I think Sydney's public transport wayfinding would benefit from pointing to specific lines more often
07.03.2026 06:26
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I think Sydney's public transport wayfinding would benefit from pointing to specific lines more often
There is some room on the existing line from Central to Parramatta, but not much, and using the line would likely prevent high-frequency high-speed rail services and increasing the frequency of existing suburban and intercity services.
There's still some value in the current designations, as they indicate whether a train will stop at all the stops shown on that line on the map – it's "All Stops" if it will, "Limited Stops" if it skips at least 1, and "Express" if it skips many.
The only way the stopping patterns are distinguished is by the stations shown as the destination and where the train is going via, and by the list of all the stops the train stops at. I think there should be a better way of designating stopping patterns in Sydney.
Next-train indicators say "Limited Stops" for all of these patterns, except at the last few stops where they say "All Stops", since each of these stopping pattern stops at all of the last few stops on the line.
I agree that train designations should ideally do that, but in Sydney they don't really. For example, the T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra Line has 3 stopping patterns in off-peak periods, all of which are limited-stops and stop at different combinations of stations.
I assume so. "Limited Stops" is still accurate in this case, as it tells you that you can't go to every stop on that line in that direction on that train.
I think Sydney Trains next-train indicators will say "Limited Stops" when at least 1 stop is skipped.
While saying "all stops service" may not be strictly necessary if all services make all stops, I think saying it is fine, since it would reassure passengers that the train will stop at the stop they're going to, considering it's common for services on other lines in Sydney to skip stops.
The regular announcements on trains still said "This is an all stops service" even though the train was skipping a stop, and the displays between the doors still said "All stops to [destination]", but there were special announcements about how trains were skipping Barangaroo.
Close-up photograph of a passenger information display in a Sydney Metro train, showing a diagram of stations on the line. From left to right, Central, Gadigal, Martin Place, Barangaroo, Victoria Cross, and Crows Nest stations are visible, each with a dot on a line and a label above the line. An arrow icon pointing to the left is between the dots for Barangaroo and Victoria Cross, showing the location of the train and the direction of travel. The dots for Central, Gadigal, and Martin Place are turquoise. The dot for Barangaroo is dark grey with an exclamation mark inside. The dots for Victoria Cross and Crows Nest are light grey.
Close-up photograph of a passenger information display in a Sydney Metro train, showing a diagram of stations on the line. From left to right, Central, Gadigal, Martin Place, Barangaroo, Victoria Cross, and Crows Nest stations are visible, each with a dot on a line and a label above the line. An arrow icon pointing to the left is between the dots for Martin Place and Barangaroo, showing the location of the train and the direction of travel. The dots for Central, Gadigal, and Martin Place are turquoise. The dot for Barangaroo is dark grey with an exclamation mark inside. The dots for Victoria Cross and Crows Nest are light grey.
Close-up photograph of a passenger information display in a Sydney Metro train, showing a diagram of stations on the line. From left to right, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, and Martin Place stations are visible, each with a dot on a line and a label above the line. An arrow icon pointing to the left is between the dots for Barangaroo and Martin Place, showing the location of the train and the direction of travel. The dot for Victoria Cross is turquoise. The dot for Barangaroo is dark grey with an exclamation mark inside. The dot for Martin Place is light grey.
Close-up photograph of a passenger information display in a Sydney Metro train, showing a small section of a diagram of stations on the line. A dark grey dot with an exclamation mark inside is on a turquoise line, with the label "Barangaroo" above.
The line diagrams on trains still showed Barangaroo. But between arriving at the station before Barangaroo and arriving at the station after it, the station icon for Barangaroo was replaced with a different icon with an exclamation mark.
Photograph of a next-train indicator display at platform 2 at Chatswood station. The destination of the train is shown as "Sydenham via City". Below this, the first 5 of the train's stops are listed: Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Martin Place, Gadigal, and Central. Normally, Barangaroo would be between Victoria Cross and Martin Place. On the right side of the screen, there is the text "Limited Stops" in a dark grey box; normally this text would say "All Stops".
Next-train indicators didn't list Barangaroo as a stop and said the service was "Limited Stops" instead of "All Stops", though they weren't doing this at all stations, as at Sydenham I saw they were still showing the service as stopping at all stops.
