The morning commuters keeping Canberra moving: stories from the people on our buses, trains and bike paths

Every weekday at 6:47 a.m., the first light rail train departs Gungahlin Station bound for Civic. On board are nurses finishing night shifts at Canberra Hospital, construction workers heading to sites across the city, and university students cramming for tests they should have started studying for last week.

These commuters represent an invisible backbone of the capital's daily rhythm. Yet as property prices cool and housing affordability bites harder—with median rents for a two-bedroom apartment in Belconnen now sitting at $2,100 per month—the stories of how Canberrans move around their city are shifting too. Transport choices are no longer just about convenience. They're about survival.

The light rail extension from Gungahlin to Civic, which opened in April 2023, has quietly become a lifeline for workers priced out of inner suburbs. The 12-minute journey costs $3.80 for a single fare, or $94 per month for unlimited access on the ACT network. Compare that to parking in Civic's paid zones—$1.50 per 15 minutes in peak hours—and the math gets clearer.

Where the journeys really happen

Step onto Lake Burley Griffin's shared path on any morning and you'll see Canberra's transport story written in motion. The 21-kilometre circuit around the lake has become a corridor for commuters who've ditched cars entirely. Cyclists in high-visibility gear weave past joggers heading to offices in Barton and Parkes. An older man on an e-bike, panniers loaded with groceries from the Fyshwick Markets, tells passersby he's cut his fuel costs by $150 a fortnight since switching to pedal power.

The Canberra Bus Rapid Transit network, which launched Stage 1A in December 2024, has fundamentally reshaped how people move between the northern and southern halves of the city. The dedicated bus lanes along Northbourne Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue mean commuters from Dickson and O'Connor can now reach Parliament House in 22 minutes flat—faster than sitting in traffic on the Monaro Highway.

Statistics tell part of the story. The ACT Government's 2024 travel survey found 38 per cent of Canberrans now use public transport, walking, or cycling for their main commute—up from 31 per cent just three years earlier. That's a significant shift for a city built on the assumption that everyone owns a car.

The real cost of getting around

But the numbers don't capture the people behind them. There's the sole parent working two jobs—one in Woden, one in Dickson—who relies on the 30-minute overlap in shift times to catch the 981 bus between shifts. There's the young professional paying $380 per month for a parking space in Civic while earning $58,000 a year, wondering how long she can sustain it. There's the retired electrician who traded his keys in at 72 because arthritis made gripping the steering wheel painful, and now plans his entire week around when the 39 bus runs to the shops in Tuggeranong.

Transport in Canberra has always been about more than moving from A to B. It's about whether you can afford to live here, whether you can reach your job, whether you can get your kids to school without spending two hours in a car each day. As the city grows and housing options shrink, these routes—whether they're Bus Rapid Transit lanes, light rail carriages, or the humble bicycle path—have become the veins that keep the capital's working life flowing.

The ACT Government is planning Stage 2 of the BRT network, with completion expected by 2026. If you're considering a change in how you move around Canberra, now's the time to map out your options. The infrastructure is there. The question is whether it'll be enough as more people realise their cars might be the problem, not the solution.