Five super hot days and then in comes the southerly buster (thats a strong wind). So I decided to see if a strong wind and an eBike was any match for the round the horn train trip from Bondi Junction to Cronulla. To illustrate the ride, I jumped into my Google Maps timeline where I can see the Cycling in Green and the Train ride in Blue. This is a fantastic tool if a Covid master ever rang to see what you have been doing, as a privacy tool, be warned, big brother is watching.
So lets look at the ride statistics, I was held up for about 5 minutes whilst some movie filming was going on at Woolaware and the rest of the trip was optimised a bit to speed up the usual bike trails that I take on this journey.
So lets call the full trip 1 hour and 33 minutes. Looking at the Google Maps timeline and we have a trip time on the train of 67 minutes and about 10 minutes moving around stations and waiting for trains. That’s 1 hour and 17 minutes.
Result: a Win to the train by 16 minutes
Given that it is a really long journey and the fact that you can go on the train with your bike during all but the heaviest of peak hours, a combination of cycling and train trips seems like a good way to go.
But Wait: What Happens If You Train Some of the Way
40 minutes of the bicycle ride is taken up getting from Wolli Creek to Bondi Junction. The train does this in 28 minutes. So if you add the bike ride of 57 minutes to Wolli Creek to the 28 minute train trip, thats a total time of 1hr and 25 minutes
So the combination ride and train from Carringbah to Bondi Junction is slower than the full train trip by 8 minutes. But its the best bit of the bike ride and it sure beats sitting on a train for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It is also not hilly at all. I say, do a partial ride and train, especially if the southerly buster is blowing. But the train still wins, Sydney is such a big place.
More Details
See the Strava route here
Here is the Strava picture if you can’t see it. Note the steady climb into Bondi Junction.
Other Photos
