Commuters will be able to use their Opal card to secure 18 hours of free parking at Kogarah station in Sydney’s south, under a Park & Ride trial being conducted by the State Government.
Kogarah will in September join Ashfield as the Sydney train stations being trialled for the free Opal Park & Ride program, after the latter station was entered into the program in May.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the trial would address data showing up to 46% of people who use commuter car parks do not catch public transport.
Under the new program, commuters will be able to use their Opal card to park, for free, for up to 18 hours in one of the assigned commuter car spaces at the train station.
Trials of the scheme at bus Park & Ride facilities on the Northern Beaches have grown the share of commuters using the carparks to 90%.
“We know parking at train stations can be a real issue for customers, with spaces often used by those who aren’t catching public transport,” Berejiklian said on August 4. “But now we can use Opal technology to prioritise those catching a train, bus or ferry.”
State transport minister Andrew Constance said the success of the trial on the Northern Beaches boded well for the scheme across the rail network.
“We have also seen great results at Ashfield [train station] with more than 6,000 customers making use of the free parking in the first full month,” Constance said, “and we expect to see the same great results at Kogarah.”
Kogarah station’s commuter carpark has 348 spaces spread across seven levels.