#100 for 2021 This…read moreis what happens when government wants to give their citizens a good transportation system. I love catching the trains. I feel very safe and comfortable. They really do lower the stress one can have in your busy day. Instead of worrying about all the drivers around you and where you are going, you can put your thought to be better things that can relax you. Catch up on reading, the news or watch a movie all off your own smart device. The problem with that is what do you do when you get home? I guess I could clean. How dreadfully boring. Before you board get an opal card. It's a card that can be loaded with money and reloaded any time you want to. It's like a debit card to use to board trains, buses and ferry boats. Many vendors or kiosks will have the logo displayed that says you can purchase and refill your cards with them. Conveniently located around the stops so you don't have to travel far. Now that you have your opal card use it to enter the boarding areas for where you want to go. You'll see people trying to buck the system and not pay. You'll also see the several spot checks they do to see who hasn't paid. Quite embarrassing. Don't buck the system and embarrass yourself. Pay up my friend and enjoy the ride. Now it might get a little confusing how to get around, use the opal card or how you board or where you board. There is very few staff around that can help you. And you never see one when you need one. Don't worry. Your typical Aussie is very friendly and helpful. So make a friend and ask for help. It really adds to the experience and boosts your confidence and appreciation of the country and people. On the train if you're in a large group there is a way to flip the seat around so you can face each other and have fantastic exciting conversations with each other. I found this very pleasing because you don't have to talk over your shoulder. What a fun way to travel. They should do this on all transportations including planes. The trains are double deckers. If it's your first time there and you want to check out the vast scenery you may want to take a seat on the upper level. Some times when it's super busy and no seats look available as you board it's best to head up straight to the upper level for seating. And don't be afraid to take a seat with someone in it. There's lots of space to keep your personal space. Well, most of the time anyway. All transports are kept cleaned and maintained. However, I have seen people wipe down their areas before seating. I have seen maintenance crews on board spot cleaning too. On the major and frequent used rails the trains look brand new. As you move away from these busy centers and on the lesser used rails the trains are still good and clean but you don't get that "new" feeling. It's still very good though. Air con is phenomenal. You're not freezing cold but as soon as you step in it's a nice blast of coldness to feel relief from the heat. It helps to really relax. On the days I was traveling alone where the rides were an hour or more I would take a nap. I'd worry about missing my stop. A few times I did. All I did was get off and boarded a train going back. A hassle I know but I enjoyed the nap. They do make announcements of the stops coming up to give you fair warning. I guess I was in a deep dream with koalas and kangaroos. lol Another great feature is how the train stops at all the malls and greater shopping areas. You can get all your daily errands done without traveling too far away from the stops. So there's no need to uber, lyft or rent a car. We didn't. A much cheaper option for sure. Practically almost eliminates the need to own a car too. Think of all the money you can save. All in all it's a great transportation system Australia has and wish we here in the U.S. had one to use.

During my weekend in Sydney, I had been utilizing Public Transport which took me around town and it…read morewas an enjoyable experience! Make sure you get your Opal Card which is free and just load it up with $30 or so if you are travelling to and from Airport. Opal Card makes travelling so easy as you can just tap on and off and can be used on trains, buses, light rail and even ferries! For checking your balance, make sure you download the App on your smartphone. Daily/Weekly Travel Cap and the best is on Sunday you can travel the whole day for $2.50!! That's that best time to take a long distance train ride or a ferry ride! I just wish every major International cities would be that public transit friendly like Sydney!

In my opinion, public transport in Sydney is not that bad…read more Lazy day just hope in to one of those light train, and you can have lunch at the famous Sydney fish market, and it's so handy plus convenient as well. There are 2 side of exit/ entrance, so if family member on wheel chairs, can also use the lift to go to street level.

Sydney has one of the best metro transportation systems that I have had the opportunity to…read moreexperience. You can take the metro train directly from the international airport in Sydney to numerous destinations throughout the city including a major transportation hub of Central Station. We took the metro to Weygard Station which was near our hotel in downtown Sydney and it is very convenient. You can purchase an OPAL Card from a convenience store and use it on metro trains, light rail system and on buses. You can also purchase an OPAL Card at the various stations via a kiosk but it costs more that way and you buy a one way ticket instead of travelling for several days and you save 30 % on the purchase price. The only thing is that you cannot reload the OPAL Card, just use it until the money you originally used to purchase the card has expired. The signage is easy to follow but get a map at the station. Great way to get around town and outlying areas.

