When I toured the gold coast, I took a bus from surfers paradise to nerang, and then the train to brisbane. Does anyone here do this on a daily basis to get to work, meaning either they work at Brisbane and live at the Gold Coast, or vice versa? I found it to be a bit expensive for one day, so can't imagine doing that on a daily basis. Or are there fare discounts one can take advantage of?


Thanks for answering!

 

My friend travels from Robina to the city every day, Nerang is a bit closer to her, but if she gets on there, she has to stand all the way!! She works normal office hours, but she gets up at 4.45am, and doesn't get home until 8pm!!!

She is waiting until she has finished her probation period, and is then looking at moving further north, she says she can't maintain the travelling time long term....

I'm not sure about cost, she is still using her student card at the moment, and so the cost is about $60 per week, but I think you can get a Gocard that will save you on the full price, but I'm not too sure what the discount would be.

I personally would prefer to stick pins in my eyes than do the commute from Gold Coast to the city each day, however, City to the GC would be okay as you would be going against the traffic, and would probably only encounter 'heavy' traffic on Smith Street motorway. I regularly travel from north GC to Southport and have never had any problems with traffic, except when there is an accident.

Hope this helps!

 

Did you use a GoCard?

 

Actually, yes. I used it for the bus, but then I bought a ticket at the train station in Nerang. Is that the way it's usually done, or are there combination packages?

 

You use the GoCard for the whole trip. The GoCard then works out how many zones you travelled in and charges accordingly. You can transfer from bus to train, bus to ferry or whatever without incurring extra charges if you stay in the same zones. You can travel for many hours and quite a few transfers with it all just counting as the one fare.

Breaking it into a bus trip and then a separate train trip would be more expensive. On top of this not using a GoCard for the train trip would make the train trip a "lot" more expensive as non GoCard trips are priced far higher to encourage GoCard use.

For example Nerang into Brisbane CBD on the train is $14.80 if you buy a single paper ticket. If you use a GoCard it is $8.16 or $10.19 in peak hour. The GoCard will also give you every 10th and subsequent trip in the week free (Fri afternoon and all Sat and Sun if you commute every day, for example).


Here is the pricing for your full trip done in the two ways:


GoCard for whole trip:

BUS+TRAIN TRANSFER: This is a 14 zone journey, travelling in zones 1 - 14

GoCard Adult: $10.99 (peak)
GoCard Adult: $8.80 (off-peak)


The way you did it:

BUS: This is a 2 zone journey, travelling in zones 13 - 14

GoCard Adult: $3.58 (peak)
GoCard Adult: $2.87 (off-peak)

PLUS

TRAIN: This is a 13 zone journey, travelling in zones 1 - 13

Single Paper Adult Ticket $14.80



Totals

So instead of paying:
$10.99 (peak)
$8.80 (off-peak)

You paid:
$18.38 (peak)
$17.67 (off-peak)


OUCH !!!