Public transport in Sydney

Sydney and its surrounding regions is served by an extensive network of public transport services. According to the New South Wales State Plan, the state has Australia's largest public transport system. Indeed, in the 1920s, Sydney also boasted the Southern Hemisphere's largest tram network. Public transport in Sydney accounts for almost double the share of commuter journeys in other state capitals. The network is regulated by the New South Wales Ministry of Transport, which is working towards an integrated network serving Sydney, Newcastle, the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and the Illawarra.

Sydney's notably low population density can be traced in part to its public transport network. The city, founded in 1788 acquired its public transport system relatively early on in its life—rail services began in 1855. Working-class suburbs could thus be built far from the city centre, whereas in older cities, the need to maintain walking distance between residential and employment centres kept sprawl to a minimum. [Forster, Clive 1996 "Australian Cities: Continuity and Change". Oxford University Press]

Ticketing and fares

Across much of the network, fares are controlled by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of New South Wales. Operators must demonstrate value to passengers before IPART will allow fare increases above the level of inflation. In practice, this has kept fares artificially low, and since the government does not provide enough extra funding, depriving the network of the investment required to improve services. The perceived need for higher fares was a key theme in the 2003 Ministerial inquiry into sustainable public transport in New South Wales.

Efforts are underway to standardise ticketing and fares across the Greater Sydney network. At present, most bus journeys are priced according to a common fare scale. Government-run bus, train and ferry operators share an interoperable Automated Fare Collection System, based on magnetic stripe technology. The ministry is also developing a new smart card based ticketing system for all public transport operators, called Tcard.

Bus

, a government authority. The remainder are carried by a large number of private-sector operators. [ [http://www.sta.nsw.gov.au/commonpdfs/report/bus_users_statistics.pdf 2000 "Bus Users in Sydney" Report from the Transport Data Centre, part of Transport NSW] ( [http://google.com/search?q=cache:www.sta.nsw.gov.au/commonpdfs/report/bus_users_statistics.pdf HTML version via google cache] ) -- provides state & private bus trips taken, total derived from that. [http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/abouttrans/ "About Transport in New South Wales" page from Transport NSW] -- provides total trips taken (about 2 million), "about half" derived from that and total bus trips taken.]

East of Strathfield, the bus network replaces the city's former tram network. Here, a subsidiary of the State Transit Authority of New South Wales, Sydney Buses, operates a network tightly integrated with train and ferry services. Further from the CBD, services are generally operated by private-sector companies under contract to the New South Wales Ministry of Transport. Under pressure from bus contracting reforms, many of the private bus companies have merged or entered into joint ventures. The largest private bus operator is ComfortDelGro Cabcharge, owners of Westbus. Other significant players in the industry include Punchbowl Bus Company, Busways, transit first and Veolia Transport. State Transit operates bus rapid transit services on the Liverpool-Parramatta T-way through its Western Sydney Buses subsidiary.

Bus services in the regions surrounding Sydney are considered part of the metropolitan network. Apart from the city of Newcastle, where State Transit subsidiary Newcastle Buses & Ferries operates, outer-metropolitan services are provided by the private sector. Here, ComfortDelGro Cabcharge, Busways and Premier Illawarra are significant players.

Network

Inner metropolitan bus routes have three-digit route numbers, grouped by region.
*100 series - Northern Beaches
*200 series - Northern District and North Shore
*300 series - Eastern Suburbs
*400 series - Inner West and Southern Suburbs
*500 series - North West
*600 series - Western Suburbs and Hills District (T-way)
*700 series - Outer Western Suburbs and Hills District (T-way)
*800 series - Outer South-Western Suburbs
*900 series - St George/Sutherland and South WestA bus rapid transit network is being developed. http://www.t-way.nsw.gov.au/
*The Liverpool-Parramatta T-way has been in operation since 2003
*The North-West T-way is open and currently operating since Sunday 11 March 2007
*In addition, Sydney has a network of 75 km of bus-only lanes on other roadsThe bus networks of neighbouring regions are integrated with Sydney's.
*Blue Mountains
*Central Coast
*Illawarra
*NewcastleBuses also serve to replace trains between midnight and 5.00 am on the CityRail network. This service is called NightRide.

Reform

Prompted by the Parry and Unsworth reviews of bus services, the Ministry is introducing significant changes to fare and contracting arrangements on the network. In particular:
*New contract areas. There were previously 87 small contract areas where private bus companies operated, however the recent Unsworth Bus Reform has seen this consolidate into 10 areas, which will be further consolidated into just eight areas in 2012.
*New bus corridors. This will also include 43 'strategic' bus corridors, offering enhanced and more frequent services. The first of these, Hurstville to Miranda and Liverpool to Bankstown, have come into operation.
*Unified fare scale. Passengers on public and private buses will buy tickets according to the same fare scale.
*Integrated ticketing. All bus operators will use a new integrated ticketing system, Tcard, once development is complete.

Attacks

ComfortDelGro Cabcharge, through its subsidiary Westbus provide public transport through the Greater Western Sydney region, including Willmot. Throughout 2006-2007 there have been escalating levels of violent attacks against buses travelling through this suburb especially after dark. [ [http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/drivers-boycott-violent-suburb/2007/06/07/1181089242166.html Drivers boycott violent suburb - National - smh.com.au ] ] This has reached the level of an attack by a person using what was reported by the bus driver and passengers as a "home made rocket launcher".fact|date=July 2008 All bus services throughout Wilmott, except school bus services, have been suspended pending discussions between Westbus management, the Transport Workers Union and police. cite episode | title = Nova News 8:00 am edition | network = Nova | station = 96.9 FM | city = Sydney | airdate = 2007-06-07 ]

Rail

Heavy rail

:"See also: CityRail, Railways in Sydney"Sydney's suburban train service consisting of eleven railway lines is operated by CityRail. Sydney does not have a separate metro system, but the suburban lines run underground where they converge in the city centre, and on the Eastern Suburbs and Airport lines. On most lines, there are two to four trains an hour at off-peak times. Fares are calculated on the basis of distance travelled.

