the t-card was a farce, certainly. and those funny little machines will be attached to every bus door as a reminder of the sad spectacle of it all.

but it was as much about the t-card company being fucked as the government being stupid enough to give it to them.

apart from that, i love my bus route in the morning. its always packed but you only ever have to wait 5 mins for a bus to come past.

i read it as the old brisbane system being similar to the current sydney system, so by buying all the stock of machines, they can repair/reuse them and keep the current system running.

Parramatta Rd is like that charles, though where i get on at Annandale all we get for twenty minutes are packed-out buses just passing by. There needs to be more buses in the morning t the stop across from Olympia milkbar, there can sometimes be up to fifty people waiting for a bus at one time. when you consider most services get packed by the time they reach Leichhardt, it gets pretty frustrating.

funny that the same mob that f*cked up the t-card also made the 15yr old current machines though - so even with the parts from brisbane, the state government still has to deal with them to keep the current system running ;(

and read another article the other day saying a big part of the problem was the fare structure of sydney transport (110 different fare types? Not being multi modal, having to buy tickets on a per destination basis, etc) most of the other ERG systems that have worked have gone to easier to implement zone type structures, and integrated trains and buses and the like. nsw gov should be looking at that, as it'll be a hurdle for any new system that will try to make all those components work.

my bus stop isn't bad except for the 20 minute delays. Paramatta Rd stop is okay but in general public transport pisses me off. why no train to the inner west? why not benches at bus stops? why is my wallet clogged with useless recipets?

i'd hate to be a new comer to Sydney transport. in europe - even in small Eastern European countries like Slovakia - the routes are clear, fares are obvious and timetables are reliable.

Imagine trying to get from, say, Leichhardt to Kensington as a newcomer to the city.

ha i totally forgot that you had to push a button with the train station name on it in sydney. that seems so backwards to me now! do the weekly cards etc work on buses as well as trains?

article about the fares

hooray for searching.

Imagine trying to get from, say, Leichhardt to Kensington as a newcomer to the city.

oh man... back when i used to live in Maroubra i'd hike to Central because i didn't realize I could get home from Town Hall. and then once i did that i realized that half the time trains from Central wouldn't run at nights on weekends

i couldn't believe how easy it was to get around melb

I like the way Adelaide doesn't have problems with train or buses being late.

They just don't have real timetables, only a promise that you won't have to wait more than 15 minutes between 7.30 am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday and 30 minutes at night, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays

I blame unions

''and read another article the other day saying a big part of the problem was the fare structure of sydney transport (110 different fare types?''

I think this is somewhat of an equity issue - loads of lower socio-economic background in the west, I think the government has been weary about switching fair types for them to go up (or worse, cost more than the north shore).

but it is something that has to get done, and will get done eventually. The dumping of the T-Card has been on the cards for a while, only the Govt was contractually obliged to wait until a lengthy gap in delivery before they could do so without penalty.

bus was 10 minutes late. woo!

they should privatise the bloody thing

Sydneys system is the same as Tokyo...only instead of pushin the name of the train station you push a button with the price of the fair to that station...There is a huge list beside the machines for you to work it out...I guess it means smaller machines.

but tokyo has fare adjustment machines that you can use before you exit a station to top up your trip. Sydney needs those.

Actually - sydney needs to start again instead of creating band-aid solutions to a flawed system

but transport is fucking terrible in the west and it's probably half of why you'd think they . you don't realise how good the inner west has it until you're out in the middle of the Greater West suburbia - especially the newer developments where there's fuck all infrastructure - where the buses are private and irregular, where trains are more or less nonexistent, etc etc. thus all the desire for bigger freeways out there, because public transport is either hard to use or useless.

i'm not sure what the issue with fair types in the west is, CIC? the buses i catch out here in milperra have the same fare structure as sydneybuses buses...

I would have thought it would have been better to go ahead with the T-Card system, even if there is issues with streamlining the fares, because those issues could have been resolved over time.

Abandoning the project is just procrastination on the government's behalf - Iemma and his crew are notorious at fucking up public / private partnerships.

Having just returned, though briefly, from living overseas, I must say it's a disappointment that the T-Card has been canned. It's a bit embarrassing when other major cities can pull off such a system - Oyster in London, Metro Card in New York, Suica in Tokyo etc, Octopus card in Hong Kong, etc.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma today revealed plans for a $12 billion European-style metro line from the CBD to the city's north-west, which will result in travel times from Rouse Hill to Wynyard being reduced by as much as 45 minutes.

Mr Iemma said the single-deck metros would run every four to five minutes and would link to interchanges with existing CityRail and bus routes.