Close-up photograph of a passenger information display in a Sydney Metro train, showing a diagram of stations on the line. From left to right, Chatswood, Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Martin Place, and Gadigal stations are visible, each with a dot on a line and a label above the line. An arrow icon pointing to the left is between the dots for Barangaroo and Martin Place, showing the location of the train and the direction of travel. The dots for Chatswood, Crows Nest, and Victoria Cross are turquoise. The dot for Barangaroo is dark grey with an exclamation mark inside. The dots for Martin Place and Gadigal are light grey.
On New Year's Eve 2024, Sydney Metro services didn't stop at Barangaroo between 17:00 and 23:45 due to large crowds. During this period, there were some changes to passenger information displays, since trains were skipping a station they'd normally stop at.
While extending the Parramatta Light Rail line from Carlingford to Epping would probably be possible, it would be difficult due to the steep topography in Carlingford and the width of Carlingford Road. And an underground rail line would be faster than a light rail line.
However, branching also complicates services, and limits the frequency of each type of service. While diverting South Line services into a new tunnel would require changing trains on many trips, it would increase the overall capacity of the network.
Currently, South Line services join the Western Line north of Merrylands, branching in both directions. Branching like this allows the Western Line's capacity to be used for multiple types of services, allowing many kinds of trips to be made on a single train.
But I've changed my mind on this, as diverting South Line services into a tunnel to Epping would allow significant simplification of services on the Western Line, and more services on the South Line as well.
I thought this idea wasn't very good because I thought it wouldn't improve services on the South Line much, and I thought a Parramatta Light Rail extension would be a better way of creating a rail link between Parramatta and Epping.
In the past, I thought the idea of building a rail tunnel from Merrylands to Epping via Parramatta and Carlingford (an idea implied in the Future Transport Strategy 2056 document) wasn't a very good one. However, over the first half of this year, I changed my mind on this.
New Exploring Sydney's Railways video! In this one I visit Como Station on the Illawarra Line, which has a beautiful station entrance. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSpu...
When Sydney introduced line numbers on its train network in 2013, the T2 and T8 were the same line (before this they were separate named lines). But the lines were split in 2017, which was a good change as it made it clearer where a train was going when catching a train in the city.
The intersection of Hill Road and Stromboli Strait close to this sign is planned to have traffic lights added as part of the construction of the Parramatta Light Rail Stage 2 line next to Hill Road, which will include a stop behind where this sign is now.
Sydney's Sydney Metro City & Southwest and Melbourne's Metro Tunnel have increased the number of tracks through the city from 6 to 8, and Brisbane's Cross River Rail will increase the number of tracks through the city from 4 to 6.
Australia's 3 largest cities all have recently built or are currently building new city-center rail tunnels to increase the capacity of the rail network, by redirecting some lines into the new tunnel and increasing the frequency of other lines which continue to use the existing tunnels.
I'm back in Sydney now, after getting the train back from Canberra. The train might not be the fastest way to get between Sydney and Canberra, but it's a nice way to do it.
Looking up a hill towards a flagpole with the flag of the Australian Capital Territory, with rows of trees on either side of an area of grass and dirt leading towards the flagpole
A view to the south from City Hill, with rows of trees on either side of a grassy area leading down towards Commonwealth Avenue, which leads towards Parliament House in the distance
City Hill, at one of the corners of Canberra's Parliamentary Triangle.
Looking along a pedestrian bridge with a concrete floor and metal barriers on either side; there is a bench on the bridge and the bridge is wider around this bench
The Butters Bridge, a pedestrian bridge over the Molonglo River which opened in 2016.
A bridge over a valley, viewed from a long distance away. There are trees and grass in the valley, and cranes at the ends of the bridge.
The under-construction Molonglo River Bridge.
Mid-rise apartment buildings with shops at ground level on a pedestrian street next to a body of water
The Kingston Foreshore area, close to Canberra Station.
The front of a NSW TrainLink Xplorer train at the platform at Canberra Station
I'm in Canberra now, after taking the train from Sydney. This was my first time on an Xplorer train.