Canberra Transport

Getting there & away

Contents

Land

Bus

The interstate bus terminal (Northbourne Ave, Civic) is at the Jolimont Centre, and has showers, left-luggage lockers, public internet access and free phone lines to the visitor information centre and some budget accommodation. Inside is Guidepost Travel (6249 6006; 65 Northbourne Ave, Civic), which handles CountryLink (www.countrylink.info) train/coach tickets and books seats on most bus services.

Greyhound Australia (13 14 99; Jolimont Centre branch 6am-9.30pm) has frequent services to Sydney ($36, four hours) and also runs to/from Adelaide ($135, 18 hours) and Melbourne ($80, nine hours). In winter there are services to Cooma, Jindabyne and Thredbo.

Murrays (13 22 51; www.murrays.com.au; Jolimont Centre branch 7am-7pm) has daily express services running to Sydney (adult $36, 3¼ hours) and also runs to Batemans Bay ($24, 2½ hours), Narooma ($36, 4½ hours) and Wollongong ($31, 3½ hours).

Transborder (6241 0033; www.transborder.com.au) runs daily to Yass ($14, 50 minutes). Its ‘Alpine­xpress’ service runs to Thredbo ($65, three hours) via Jindabyne ($45, 2½ hours) daily.

Car & motorcycle

The Hume Hwy connects Sydney and Melbourne, passing 50km north of Canberra. The Federal Hwy runs north to connect with the Hume near Goulburn and the Barton Hwy meets the Hume near Yass. To the south, the Monaro Hwy connects Canberra with Cooma.

Rental car prices start at around $50 a day. Major companies with city-centre offices and desks at the airport include the following:

Avis (13 63 33, 6249 6088; 17 Lonsdale St, Braddon)

Budget (1300 362 848, 6257 2200; cnr Mort & Girrahween Sts, Braddon)

Hertz (13 30 39, 6257 4877; 32 Mort St, Braddon)

Thrifty (13 61 39, 6247 7422; 29 Lonsdale St, Braddon)

Another option is locally-owned Rumbles (6280 7444; 11 Paragon Mall, Gladstone St, Fyshwick). Its office is usually open only on weekdays (weekends by appointment).

Train

Kingston train station (Wentworth Ave), is the city’s rail terminus. You can book trains and connecting buses inside the station at the CountryLink travel centre (13 22 32, 6295 1198; 6am-5pm Mon-Sat, 10.30am-5.30pm Sun), and Guidepost Travel .

CountryLink trains run to/from Sydney (adult/child $54/27, four hours, three daily). There’s no direct train to Melbourne, but a CountryLink coach to Cootamundra links with the train to Melbourne (adult/child $102/51, nine hours, one daily); the service leaves Jolimont at 10am. A daily V/Line (13 61 96; www.vline.com.au) Canberra Link service involves a train between Melbourne and Albury Wodonga, then a connecting bus to Canberra ($63, 8½ hours). A longer but more scenic bus/train service to Melbourne is the V/Line Capital Link ($63, 10½ hours) running every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday via Cooma and the East Gippsland forests to Sale, where you board the Melbourne-bound train. Return trips are run on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.

Air

Canberra International Airport (6275 2236) is serviced by Qantas (13 13 13, TTY 1800 652 660; www.qantas.com.au; Jolimont Centre, Northbourne Ave, Civic) and Virgin Blue (13 67 89; www.virginblue.com.au), with direct flights to Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

Brindabella Airlines (1300 668 824; www.brindabella-airlines.com.au) flies between Canberra, Albury Wodonga and Newcastle.