The Australian train system is very efficient. The trains are also very clean. Lately, due to…read moreCovid, there aren't as many passengers as usual. Riders buy an Opal card and load money on it. Then whenever you use it, you "tap on" at a little device that records your fare and how much you have left before you top it up. You can also tap directly with your credit card for contactless payment if you have the symbol on your card. Hornsby is a larger town so it is has a number of trains passing through the smaller villages on the way to Hornsby. It's also a very popular stop because it's right across from Westfield shopping mall and the Hornsby outdoor mall. I have been getting on the train at Lindfield since it's about a 10 minute walk from my bnb. It's fun to look at all the interesting village names: Turramurra, Warrawee, and Waroonga for example. I enjoy riding the train because it gets me where I want to go so no driving is needed.

Some rotten staff members from back in the day that were just horrid human beings to school…read morestudents, including me. I literally was trying my best not to get attention but when I lost my transport card, they scowled me instead of helping. These days staff don't care what students are up to. Which I'm happy for students but like its also gone a little in the other direction now lol. Anyway thanks for making my life miserable back in the day!

I'm more than familiar with train travel. I can do it with my eyes closed and a blindfold on!…read moreBuses. That's a different story. That's why I was so impressed by the Parra Interchange. Well signposted it was easy to find Stand 3A. There was shelter from rain, there were seats and the buses came as per schedule. I switched to a different bus route when something suitable came through, to get me out of the cold. Good to see that sometimes a bus might get me closer to my destination than a train.

Okay, it's a bus transfer station, but I must say, it's a big place but very easy to navigate,…read morethere are signs everywhere and the buses run on a pretty good schedule. The transition from train to bus is easy, and the information is plentiful. Big city transit systems are sometimes overwhelming, but I find the Sydney systems easy to navigate, clean and the buses and trains come quickly.

Easy transfer to a bus that takes you to Bondi beach…read more Just follow the crowd You won't get lost

Epping Station. E-Town. E-ping. What can I say? From humble beginnings you have grown to be a…read morecrucial exchange in the complex and ever expanding Sydney Public Transport Network. Originally an Art Deco little gem (before my time) you grew to include an overhead concourse, and nightmarishly high, un-enclosed pedestrian bridges (during my time) to the iteration we see today, a sleek, high ceilinged, marvel of modern train station architecture with escalators reaching down into cavernous tunnels carved out of the sandstone core of the upper, upper, upper North Shore...ok fine! Northern Suburbs. Epping Station connects lush, leafy Hornsby Shire Epping to modern, metropolitan Parramatta City Epping. From Epping Station you can head to Hornsby (the express train is faster than driving), Macquarie and North Ryde (bus OR train, take your pick), into "town" as the Epping oldies say (under OR above ground, North Shore if you're fancy and Inner West if you're old school), you can even get to Parramatta with a scenic bus ride through picturesque *cough cough* Dundas Valley. Epping is a surprisingly political station. Back in the days of the old silver fish trains you could tell who was in State Government by the quality of the trains that rolled through Epping. Liberals? Send those Tangaras out West to win some swinging hearts and minds. Epping can have the old trains. It's a safe seat. Labor? Hello air conditioning! Epping has been home to some characters. Those long term residents of Epping will tell you of their delight (or horror) in witnessing a certain heir to a certain coffee and tea fortune threatening to cover train staff with faeces because they wouldn't let him down to the platform to mess with other commuters before the train arrived. Life at Epping Station is about to get more complicated. With the welding barely cooled on the Macquarie line, it is to be closed down for the foreseeable future and converted to a Metro line adding even more complexity (and travel time) to the mix. Oh Epping, change isn't always for the best but as ever you'll accept your fate with quiet dignity. Which is more can be said for this newly politically active reviewer...

Actually, this station is actually a pretty major railway station in that it provides an…read moreinterchange between two lines, and when they open up the North-East link this will also, for a time at least, be the terminus (though I believe they are going to send the trains straight through to Chatswood). The station is pretty cool though, and has quite a few facilities as well. However, it is the underground section that I particularly like.

This is definitely a major railway station, even though only a limited number of trains pass…read morethrough here, namely because it only services a single line out of the city. Still, pretty much all trains stop here, and from here you can easily access most parts of North Sydney. I also found that the staff were generally quite helpful, and there is quite a few facilities here as well, not counting the shopping centre to which it is attached.