Here it is, our Video Blog, Hope all you fun lovin Train enthusiasts enjoy this one!!
This video relates to the blog because it shows what it’s like to use Sydney Trains daily. We give you a general rundown on what it is like to ride on Sydney Trains and cover some common train safety. Not all of this is serious, so please dont take it all seriously.
New South Wales tertiary students are starting to take advantage
of the new Concession Opal card providing discounted fares on public
transport. The release of the card was timed to coincide with the
start of the first semester in 2015.
The Concession Opal card
is a NSW Government initiative that promises big savings on all forms
of public transport from Newcastle to Illawarra and everywhere
in-between.
Sydney Trains
NSW TrainLink Intercity services
Buses in Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Newcastle, Central Coast, Illawarra and Hunter
Sydney Ferries and the Stockton Ferry
Light rail
Who is eligible?
Although there was some initial reluctance due to privacy concerns,
tertiary institutions are getting onboard the Concession Opal program.
The rollout commenced in early February and since many prestigious universities and institutions are participating. Some of these include:
The University of Sydney
UNSW Australia
The University of Notre Dame Australia
Australian Catholic University
Macquarie University
University of Wollongong
Navitas English
Benefits of the Concession Opal card
Half price adult Opal fares and off-peak savings on
trains are around 30%. With Opal, you will only pay for your first 8
journeys for the week. After that – its free! Some students travel long
distances to get to university, but with Opal their fare will be capped
at $7.50 for the entire day of public transport travel. There is also a
weekly travel cap of $30 making it a lot easier to stick within tight student budgets.
**Stay tuned to see the Concession Opal cards in action on our upcoming Vlog post! Source: https://www.opal.com.au
- Tim
The need for a line to the northern beaches is critical. The
lack of proper transportation is putting the Northern Beaches into
gridlock at peak hours and weekends. To get to the city from Avalon or Newport, the travel time is est. 1h25m, and at peak times this can rise to just under 2hrs.
Today I decided to go and investigate a little more. I went to my local shops in Northern Sydney to find out what the public had to say on the train line debate. Here is what a few had to say -
Matt: If you asked the people that live there i bet 90% say no to a train line,
the beaches are nice on don't need to be destroyed by the masses, if you
live on the Northern beaches then you brought knowing there is no line.
Concrete and mass transit has its
place in the city and other places need trees and less people or they
will be destroyed and turn into a Bondi/Manly look and feel, which is
not good. The cost would be massive as per the landscape and it wouldn't
be profitable or the power that be would have done it 80 years ago or
last year.
Anonymous: The
problem is the masses are moving there. Congestion is getting worse
and beyond the point of ridiculous. Rail is the only the means of
transport than can move massive amounts of people. If you were to ask
this question in the 1990s, you would get a 90 percent disapproval. Its
2015 and Sydney is chocking, especially the Northern beaches. Well over
50 percent of the Northern beaches residents want rail.
Nick: The Northern beaches line should've been built 80 years ago. Some of the
longest commutes in the world are from the Mona Vale to the city
The most recent underground section of rail infrastructure that was built in Sydney is the Epping to Chatswood Rail Link, opened in 2009. This consists of 13km twin tunnels running with Stations at North Ryde, Macquarie Park and Macquarie University. The original plan was for a Chatswood to Parramatta link, however the NSW Government ran out of money to complete the project. Finally, the North West Rail link, currently under construction, will eventually link up with the Epping to Chatswood rail link, creating the first major section of the Sydney Rapid Transit System. The Sydney Rapid Transit System will eventually link the North west, North Shore, CBD, Inner West and Bankstown Areas with Single deck metro style trains. ~ Cameron
These forgotten tunnels and station platforms, built decades ago to accommodate for a much greater suburban network, never had an active train run through them. And never will.
John Bradfield, the man who designed the suburban network, the
City Circle underground and the Harbour Bridge, wanted lines to Bondi,
Randwick, Balmain and the Northern Beaches, among others. When the current City Circle and Central to North Sydney lines were
being built in the 1920s, Bradfield added small sections of tunnel to allow for the these other lines, if they were ever built.
Two single line tunnels run from St James Station, each a
kilometre long, lie beneath Hyde Park for the proposed Bondi and
Randwick lines. North of St James, a tunnel was built
for the Balmain line. It now sits under Macquarie Street and terminates
under the Botanic Gardens.
The tunnels run into two centre platforms at St James, complete with tiles, now hidden from the public gaze.
Sydney Trains director of operations Tony Eid, took the 'Today' show on to Central's platforms 26 and 27,
built at the same time as the Eastern Suburbs line, which opened in
1979. The platforms, just concrete shells, sit above the underground
platforms 24 and 25 on the Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra lines.
There are many proposals for high-speed trains around the world that would be most likely using MAGLEV technology. Some of the countries include the United Kingom, United States, Puerto Rico, Germany, Switzerland, China, India, Malaysia, Iran, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia.
Earlier in this year in Australia, Peter Hendy, the Federal Member of parliament for Eden-Monaro proposed the idea for the Very Fast Train project. This project would make a train connection between Canberra and Sydney most likely using MAGLEV technology. Its aim is to connect Canberra and Sydney through a train trip that would take less than an hour.
Plans that sound more feasible is over 1,500 kms of train track between Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. The Federal Government of Australia has already committed $300 million for the plans. A study by AECOM in 2013 estimated this VFT project to cost around $114 billion and will be complete at around 2065.
The project is very important according to Hendy as he states:
"Such a long term project will lead to development in our region that kills once-and-for-all Canberra's unhealthy dependency on the federal public service and concerns about being a "one company town"."
The London underground (also known as the tube) is considered the oldest rapid transport system in the world, which opened in 1863. It is also known as one of the first systems to use electric traction trains. What is every similar to the opal card in Sydney, Oyster card has been around since 2003 in London. The underground set a standard for the rest of the world in terms of intercity transport, having entrances available walking distance everywhere. On top of this the trains also arrive both very frequently and extremely consistently. If a train by chance is one minute late they will repeatedly apologize over the voice announcer for the duration of the service.
