Sydney/Melbourne transport comparisons

["Peter Parker" <parkerp@alphalink.com.au>]

Some rough notes from a quick trip to Sydney last weekend.  My travel
included a quick look at the Airport terminal (didn't go in though) and
train travel to Hornsby and Gosford.

1.  Airport station
- Well sign posted from airport.  Walk longer than to buses, but still
reasonable for most people.
- Airport express buses to city (300) still run, despite train.
- Well-staffed and well-kept
- Very few passengers (7:35am Friday)
- Frequent services (5-10 min average) at above time
- overall impression favourable apart from ticket machines

2. CityRail ticket machines at airport station
- Use touch screens
- Much more complicated than Melbourne Metcard machines
- All but one machine had hand-written signs 'Exact Fare only'
- Machines won't accept new $5 or $50 notes
- Like Melbourne trams, several machines had 'Coin only' signs
- Machines had a weekly ticket top-up facility.
- Overall impression unfavourable

3. Trains to Hornsby and Gosford
- Stations and trains were spotless.  Melbourne trains (esp Bayside) are
rubbish tips on wheels by comparison.
- Reasonable efforts made to clean up vandalism and grafitti.
- Stopping times at stations meant that you had to be alert to avoid missing
stop (esp if riding on top level)
- The few station precincts seen cleaner than stations in Melbourne.  (I
can't speak for southern and
western Sydney suburbs though, which might be more like Melbourne)
- Trains much quieter, possibly faster.
- Passenger behaviour - mostly similar to Melb, though more people seem to
attract attention to themselves by
shouting loudly when in conversaton in Sydney (caution: sample size very
small).
- Overall impression favourable, though no detailed timetable study was done
to assess service levels and
reliability.

4. Other/general
- Melbourne's multi-mode zonal fare system much better than Sydney's
ramshackle mainly single-mode system
- Read in paper during stay about ticket machine crime (not only a Melbourne
problem)
- Heard passenger in Gosford train complain loudly about late
running/cancellations (3 out
of last five days either late to work or late home, and they still want to
put up the fares).  She was
on bottom level, I was on top - her voice carried well in Tangara.

Peter