even bothered promising the NW rail link at the election.

Re: Actual daily commute from Baulkham or Castle hill
 

Have you tried www.131500.info? Not sure if the Sydney buses offer the same service but that's a great way or sussing out door to door public transport options..

If the Hills district is too much of a pain why not look around Lane Cove or somewhere along the Epping train line?

Personally if I had to commute that sort of distance in Sydney I'd be looking at somewhere near a train line so I wouldn't have to depend on buses..

Re: Actual daily commute from Baulkham or Castle hill
 

I believe there is an express bus service that takes well under an hour to get to the CBD - QVB I think. Try the westbus website.

Re: Actual daily commute from Baulkham or Castle hill
 

Thanks for the suburb suggestions. We have some suburbs near the train lines for consideration (Sutherland Shire and such). I do agree that a train line is more convenient but we do want to have as much options as possible that's why we wanted to research on the hills area (plus it is slightly cheaper there) :D

I did try the www.131500.info but it's just the same as the www.sydneybuses.info site. Though I did manage to find out why the hours I researched went up to more than an hour (I entered Windsor Rd, Baulkham Hills to Central Station) and it returned 3 results. I only looked at the first one thinking they are all the same - turns out they're different - with the second result giving me around 50 mins. travel time as it's near the express bus route.

What I wanted to learn is the daily commute experiences of those already living in the hills area. Coz for example, there's no point knowing that an express bus takes 40 mins. if most of the time I'll have to wait like 20-30 mins. because of a queue (like in the news articles above) or buses passing you by because it's full or that traffic is terrible even on express buses ;)

Re: Actual daily commute from Baulkham or Castle hill
 

Its called the Bullet express service and is run by Blacktown Buses, 45 mins. Is a bit more expensive than Sydney Buses but its faster, more comfortable AND you can book your seat! Only does peak morning and evening times though.