Was looking at parking in the Sydney CBD tomorrow and stumbled across this expired post
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/286190
I tried NRMA18 and it didn't work. So I clicked on the NRMA link from that deal hoping they have refreshed the page with a new code and found it to be updated for 2018.
NRMA link to this deal is
https://www.mynrma.com.au/members/member-benefit/secure-park…
Did the same ^
Thanks for the update !!
you dont have to pay any parking if you catch the train for $4 per family on sundays.
can u get the '$4 per family sundays' for on weeknight evenings and saturday?
I said sundays. theres a cheaper option on sudnays.
What is the $4 ticket?
There is no $4 per family offer… It's $2.60 per person.
@ninetyNineCents:
And only on Sundays.
Travel on a weekday from 20km+ away from the CBD and it's about even to drive and park in the evenings if two are traveling and if there's 3-5 people it's cheaper to drive (assuming 5 seat car).
@ninetyNineCents:
Actually I did.
Lets take an example of having to get from Parramatta to Town Hall.
Train fare for a weekday evening would probably cost you $4.94 per person for the ride into town and $3.45 for the ride out of town. (Opal fares with the ride into town as peak fare because you're most likely arriving into town by 7-7.30pm)
This is a total of $8.39 per person or $16.78 for two for taking the train.
Now if you drove, parking can be had for as little as $12 paid for at the gate or $8 if paid online lets assume you didn't plan too well and pay $12. Driving distance is 24km on Victoria Rd with no tolls, so lets just say 50km round trip for easy calculations. Fuel is probably going to be around 10L/100km so 5L in fuel at 125.9c/L for $6.30 in fuel costs. So driving will costs $18 for two people (registration and insurance are sunk costs so doesn't matter for comparison as you'd be paying for it anyway if you've parked the car at home and took the train) which yes is more expensive than taking the train but if you're organised it can cost as little as $14 which is cheaper than taking the train. Now if you're travelling with more than 2 people it makes much more sense financially to drive.
TND: So driving will costs $18 for two people (registration and insurance are sunk costs so doesn't matter for comparison as you'd be paying for it anyway if you've parked the car at home and took the train)
99: But you forgot to factor in parking. After all the whole point of the journey is to stop in the city and do stuff.
Try again.
I don't have to try again as I did factor in parking..
$12 in parking costs (for pay at the gate) and $6.30 in fuel costs. So that's $18.30 including parking. It could be $14.30 if you're organised and paid for parking beforehand online with parking discounts.
Apologises i screwed up. But not everyone is lucky enough to pay no tolls, you just happen to be lucky.
@ninetyNineCents:
Toll roads aren't mandatory, they're voluntary. In the example I used I chose to go down Victoria Rd instead of the M4, yes the M4 will costs more but that's the trade off, time v money. As for the example I don't actually live in Parramatta, I only chose it as an example that would highlight the case in study that would fit generally a lot of people (most would fall into the 21-40km train fare bracket and would drive around 25km to get into the city).
I know how tolls work, we all do. Your journey is not really fair because many people live much further out than that, and it would cost a Penrith or Campbelltown or Cronulla family much more in petrol or tolls. You picked a very convenient path that just happens to be cheap. If we picked the three locations and costed petrol and tolls, the average cost if quite different from your totals.
@ninetyNineCents:
The cost of train tickets for two people goes up roughly the same as the cost of fuel assuming 10L/100km and fuel price of 125.9c/L.
I picked a big location out west to capture as much of the population as possible, not just for convenience. Any one who lives in terms of distance less than what it is for Parramatta to the city but more than 10km from the city generally has a rough costing as the example above as any train fare between 10 and 35km would give roughly the same prices (the fare differences between the two fare brackets that this distance covers isn't that much different), less than 10km and it's a no brainer to just take the train or bus to avoid city traffic, parking and the obvious would be savings on parking costs.
If you want to make a catch all comparison lets take each train fare bracket and assuming that it's at the furthest distance for travel, assuming train distance and driving distance is the same. Also for comparison it would be likely that the ride into town will be during peak travel time and the ride out of town during off-peak.
