For a long time the focus of commuter travel was the trip from Wollongong to Sydney - but one business body feels that needs to change.
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RDA Illawarra has commissioned a study focused on improving public transport travel times within the Illawarra as more people are working in the region rather than travelling to Sydney.
"The idea behind the study was really around how things have changed," RDA Illawarra CEO Deborah Murphy said.
"There's a lot more cost-of-living pressure on people and there's also less people commuting to Sydney than what we've had before. Forty per cent fewer people now commute to Sydney than what we had pre-COVID.
"So we feel that it's now time to focus more on the intra-regional journeys, commuting locally when a lot of the previous focus has been on getting to Sydney."
Ms Murphy said that change in work patterns has been driven in part by an increase in working from home rather than travelling to Sydney as well as locals choosing to return to the Illawarra for employment.
With that change, Ms Murphy said it was time to look at a multi-modal approach to commuting within the Illawarra - combining walking, cycling or even driving with more bus and train use.
That would include better connections between the various modes of transport as well as increasing the number of residences that have access to a 30-minute rail or train commute to the Wollongong or Shellharbour city centres
"According to the last Census data, there are 77,500 daily commuters in the Illawarra and 95 per cent of them commute by private vehicle," Ms Murphy said.
"With only 1.8 per cent of the region's commuters using public transport to get to work, it is no wonder that our roads are increasingly congested and travel times are starting to cause major frustration."
Among the study's recommendations are for the NSW Government to commit to a "Multi-Modal Services Plan for the Illawarra".
It also recommends having buses use the East-West Link at Croom and the M1 Princes Motorway to increase the number of residences within a 30-minute commute to the city centres.
"We believe that delivery of a 30-minute journey for the maximum number of commuters will provide strong appeal for use of public transport and reduce the car gridlock that threatens to engulf the region," Ms Murphy said.
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