Newcastle's park-and-ride to finish come month's end

The service, introduced in late 2017 as a trial program to reduce congestion in the city during light rail construction, carries commuters from McDonald Jones Stadium to the city each morning and back again in the afternoon.

It costs $2.20 for a return trip. In November, the Herald reported that the service had an average daily tally of about 123 passengers in its first 12 months of operation.

Read more: Newcastle park-and-ride bus patronage had grown but passenger numbers were under state government predictions

Only 3.7 per cent of Novocastrians travel to work on public transport, according to 2016 Census data.

City of Newcastle provides parking at the stadium and Transport for NSW pays Keolis Downer to operate the bus service.

In a statement to the Herald on Wednesday, a City of Newcastle spokesman said the council was in discussions to continue the service, saying "public transport is the responsibility of the NSW government."

"In a city that has been reluctant to embrace public transport, the Park and Ride has proved that people will use public transport when the service is affordable, reliable and regular," the spokesman said.

"City of Newcastle believes there is an undeniable case for the park and ride continuing until such time as the light rail is extended to Broadmeadow.

"The NSW government has publicly targeted increasing the percentage of people using buses through both the Greater Newcastle Metropolitan Plan and its Greater Newcastle Future Transport Plan. Both plans nominate park and ride as a means of doing this."

It has been estimated that around 1000 parking spaces have disappeared from the city in the past three years due to projects such as the light rail and developments at Honeysuckle.

The loss of the park-and-ride service may see more workers bringing their cars back to the CBD, increasing competition for parking.

A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said the service's funding was always linked to the light rail construction and was never guaranteed beyond this timeframe

"Newcastle Transport's integrated transport network provides frequent and increased services to get customers where they want to go, and now that light rail is up and running, locals have more transport options than ever before to move around Newcastle's city centre," the Department of Transport spokeswoman said.

"Customers wishing to continue to travel from the stadium can get a bus from Lambton Road.

"Route 13 runs into Newcastle's CBD every 15 minutes between 7am and 7pm, and route 26 runs to the Newcastle Interchange every 30 minutes during peak times.

"We encourage our customers to jump on board our regular route services, and get an Opal card to receive travel benefits, and daily and weekly travel caps."