Best Wollongong suburbs for public transport

Towradgi tops the ranking, with a median peak-hour wait of 1 minutes. Coniston and Oak Flats round out the top three. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 68 eligible Wollongong suburbs.

This ranking scores every eligible Wollongong suburb on public-transport quality — a composite of peak and off-peak arrivals, median headway, span of service, mode weighting (rail > tram > bus), and peak-hour direct-CBD access. Walkability, safety, and CBD distance are blended in as tie-breakers.

The transport-quality score is derived from each state's GTFS timetable feed. We sample a representative weekday and Saturday and count arrivals at every stop inside the suburb, then weight the mode mix (a train station outranks a bus stop at the same headway) and layer in the peak headway of any trip that terminates in the Wollongong CBD. Percentile ranks are computed within Wollongong's candidate pool, so a suburb's transit ranking is relative to other Wollongong suburbs — a Sydney "top 5%" and a Perth "top 5%" both hit rank 1 of their own city's pool.

Wollongong suburbs with the best public transport

Ranked on the GTFS-derived transport-quality score — peak / off-peak / weekend arrivals, median headway, span of service, mode weight (rail > tram > bus), and peak-hour direct-CBD headway. Blended with walkability, safety, and CBD access as secondary factors.

1

Towradgi

NSW 2518 · 3,241 residents

79.7/100 transport · 40.8 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

B 85.4
2

Coniston

NSW 2500 · 2,267 residents

80.5/100 transport · 34.5 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

B 83.8
3

Oak Flats

NSW 2529 · 6,840 residents

80.6/100 transport · 132.5 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

C 83.5
4

Kiama

NSW 2533 · 7,904 residents

81.8/100 transport · 57.2 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

B 83.3
5

East Corrimal

NSW 2518 · 3,432 residents

79.4/100 transport · 37.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0.5-min headway

B 81.8
6

North Wollongong

NSW 2500 · 2,299 residents

79.5/100 transport · 95.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

C 80.2
7

Bellambi

NSW 2518 · 4,039 residents

79.4/100 transport · 80.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

C 79.3
8

Helensburgh

NSW 2508 · 6,576 residents

79.5/100 transport · 86.0 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

B 79.0
9

Thirroul

NSW 2515 · 6,348 residents

79.4/100 transport · 139.5 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

B 78.2
10

Fairy Meadow

NSW 2519 · 7,512 residents

79.1/100 transport · 256.8 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

C 75.0
11

Unanderra

NSW 2526 · 5,476 residents

79.2/100 transport · 186.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

C 74.5
12

Woonona

NSW 2517 · 12,374 residents

79.2/100 transport · 132.0 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

B 74.0
13

Wollongong

NSW 2500 · 20,446 residents

79.1/100 transport · 602.8 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

B 73.0
14

Austinmer

NSW 2515 · 2,725 residents

79.4/100 transport · 61.0 arrivals/hr peak · 1-min headway

B 72.8
15

Port Kembla

NSW 2505 · 5,088 residents

79.6/100 transport · 116.2 arrivals/hr peak · 0-min headway

D 71.8

Ranked from 68 qualifying suburbs.

How we ranked these

60% transport-quality composite (peak / off-peak / weekend arrivals, median headway, span of service, mode weight, and direct-CBD headway) · 15% walkability · 15% safety (bushfire, crime, flood risks combined) · 10% CBD access. Percentile ranks are computed within Wollongong's candidate pool. Suburbs below the ingest arrivals-per-week floor are excluded rather than ranked at zero. See how we calculate for the full methodology.

Common questions about this ranking

What are the best Wollongong suburbs for public transport?

Towradgi tops the ranking, with a median peak-hour wait of 1 minutes. Coniston and Oak Flats round out the top three. These 15 suburbs came from a field of 68 eligible Wollongong suburbs.

How is this ranking scored?

Each eligible Wollongong suburb is scored on a composite transport-quality signal blended with walkability, safety, and CBD access. The transport-quality signal itself blends peak-hour (7-9am + 5-7pm) and off-peak weekday arrivals, Saturday service, median headway, span-of-service, mode weighting (rail > tram > bus), and peak-hour direct-CBD headway. The composite carries the heaviest weight in the final score (60%); percentile ranks are computed within Wollongong's candidate pool, not nationally.

Where does the timetable data come from?

Every state government publishes a GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) timetable feed covering all scheduled buses, trains, trams, and ferries in the state. We ingest these feeds and aggregate arrivals across every stop inside each suburb boundary on a representative Wednesday and Saturday. Nothing paid, nothing scraped — it's the same data that powers the transit-planner apps.

Does this measure reliability or on-time performance?

No — scheduled service only. GTFS-realtime feeds carry delays and cancellations but they're per-agency, per-day, and not part of this ingest. A suburb whose bus network runs 20 minutes late every peak still scores here on the timetable. Reliability data is a candidate for a future layer.

How often is this list updated?

The top 15 is recomputed whenever we re-run the GTFS aggregation pipeline. Feeds themselves refresh weekly to monthly per agency; big service changes (a new metro line, a route reshuffle) land in the next re-computation.

Same list in other cities

Related

Rankings last computed 12 October 2026. Recomputed after each ACARA schools data refresh.

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