There would be 17 stops between the CBD, under Victoria Road and to Rouse Hill.

It is likely the trains will be driverless and will be underground for about 32 kilometres and above ground for five kilometres.

'Replacing the old Kingswood with a Ferrari'

The metro is the ''Ferrari'' of train systems, the industry group for tourism, transport and infrastructure said.

Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) managing director Christopher Brown said the $12.5 billion metro project would be the state's biggest single public transport investment when it is completed in 2017.

''We're just delighted that finally we're getting a metro system, replacing the old Kingswood with a Ferrari, and the people of north-west Sydney will be the first to benefit,'' Mr Brown said today.

''It has taken a while, but we're getting it, and it's great.''

Mr Brown said commuters would see time savings in both transit times and while waiting for each metro train.

''The metro rail means you don't need a timetable, you lob on the station and trains just come past every few minutes,'' he said.

''It is modern, fantastically designed. It is the future of rail in Australia.

''It is what Asia and Europe enjoy already and it is about time Sydney, our global city, gets to enjoy the same distinction.''

Not dependent on sale of electricity assets: Iemma

Mr Iemma said the project was fully funded and not dependent on the sale of the state's electricity assets but he refused to rule out a public-private partnership, despite recent experiences with the troubled Cross City Tunnel.

Mr Iemma said it was a ''historic day'' for public transport in NSW and would ease congestion on the rail network.

''This is the latest in technology. After today there is no turning back, no matter who is in government, no matter who is premier. We have to have this type of system for the future of the city,'' Mr Iemma said.

''It's like a heart, it is clogged with cholesterol and in the end the heart will just grind to a halt and won't work and that's what congestion will do to a city.''

Mr Iemma said the first section between the Hills Centre and Epping would open by 2015 and the rest would be ready by 2017.

Other metros the Government will investigate will be between Parramatta and the CBD and a south-east line from the CBD to Maroubra and Malabar.

'Crucial for survival of Sydney as an international city'

Action for Public Transport spokesman Kevin Eadie said the plan was crucial for the ''survival of Sydney as an international city''.

''This represents a quantum leap,'' Mr Eadie told reporters.

''The present electric rail system in Sydney is 100 years old.''

The state had experienced years of delays in the rollout of new public transport infrastructure, Mr Eadie said, saying the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) was focused on cars.

''If the Premier gets away with this he will go down in history as having stood up to the roads lobby,'' Mr Eadie said.

Motoring group NRMA said a metro rail system was something that was needed, and it could be supported by funding from the Federal Government's fuel excise.

''The interesting issue is, what is the balance between road and rail?'' NRMA president Alan Evans told reporters.

''Motorists in general like to have the mobility and flexibility the car provides, but for their regular commutes they want something that is safe, efficient and cost-effective.

''This type of thing will provide that.''

• with AAP

bump for transport nerds.

bus enthusiast

bah, humbug. go play with your buses in a depot outside the city. bulldoze the lot of it i say!

BUS STRIKE!

(4am tomorrow until 4am sat)

get your whinge on.

damn it, I live a 15 min walk away from work.

There's no train station near me! This is going to be chaos. Walking everywhere in the rain.

george/york streets are rather pleasant without a gazillion buses on them.

Waited in extreme rain for 45 mins, only to get on the wrong bus and having to walk from petersham back to Enmore Park in the rain. The latter half of the trip was my own stupid fault, but a 45 minute wait at Railway square?

are you ready for the most OMFG story of the year...

it involves the transport minister, his resignation, a male sex club, and video evidence.

hohoho!

then again, its probably the only angle that the libs couldn't attack him on, mmm skeletons in closets.

they're saying thats where he was during the F3 traffic jam now.

the article on the daily telegraph say channel 7 have footage of him going into kens of kensington for 20 minutes, pretty straight (gay) forward.

wonder if mattphoenixx knows him.

thats NSW Govt efficiency in action.

channel 7 said it was for two hours.

we should come up with a decent headline.

campbell throws in the sauna towel, then resigns as transport minister

its on youtube already

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwY5N2GKkZM

were they following him?

so you can lose the state hundreds of millions of dollars and preside over a complete shambles of a transport system, but visiting a gay bar gets you thrown out. Leaves a bad taste in... well someone's mouth.

it would have been more outrageous if he had been filmed leaving randi wicks.

They just said on the news that people using public transport in Sydney are going to be seriously dicked around when Oprah hits town. There's going to be clearways and all sorts of shit.

fat cunt

what do you's think about taking the 3% reduction in business tax, adding it back on, and using it solely for transport infrastructure?

the productivity increase would be amazing. but imagine if we could get high speed rail to regional areas so people wouldn't have to live amongst the urban sprawl?