September 1997

GRAPHIC INSIGHT!

Graphic Insight this month takes a look at Airport to City Centre transport connections for Australia’s three largest cities. At present, just about all scheduled public transport between airports and Australian Cities is operated by buses, however this may change over the next few years as there is a railway under construction in Sydney, and one proposed in Brisbane. A co-ordinated bus-rail service has just been introduced in Brisbane in competition to the existing direct bus service.

The graph below compares the number of hourly services on Mondays to Fridays departing the domestic air terminals at Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane airports destined for the downtown areas of those cities as operated by State Transit (Airport Express), Skybus, and Coachtrans respectively, as well as the new Route 300 Brisbane Airport to Eagle Junction bus with connections into Eagle Junction to Brisbane Central QR trains. All details are taken from the public timetables of the operators current at May 1997.

The Sydney service frequency is higher than is the case for the other cities - although this is a combination of two routes (300 and 350), this frequency being for the common section between the airport and Central Railway station. Only every second bus travels through downtown to Circular Quay, nevertheless this still gives a greater frequency than in the other cities. The Melbourne Skybus is however the only 24-hour service with an hourly service all night.

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