NRL Grand Final: your train home from Olympic Park

Around 80,000 people are expected at Accor Stadium on Sunday 4 October, and they all leave at the same time. Express trains run from Olympic Park to Central every 5 minutes from 9.30pm, and your match ticket has already paid for them.

Keep the ticket in your pocket once you are through the gates. It is your fare on the train, the metro, the bus, the light rail and the ferry, in both directions, right through until 4am on Monday. Show it to staff when you board.

How do you get there?

Olympic Park station is a 10 minute walk from the stadium, straight down Olympic Boulevarde.

From Central, express trains run every 10 minutes from 1pm to 5.30pm, then every 7 to 8 minutes until 9.30pm, stopping at Redfern and Strathfield on the way. Regular services to Lidcombe connect with trains to Olympic Park as well, so a missed express is not a missed afternoon.

From the west, extra services leave Penrith every 20 minutes from 1.30pm, calling at Seven Hills, Westmead, Parramatta, Granville and Lidcombe. From the south west it is Leppington every 20 minutes from 1.30pm, all stations to Granville, then Lidcombe. From Bankstown, trains run to Lidcombe every 15 minutes and you change there.

Gates open at 1pm. The state championship kicks off at 1.20pm, the NRLW Grand Final at 4pm and the NRL Grand Final at 7.30pm.

Coming in from the Hills or the north west?

Nine event bus routes run into Olympic Park for this game, from the northern beaches, the inner west, the Sutherland Shire, the north west, the Hills and the southern suburbs. They go every 5 to 20 minutes from 1.35pm, and the match ticket covers them too.

If you are on the metro, route 5B picks up at Tallawong, Rouse Hill, Bella Vista and Norwest, and route 5A at Hills Showground and Castle Hill. Either one saves you the change at Central.

There are two bus terminals at Olympic Park and they are not next to each other, which is worth knowing before you walk out of the ground at night looking for the stand you arrived at.

• Routes 1A, 1B, 2 and 4 use the Aquatic Terminal, on Olympic Boulevarde near Herb Elliott Avenue.
• Routes 5A, 5B, 6, 7 and 8 use the Plaza Terminal, further along Olympic Boulevarde near Kevin Coombs Avenue.

The last bus in on every route leaves between 5.35pm and 6.14pm, so if the bus is your plan, you are leaving home in the afternoon rather than the evening.

What about getting home?

To Central, express trains leave Olympic Park every 5 minutes from 9.30pm to 11.30pm, then every 15 minutes until 12.30am, stopping at Strathfield and Redfern.

Heading west, trains leave every 7 to 8 minutes from 9.30pm until midnight, through Lidcombe, Granville, Parramatta, Westmead and Seven Hills, then all stations to Blacktown, Schofields or Penrith.

Going south, there is one extra service worth knowing about. It leaves Bondi Junction at 10.43pm and runs through Redfern, Sydenham, Wolli Creek, Hurstville, Sutherland and Waterfall, then all stations to Kiama.

Event buses leave the precinct about every 5 minutes after the match, and the last one on each route goes by 11pm. Full time is around 9.20pm, which gives you a bit over an hour and a half. If you are on a bus route, that is the number to hold on to.

If you were going to drive

Do not drive to Olympic Park without pre-booked parking. It is booked online ahead of the day at a flat $40, and there is nothing to sort out at the gate on the afternoon. Even with a booking, allow up to an extra hour just to get out of the car park, because everyone leaves at once.

Driving to a station instead is the version that works. The commuter car parks at the metro stations are large: Tallawong has 1,000 spaces, Kellyville 1,389 plus a 150 space overflow at Decora Drive, Bella Vista 800 and Hills Showground 600. Park & Ride gives you up to 18 hours free when you complete a public transport trip, and on the way out you press the intercom at the exit gate and show your event ticket. You can check the spaces before you leave.

The practical stuff

• The ferry arrives at Sydney Olympic Park Wharf, which is 3.6km from the stadium, about a 40 minute walk. The 526 bus connects. F3 services are popular and can reach capacity.
• Taxi ranks on Herb Elliott Avenue at the Pullman Hotel, and a second on Edwin Flack Avenue opposite the stadium, open from 30 minutes before the scheduled finish.
• Rideshare is geo-fenced around the precinct, and after full time demand is high and prices are likely to surge.
• Roads inside the precinct are closed. Grand Parade is shut across the long weekend.
• Before the game there are food trucks and entertainment at Fig Grove, and the local cafes and restaurants are open.
• Getting dropped off puts you in the traffic everyone else is in. The station does not have that problem.

Check the live times before you leave the ground. A published frequency is the plan. The countdown is what is actually turning up.