 Another first for me in Australia was using public transportation. It's an easy way to get around once you learn a few things.
Public Transportation
in Western Australia
Throughout the semester, I have been writing about my various journeys and adventures in and around the city of Perth, so this week I decided to write about the main mode of transportation used by me and most of my friends.
One thing which I have learned during my time down under has been the heavy reliance on public transportation by many Australians as well as what seems to be the majority of international students, especially those studying abroad for just one semester. The system is called Transperth and it provides transportation by bus, train, and ferry, as well as providing the school bus system for younger children. Being from a small town such as Houghton, I had no experience using public transportation, but I sure learned quickly while I was down here! While relatively user-friendly, it is definitely possible to get quite lost when trying to navigate the Transperth system.
My first experience with public transportation was, on one of our first days here. Nearly our entire group along with our advisor, Larissa, decided to go to the mall, which was only a short distance away. We all bought our tickets when we boarded the bus and were on our way. After riding for a while, we got off the bus and were across the street from the mall. I was pretty excited that it was so easy to get to the mall, but I also believed that everything that we would be interested in going to would only be a short distance away. Was I wrong! It takes us roughly an hour to get to any of the beaches that we enjoy going to, and the distance into downtown Perth isn’t much shorter.
 Traveling using Transperth is relatively inexpensive for students. But when I was looking at the fares for adults, I was surprised at how expensive it was! If I were an adult living in or around Perth, I don’t think I would use the public transportation system as my main mode of transportation, based on the fact that it is quite expensive and not necessarily convenient.
Another difficult thing was when it came time to try to plan the routes and various methods that we would take to get almost anywhere! The Transperth website has a journey planner, in which you can type in your starting and ending locations as well as the time that you plan to travel. While relatively helpful, it seems to pick some of the most off the wall routes to take to go simple places. Therefore, it is helpful to have a general idea of where you are trying to go. This knowledge comes rather quickly after only a short time in Perth, and we use a few main bus routes to get us to various other train and bus stations, which allow us to continue our journey.
The most important thing I learned about using the public transportation system was that the most direct route that you could take to get anywhere will not be utilized by the buses, due to the fact that they have to drive through various residential districts in keeping with their routes. Never underestimate the amount of time it will take to get somewhere, buses run late and trains don’t wait for these late buses, so you may end up waiting for quite a while at various train or bus stops. Overall, I’m very happy that the city of Perth has created the Transperth system, because without it, it would be incredibly expensive to get anywhere in the city or surrounding areas!
Until next week,
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