Anyone from Sydney want to car pool for the conference in Canberra?
Last year I drove down to Canberra for a half day seminar at ANU, but I have flown twice (once for a uni-funded conference and another time on frequent flyer points for Summernats). Going to a certain UWS campus is like travelling halfway there, too. lol…
With all options except for flying you will miss roughly half a day on the first day (depending on schedule) or have to arrive a night before and pay an extra night’s accom (or you will have to get me to drive fast, which I don’t do much of anymore).
Travel Options
Air: I just checked Qantas (and was about to book a ticket when I realised it would be cheaper for me to drive). Tickets are around $226 + charges/taxes return for the cheapest tickets with travel days being very early morning on the first day of the conference and late evening on the last day. If you can get university/department funding for the trip then that is grouse, but if you don’t have access to funds then car pool is one of the cheapest ways to travel.
Bus: Murrays do special advance internet bookings for $30 return (student or adult). I am not sure how long these prices will be available. It is not as cool as my car.
Train: Leaves Central at 6:58am and gets into Canberra at 11:21am. For adult fare’s $46.12 and for student’s it is $26.95 one-way. According to this site you’ll need to get a cab into the city from the rail station in the Canberra suburb of Jolimont, and I don’t know how much that cost.
Glen’s car: I have my Falcon which in a worst case scenario would use up about a tank of fuel getting there and a tank of fuel back. So that is about $160 in total. However, it was actually less than half of that cost (about $60-70) if I remember correctly (although fuel was 2/3’s the price too!!). So it may cost much less. Also you’d only want three people in a car, although four would be comfortable and it actually seats five. So for three people that is about $30-53 each return (4 is $25-40). I’d budget $50, but it shouldn’t cost that much. The car is pretty loud though, lol… I may address this before the trip as the exhaust would easily be over RTA limits and I don’t need a defect notice. 🙂 Plus I’ll need to get it serviced as my rego is due 1st Jan 2007 and it’ll be due for inspection. The car is very reliable, and extremely low kms. I don’t drive it much. However if something does go wrong, and I can’t fix it, then that means car-pooling peeps would be stranded. Although in a worst case scenario a train could be caught. Yes, I often think in worst case scenarios.
The Murrays prices have been that way for ages. I’ve done Canberra->Sydney->Canberra on a $30 ticket. You need to book somewhat in advance. Twas boring. The bus stops on Northborne Ave at the Jolimont Centre (not to be confused with the suburb of Jolimont) which is basically across the road, towards ANU, from “Civic”.
Jolimont (which is bewtween Kingston and Fyshwick) to Civic in a taxi could easily be $20 and probably closer to $25-28, from memory. OTOH there is a bus from the train station that runs back into the centre of Canberra. The bus and train are not deliberately time-aligned, from what I know.
aha! thanks ben!
Yeah, I am thinking that the bus might be the way to go, too!!!
could tak emy car. if you will ride in a forrester. 4 cyl too, so cheap. you staying out there o/n?
have to go to conference dinner!! lol.
clif, it would only take about an hour or something from your joint, wouldn’t it?
fuck no. its bloody canberra … well, i don’t think so. i pick you up in sydney and whomever else
I might be going from Sydney too – keep me in the loop?
Dr Mel, what are you going to be doing in syds?
I am hoping to be running a seminar on ‘wireless’ technologies at Syd Uni. Just working on the details now – stay tuned!