Trains run as suburban commuter rail services in the outer suburbs, then converge in an underground city loop service in the CBD. In the years following the 2000 Olympics, CityRail's performance declined significantly. [cite web
title =Yearly On-Time Running
work =
publisher =CityRail
date= 2006
url =http://www.cityrail.info/aboutus/our_performance/otr_year_tot_chart.jsp
accessdate =2008-02-27 ] Public anger resulted in the introduction of a new timetable, the employment of more drivers and a large infrastructure project, called the Clearways project, which is scheduled to be completed by 2010. [CityRail (2002). [http://www.cityrail.info/news/clearways.jsp Rail Clearways Plan] ] [Kerr, J. and A. Smith. July 22 2004. [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/21/1090089220976.html Panic stations over CityRail driver exodus] . "Sydney Morning Herald"] [Kerr, J. December 4 2004. [http://smh.com.au/news/National/Terminal-dilemma/2004/12/03/1101923341685.html Terminal dilemma] . "Sydney Morning Herald"] In 2007 a report found Cityrail performed poorly compared to many metro services from other world cities. [cite news
date=March 21 2007
url= http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21418282-2,00.html
title=Aussie train services 'among world's worst'
publisher= News.com.au
accessdate=2008-01-11 ] There are no train services in most of Western Sydney, the Northern Beaches, or Eastern Suburbs. Many new lines have been suggested, and a new Epping to Chatswood line is currently under construction. Work is also underway on the Clearways Project, aiming to "untangle" the network and reduce the interdependence of the separate lines.

CityRail interurban trains to the Illawarra, Southern Highlands, Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Newcastle leave from the network's hub, Central railway station. This station is also the terminus for CountryLink trains to country New South Wales, Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as the Indian Pacific to Perth.

Trams

Sydney once boasted the Southern Hemisphere's largest tram network. Patronage peaked in 1945 at 405 million passenger journeys. The system was in place from 1861, until its winding down in the 1950s and eventual closure in 1961. It had a maximum street mileage of 181 miles (291 km) in 1923. A short light rail line linking Loftus and the Royal National Park has operated since the 1990s as a museum and tourist attraction.

Light Rail and Monorail

As part of the Darling Harbour development, an urban renewal project timed to coincide with Australia's bicentenary celebrations in 1988, a monorail line was opened to link the harbourside's tourist attractions with the city centre. In 1997, a short light rail line was opened between Central and the Inner West. Both are now owned by Metro Transport Sydney and operated by Veolia.

Metro

In 2008 the NSW Government announced details of a proposed underground rapid transit metro line which will run from the northwestern suburbs to the CBD. The line will be independent of the traditional heavy rail network and trains will not run on a fixed timetable. The line is expected to be completed in 2017.

Taxi

New South Wales is served by a fleet of around 6000 taxis. The industry employs over 22,000 taxi drivers. The network is the largest in Australia. Most taxis are Ford Falcons, although a smaller number of Holden Commodores, Ford Fairlanes, Holden Statesmen, Toyota Camrys, Toyota Taragos, Volkswagen Vans, Chrysler Voyagers, Mercedes Vans, and Toyota Hiaces, are in service. In general, taxis run on liquid petroleum gas fuel. Many individual taxis are owned by small-scale operators who pay membership fees to regional or citywide radio communication networks. These networks provide branding as well as telephone and internet booking services to operators and drivers.

Ferry

Sydney Ferries

Sydney Ferries, another State government-owned organisation, runs numerous commuter and tourist ferry services on Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River. Harbour ferries are used in equal measure by commuter and leisure users; Parramatta River ferries are overwhelmingly used for leisure and tourist trips. Sydney Ferries operates on nine lines of route, with approximately 14,000,000 passengers per year. [ [http://www.sydneyferries.info/aboutus/index.php Sydney Ferries homepage] ] Sydney Ferries operates from Circular Quay Ferry Terminal, a major transport hub in Sydney's central business district, with popular routes including ferries and Jet Cats (high speed catamarans) to the beachside suburb of Manly and ferries to Taronga Zoo, a major tourist attraction. Sydney Ferries also operates sightseeing cruises for tourists.

Other ferry operators

*Central Coast Ferries operates ferry services from Empire Bay to Woy Woy and Ettalong
*Church Point Ferry operates ferry services from Church Point to Scotland Island
*Cronulla and National Park Ferry operates ferry services from Cronulla to Bundeena
*Dangar Island Ferries operates ferry services from Brooklyn to Dangar Island
*Matilda Cruises operates ferry services from Circular Quay to Darling Harbour and Lane Cove
*Palm Beach Ferry operates ferry services from Palm Beach to Mackerel Beach and the Basin, and to Ettalong and Wagstaff
*Palm Beach & Hawkesbury River Cruises operates ferry services from Palm Beach to Patonga

References

External links

* [http://www.131500.info 131 500 : Integrated website on public transport in Sydney] - comprehensive information on trains, buses and ferries.