Re: Rail related questions about moving to Sydney

["Hubert" <hubert@imap4.com>]

This may be of use to you:

In the morning, services from Beecroft to Hornsby are not frequent at all: if you
study the timetable the shortest interval between any two trains (at around
7:30-8:30 mark) is 15 min (read 7:09am and 7:31am services from Burwood--these two
services are guaranteed to be late as they need to wait for an XPT and an intercity
service to "overtake" them before they can continue through to Hornsby). These
services are usually reliable as many of them start from North Sydney, so there is
little scope for delay for these trains. However at times, trains operating to
Epping only will hold up those continuing to Hornsby, as there is only a maximum of
a 5 minute leeway between Epping and Hornsby trains. Don't expect a seat on those
services between that time as well, as there are around 6 school in that district
and students are travelling to school at that time.

For the North Shore Line, the times are much more reliable as there are no intercity
services in the way of the suburban trains, plus as others have mentioned, the
services are very frequent.

In the afternoon, the North Shore trains are usually reliable, but over the past
week or so it hasn't been the case with the new signalling at Hornsby being
installed. Hopefully these minor hiccups will be ironed out by the time you get
here. However don't expect one train every ten minutes on the way down from Hornsby
to Beecroft. Many trains will run via North Shore to the City and then to the West
to carry passengers back to places like Parramatta/Blacktown.

Hope this is of use. Cheers

Hubert
(Burwood, Sydney)




Reuben Farrelly <reubie@bigpond.AAA.com> wrote in message
7ukidi$svu$1@newton.pacific.net.au">news:7ukidi$svu$1@newton.pacific.net.au...
Hi people,

In the next 6 weeks I will be moving from Melbourne to Sydney, and have a
question (and comments) about the suburban rail system up there...

* How reliable is the system in regards to both cancelled trains and
delays - I don't have a car and so will be depending on rail transport to
get to work in Artarmon.  In particular, do most trains run late (by much)
or on time - if I was to try and connect at Hornsby would I be safe to be
there 3 mins before, or 20 mins beforehand?

* If I bought a ticket to Artarmon from say, Beecroft, and I wanted to go
further north from Hornsby, could I simply buy another ticket from Hornsby
or would I have to buy a completely new ticket from source to destination?
Why does the system run on the basis of station-to-station fares as opposed
to zones like what Victoria has?  [Seems to add a lot of complication to the
system, although I think that Victorian zones are _way_ too big]

The offline timetable download on the cityrail website is a good idea, all
of 3842 files and 555 folders all zipped up into 1 ;)

Thanks,
Reuben