Mr Evans said a new parking station wasn’t a great option as such a multi-storey structure would not be in keeping with Thirroul township.

Instead, he was canvassing other options.

One was increasing the number of short-term parking spaces with the aim of getting commuters to use their local stations.

‘‘To encourage people to use public transport and use the system we’ve already got in place [we could] maybe use timed car spaces, so people aren’t encouraged to park all day,’’ Mr Evans said.

He also floated the possibility of working with Wollongong City Council to ‘‘formalise’’ parking, by painting lines representing parking spaces in those streets around the station. 

‘‘We’re formalising parking as well so there’s going to be lines on the road, instead of people parking and leaving half a car space between each car. The formalised parking will increase parking, we’re talking hundreds of parking spaces over Thirroul that we’re trying to claw back.’’

However, improvements to the connectivity of evening services might encourage more people to catch the train from their local station rather than Thirroul.

Creating hypothetical journeys for two commuters – one from Austinmer and one from Woonona – shows it may actually be the trips home that are the reason people drive to Thirroul. 

In these cases, both hypothetical commuters catch the 7.07am train from Thirroul into the city and ride the 5.06pm back from Central.

For the purposes of the comparison, we assumed an eight-minute drive from Woonona to Thirroul station and a five-minute drive from Austinmer.

For a Woonona commuter the advantage of driving straight to Thirroul rather than parking at their local station and catching the connecting service was slight – a difference of just three minutes.

The commuter travelling from Austinmer would get an extra 10 minutes of sleep by driving to Thirroul rather than driving to their suburban station.

But the advantage of driving to Thirroul and parking shows up much more on the homeward journey.

Catching the 5.06pm from Central, the Woonona commuter would reach Thirroul at 6.26pm and wait until 6.44pm for the local service, arriving at his suburban station at 6.49pm.

That’s a trip time of 23 minutes from Thirroul to Woonona station, compared to an eight-minute drive – a difference of 15 minutes. The commuter trying to get back to Austinmer  would have to catch the Dion’s bus from Thirroul and ride it to Austinmer – which would take 14 minutes.

That’s nine minutes longer than getting off at Thirroul and driving home. In a day the Woonona and Austinmer commuters save 18 minutes and 19 minutes respectively by parking at Thirroul.

A northern suburbs neighbourhood forum is pushing for the car park on the eastern side of Thirroul station to be enlarged.

Neighbourhood Forum 3 will meet on Tuesday night and the issues around the revised rail timetable and parking problems that have been plaguing Thirroul ever since are on the agenda.

Neighbourhood Forum convener – and member of the Thirroul Transport Committee – Stephen Kennard will table a letter that lists four issues he said needed immediate attention.

One of these is increasing the size of the car park by making use of an empty strip of lane alongside the station.

‘‘NSW Trains property between Thirroul station and Gibsons Park needs to be opened and extended immediately, as promised, to relieve growing parking problems,’’ Mr Kennard’s letter said.

He is also calling for better synchronisation between the local rail services that pick up commuters and drop them at Thirroul, and the express trains  that leave that station.

‘‘All feeder trains on weekday mornings that meet fast trains at Thirroul need to arrive at platform one at Thirroul within five minutes of following express trains, not just those before the 7.07am train from Thirroul,’’ Mr Kennard said.

Other issues were the need for express services to stop at Bulli, Austinmer and Stanwell Park and to increase either the frequency or capacity of afternoon services.

Mr Kennard said the changed timetable had been causing headaches for the local community.

‘‘Prior to the new train timetable, parking at Thirroul was at capacity and concerned citizens including Thirroul Transport Committee were looking for ways to relieve traffic and parking congestion.

‘‘From the introduction of the October 13, 2013 timetable, these problems became multiplied so that commuters parked anywhere in Thirroul they could to take advantage of new quicker commute times to Sydney, which they could not from surrounding stations from Corrimal to Coledale.

‘‘When all parking was full, some commuters parked overtime illegally, causing serious viability problems for businesses who rely on clients attending their shops.’’

Mr Kennard also said upgraded car parks at Austinmer, Bulli and Woonona stations were empty ‘‘showing that the new timetable is not working in the northern Illawarra’’.