Sydney vs. Perth: Which City Wins for Students and Tourists?

[@BDub2024]

Depends on what sort of holiday you want. For beaches, river and great outdoors then Perth is better.

[@James-el6lj]

Weather is better too. Not humid and sticky like Sydney. Booming economy too.

[@Dreamer10888]

@@BDub2024 I totally agree it’s glorious during warmer months, what do u do during winter

[@BDub2024]

@@Dreamer10888 Winter isn't really cold in Perth, and you have plenty of blue skies and the opportunity to wear t-shirts and shorts. There is more rain, but generally it comes down pretty heavily and then clears after a few days. 3 or 4 days of wet days and you get people complaining. But you don't get the weather of Melb or London, which is endless cold and cloudy days. When its wet people seem to stay indoors, including at night time. Some people are so spoilt that they just don't like wet weather. A lot of winter you can still walk along beach, river and hills. Go to footy etc.

[@BDub2024]

@@James-el6lj Sydney is all glass and steel without the cooling sea breeze that Perth gets. Most hot summer days in Perth, there is a cool breeze by 4pm - usually earlier if you're near the beaches. My advice for Perth is try to be within 10km from beach. It is affordable to be honest even within 5km.

[@James-el6lj]

@@BDub2024 I agree with you. But Perths heat is dry not humid like Syd and Brisband.

[@James-el6lj]

Perth is better than both Sydney and Melbourne.

[@transportfanaussie]

Explain

[@James-el6lj]

@@transportfanaussie better weather, beaches, economy, lifestyle.

[@Dreamer10888]

I don’t understand how they’re comparable.. it’s like Hobart vs Sydney. And Sydney vs Tokyo

[@James-el6lj]

perth is better.

[@BDub2024]

Agreed Perth is better, but Perth is 8 times the population of Hobart. Sydney is 2.5 times the size of Perth... so comparable. But I think Syd vs Melb would be better. Sydney has a shocking overcrowded road grid and people struggle to get around. So in desperation its essential that their transport develops quicker. Perth has the advantage of growing quickly, but govts getting roads and transport systems in place early on and the planning is clearly better.

[@vintageradio3404]

Perth is a relative beginner with public transport. Back when Sydney only had 2.1m people, it already had Australia's largest electric rail network, Australia's largest urban and interurban rail network, Australia's first underground CBD stations and was getting ready to put the world's first double-deck EMU sets on the rails. Why double-deck? Simply to increase capacity without going to the effort of needing to lengthen station platforms across the whole network. Sydney's network is far larger and more complex and carries more passengers than Melbourne's and Perth's systems combined. Perth has a total of 354 cars in its fleet, whereas Sydney has 2,779 cars in its fleet, with all but 44 (Endeavours and Hunters) being double-deck. The new D-Sets are ten cars long. The reason there's more issues facing Sydney's network is simply because it is far larger and more patronised. By admission, Perth's trains don't fill up - why? Probably because they don't offer the same convenience that Sydney's trains do. Sydney not only offers bigger trains but more of them. Sydney's service frequency is the highest in Australia. No. Perth has a long way to go before it can claim to be the gold standard in public transport.

[@James-el6lj]

perth wins.

[@vintageradio3404]

@@James-el6lj For the pretty compelling reasons I outlined, Perth does not win and doesn't even come close.

[@BDub2024]

Perth's density is less and is the longest city in the world from Yanchep to Mandurah. The road system is extremely well planned and so you don't get the same congestion as Sydney. So people don't have the need to travel by train or bus. So as a result its significant that WA govt invests in transport when a lot of people never take public transport and are unlikely ever to. So its a great investment that is costly to run and maintain, but it is essential for the future. Great foresight. Whereas Sydney have their congestion and overcrowding due to poor planning totally out of control. Therefore its essential that transport meets their needs. Perth is at the point that they can join train routes over the next 20 years, but when there is a demand for it. They don't have to play catch up but have time to zone areas and develop hubs effectively. In Perth you have the choice to go by transport or drive. Depending on where you are, then you may find cars are preferable. That's not a comment on the public transport, but a comment on there being less congestion and street being better planned. The Joondalup line and Mandurah lines are far quicker by train and freeway users see the trains cruise past. But fact is that people still like to drive and its longer but not that much longer. People in Perth just like to drive, a bit like LA.

[@BDub2024]

@@vintageradio3404 What routes in Perth have you used. You need to be more specific and make less generalised statements.

[@vintageradio3404]

@@BDub2024 The statements made aren't generalised. I compared Sydney to Perth when Sydney had Perth's current population. I've never laid eyes on Perth and have no plans to travel more than 4,000km just to see what is effectively a big country town. To try and be fair to Perth I did leave out the fact that in addition to what I mentioned above, Sydney also had the world's third largest tram netrwork, with three times the number of cars that Melbourne has right now, and also didn't mention Sydney's fleet of harbour ferries and contrary to the belief of some, Sydney's ferries aren't merely a tourist attraction but a bona fide mass transit system which carries around 20 million passengers per annum on a fleet of 42 boats. All five modes of public transport are linked to the Opal Card, which covers the largest geographic footprint of any transport ticket system in the world, stretching from Newcastle in the north to Kiama in the south and Lithgow in the west. Perth is a bit like the Gold Coast. Long and slender which should make design of public transport routes easier than for a greater metropolis of more than 12,000km2 but whilst Perth's system isn't old, there is a huge investment gap there and on the Gold Coast. The opposite was true in Sydney under the previous Coalition Government which adopted the MO of building public transport before things like housing, so once people move into a new estate the railways would already be there. Examples include Barangaroo, The Bays and the Western Sydney Aerotropolis where either will be, or already are working railway stations before even a single house or flat is built.