0-10km - no brainer, just take public transport
10-20km - train fare for two adults would be ($4.30+$3.01)x2=$14.62. Cost of petrol and parking $12+(40/100101.259)=$17.04 assuming pay at gate, pre-pay online and it can be as cheap as $13.04. So for two people it's in favour of taking the train especially when fuel prices are higher if you don't pre-purchase parking.
20-35km - train fare for two adults would be ($4.94+$3.45)x2=$16.78. Cost of petrol and parking $12+(70/100101.259)=$20.82 assuming pay at gate, pre-pay online and it can be as cheap as $16.82. So for two people it's in favour of taking the train.
Cronulla falls into this bracket at 30km driving each direction, $12+(60/100101.259)=$19.56 for pay at gate, $15.56 for pre-paid parking online.
35-65km - train fare for two adults would be ($6.61+4.62)x2=$22.46. Cost of petrol and parking $12+(130/100101.259)=$28.37 assuming pay at gate, pre-pay onine and it can be as cheap as $24.37. So for two people it's in favour of taking the train. Cost for Penrith falls into this category 55km driving each direction $12+(110/100101.259)=$25.85 for pay at gate, $21.85 for pre-paid parking online.
Campbelltown also falls into this category with roughly 55km driving distance each direction. So same costings as for Penrith. This one is an interesting one though as it's probably better to pay the toll for the M5 as the rebate makes it cost only 42 cents each way which will probably be offset by the improved fuel efficiency for highway speed driving even if it's only a 1L/100km improvement which is easily done on the M5 for those distances.
Now with all these assumptions made, this rough analysis will give you an idea what is better if you lived at the greater end of each of those brackets. If you lived closer the cost of driving will be cheaper and the cost of taking the train will stay the same. Another assumption here would be that you live on or very close to the train line, otherwise it's probably going to be cheaper or more convenient driving directly from home. As for tolls, that's a mute point, you are not forced to pay them, it's a trade off in terms of time and money some of which will be offset by the better fuel economy driving at highway speeds compared to city stop start traffic anyway.
Now the biggest assumption I made here that will affect costs is that this is for two people, if you add a third person and even if that's a child it will automatically increase the cost of public transport but the cost of driving will roughly stay the same anyway as fuel consumption won't go up that much and the biggest cost is parking anyway. Adding a child into the mix and it's cheaper to drive in two of the 3 scenarios, only being cheaper to the pay at gate option for those driving 65km per direction and more expensive to everything else. Fuel pricing will affect this a little bit but who the heck buys a full tank of petrol at 150c/L? Even then it's only adding 25% to the cost of fuel which isn't significant as the cost is mainly in parking, even at the extreme end it'll add $1-1.50 per round trip.
Now this rough comparison is only true for a trip into the city for a weekday evening for which this post was originally about. Travel at any other time on a weekday and it is cheaper to take public transport as parking is just insanely expensive.
TN: If you lived closer the cost of driving will be cheaper and the cost of taking the train will stay the same. Another assumption here would be that you live on or very close to the train line, otherwise it's probably going to be cheaper or more convenient driving directly from home.
99: Thats my point entirely, you have to be fair and pick some sort of avg that is true of the avg sydney sider. Unfortunately you picked a route that favoured your original argument.
Its true that not everyone lives near a train station, but even if hyou live out west somewhere where public transport is poor, it would still be cheaper to drive to your local station and cont your journey on the train on a sunday. Not only that a train is much faster and more comfortable.
The reality is a train trip has less chances of extra hidden costs like going really slow and burning fuel sitting in grid lock.
Will never catch Sydney trains again. Rather get reamed by overpriced parking than overpriced trains that are completely unreliable
Used it today. Thanks.
Still working Thanks! Vivid here I come
![[NSW] Secure Parking - 30% off Evening & Weekend Parking](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/88/356588.jpg?h=c2aa461d)
Awesome. I tried both NRMA18 and NRMA2018 a couple of weeks ago and it didn't work. Maybe they just recently activated it.