The curse of the 887
The 887 bus route is an hour-and-a-bit journey from Campbelltown Station to the University of Wollongong (UOW), via a bumpy ordeal through Macarthur, Rosemeadow, Appin, and the winding descent of Mt Ousley Road. It arrives once an hour, with the first bus departing from Campbelltown at about 5:10am, and the last departure leaving from UOW at about 7:45pm (if you have to get back to Campbelltown after that time, good luck braving the >2 hour trip on the train…) This route is a vital service that connects a large chunk of Sydney to the Illawarra for not only university students, but high school students and general commuters too.
So it is quite frustrating when this bus is late practically every day, and is perhaps the most nauseating commute I’ve ever had the displeasure of taking. In fact, it is so unpleasant that in my sweet, much-more-spare-time first year I willingly took the 2.5 hour commute via the train, just to avoid the “vomitron” experience. Or even just last Thursday, in the not-so-pleasant warm afternoon, my friend and I attempted to board the bus at 3:45pm (actually, 3:54pm as it was late… again), but were instantly met with a full bus that lacked even standing room! So, disheartened, we hopped off the bus and decided to brave the train home instead.
I reached out to a few of my fellow commuters to hear about their experience. When asked to describe the 887 in just three words, phrases such as: “unreliable, chaotic, and cantankerous,” “inconsistent, chaotic, and tiring,” and “nauseating and unpredictable," emerged.
One of my compatriots managed to keep a week-long log of the happenings of the 887 in Week Five of this semester. On Monday morning it had an expected arrival time of 8:16am at Campbelltown station, but actually arrived at 8:35am. This means it would arrive at UOW at 9:48am rather than 9:19am, if it didn’t also happen to encounter a breakdown on the same journey. Additionally, on that same day in the afternoon, the bus had a flat tire causing a 35 minute delay (as we waited for a replacement bus to arrive). On Tuesday the lateness repeated: 30 minutes late in the morning, 15 minutes late in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we have no data for Wednesday, but as the same lateness as previously mentioned repeats on Thursday, we can only presume it was much the same. Miraculously, on Friday the bus was on time both in the morning and afternoon (a rarity in many memories).
It is important to note that for many commuters, including myself, our journey does not begin at Campbelltown Station. Many of us drive upwards of 30 minutes, take additional buses and/or trains which combine to a total commute of more than an hour and 45 minutes of travel, either way to university, everyday. A commute this long is not uncommon for a UOW student, as many travel via the trains, or personal vehicles from great lengths down the South Coast… but when the University is often a 55 minute drive from many suburbs in the South and South-West of Sydney, there is much left to be desired.
I reached out to Transport for New South Wales in an email, where I confronted them about the unreliable and unpleasant state of this service. Unfortunately, by the time of publication (despite prompt initial replies and an agreement to get something to me for my deadline), TfNSW or Transit Services (the specific company operating the 887 route) did not provide me with any further information or a formal response.
In my pondering over the cursed state of this bus, I came to a conclusion that it is in fact “that deep.” It is a complete disservice to the commuters from South-Western Sydney and beyond to have a barely functioning bus service. It is interrupting their access to education, something that should not be an ordeal to get to. This is worsened by the fact that South-West Sydney, specifically the LGAs of Campbelltown, Liverpool, Fairfield, and Canterbury-Bankstown, is the most socio-economically disadvantaged area in Greater Sydney (according to the 2021 Census); meaning that it can be argued that the poor quality of this service is in fact classist. It seems as if quality public transport is often something that is only given to those who are well off. As one of my fellow commuters said to me: “My education is going to be the only thing to pull me out of poverty.” If they cannot easily access said education, their wellbeing is put at great risk.
It is incredibly apparent that the infrastructure and governance around public transport is rife with issues, not just within this one incredibly cursed bus route, but across the entire system as a whole. Everybody deserves well-functioning, accessible and affordable public transport - preferably not haunted by the spirits of disgruntled UOW students of the past.
