Public transport in Sydney

Sydney has fairly good public transport.

Finding times and routes.

You really can't go past a clever app called Tripview. It even does coaches! With the buses and ferries, which are my main modes, you can get the time when the next service runs. With the buses, you will normally get a map which shows exactly where your bus is. With the ferries, if you look at the Manly ferry, the traditional ferries are the ones that show a travel time of around 31 minutes.

Ferries.

You can spend a whole day riding ferries around the harbour, using your Opal card. Definitely recommended: the Parramatta run: this will take about three hours, or four if you try food and drink in Parramatta; The Manly ferry of course; Cockatoo Island (well worth a wander around) and Taronga Zoo.

Buses.

The buses go almost everywhere. I have covered the 191 bus to Palm  Beach from Manly Wharf, and later I will deal with the B1 express bus from Wynyard to Mona Vale and the 333 bus from Circular Quay to Bondi Beach, but make your own adventure.

The 324 and 325 routes are worth following to the very end.

Trains.

When I am working on a book, I often take train ride on the slow intercity trains that run to Kiama, the Blue Mountains, the Hunter and the Southern Highlands. More on these later, but Kiama is my favourite. Pro tip: catch the Kiama train fromn Martin Place railway to get a better choice of seat. The left side has the best views, but also gets the most sun.

The Metro (M1).

This is new and driverless, running from Tallawong in the north-west to Sydenham in the south. Not a lot to see, though with no driver, you can get a good view to the front. Most of it is deep underground.

Trams.

No, not trams, light rail. The most obvious ones start from Circular Quay, just south of the railway line, and run to one of two places in the eastern suburbs (L2 to Randwick, L3  to Kingsford. 

 L1 Central Railway to Dulwich Hill, crosses the L2 and L3 near Chinatown, and the L4 Westmead & Carlingford line is totally isolated

Steam trains.

These are quite few and far between, but the Live Steam Locomotive Society has occasional running days.

Further away from Sydney, and highly recommended is the Zigzag railway. I will do a separate page on this at some future date.

The image on the right is of a steam locomotive near Bowral in the Southern Highlands.

From this, I have about 20 new pages to complete, later. Ugh!











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