However, I’d like to share my connection with a marvellous work from the 1970s – Wolfgang Schivelbusch’s The Railway Journey – Industrialisation of Time and Space in the 19th Century. An one special chapter from among many worthy chapters on such matters as the shrinking of space/time in the popular consciousness, the impact on urban form, the impact on industrial/occupational medicine and on social customs all in the first century of railway development.

As my readers know, the thing I hate most in modern day political discourse, particularly when it comes to railways, transport and urban planning – is ’spongy’ thinking. Fluffy thinking. The fluffy bunnies. The middle class pleading for welfare. False victimhood. Words losing their meaning. Fallacious thinking, especially post hoc ergo prompter hoc, which was Railpage par excellence. And where Railpage went, Ministerial Media Advisors were sure to follow.

Railpage is thankfully dead – but its memory lives on in my blogs, and the small group of us committed to clear thinking in the aid of efficient rail and transport policy and planning.

The chapter from Schivelbusch I will share is on The Compartment and how the fundamentals of railway economics actually drove the development of rail design and engineering, and how cultural commentators can misconstrue these developments to fit their cultural biases and agenda.

Schivelbusch describes the European experience of mass transport in the 1700s – the coach and horses, and how it impacted on early railway design and thinking. The early wagon builders had only a couple of basic designs – a flat wagon on 2 single axles, and a coal variant with walls. Axles were not pivoting and the train as a whole could only bend at the couplings, or with very limited purchase at the wheel-rail interface, before the wheel profile and flanges might fail and the train derail. Hence the train itself could not bend very much, and civil engineering therefore favoured long straight sections, with mountains and valleys tackled by cuttings, tunnels and viaducts at obviously considerable expense.

With a single flattop wagon body, the passenger market at first assumed a first or second class passenger would bring his own coach onboard.
As rail travel expanded to more, albeit still wealthy, passengers, a fixed coach body mounted or built onto the same wagon chassis was then offered. The first or second class passenger then sat in a confined compartment, as in a road coach, on a stiff upright seat with upholstery, facing his fellow passengers. Doors were locked from the outside as a concession to the safety risk of falling at much higher speeds than had been the case with horses.

All the while, third class passengers road in open sided wagons, though roofs and eventually rough benches appeared.

This development had rested on two pillars. First, Europe was short of land but not short of labour. Hence the economic fundamentals favoured building direct railways wherever possible, cutting through whatever the landscape required. This placed no pressure on passenger carriage design as it was assumed a) the journey would be shortish b) a break would be taken at a sizeable town of which many existed. c) the horse coach was still the design influence of people who worked in the carriage industry in the early days.

Schivelbusch then contrasts the American experience. With the economics reversed – ie labour being expensive but land cheap, it worked out advantageous to railroad builders to avoid expensive cuts and viaducts where possible, but to go for curves and grades. Because of the strain this would place on train flexibility around curves, the bogie quickly came into its own and became standard on firstly passenger then freight rolling stock. Such rollingstock inevitably ended up quite a bit longer than the 4-wheeled European equivalent, which meant that rather than at most 3 compartments per coach on a European passenger carriage – the American might have 3 or 4 times that many.

The US equivalent of mass transport was not the coach (though there are many famous examples of it) but the canal packet and the riverboat. The design influences and market demands of long distance transport had already been determined via marine transport and hence the famous images of card playing smoking lounges, sleeping berths, on-vessel dining and drinking, and even just the open seating area of the ’saloon’ were quickly translated onto the US railroad car. The bogies and the additional length made this possible.

Unlike the European train, there was no guarantee the journey would be ’shortish’ or that there would be regular breaks for calls of nature or for dining, as would be the case in Europe.

By the end of the civil war, according to Schivelbusch, there was enough of an income spread for the most luxurious extents of the riverboat culture to be integrated into the sleeping car – as the Pullman.

So we have two primary influences on the divergence of US and European practices – the economics of building fast versus slow railways – and the design precedents at work in the industry being based on coaching practice in Europe but inland waterway transport in the US.

This seems reasonable enough until Schivelbusch introduces the inevitable cultural commentators – the parliamentary junket taker of the 1800s writing the inevitable report on how the other side of the Atlantic live – or the travel columnist of the weekend paper of the time – and so on.

And how none of them spot these influences, but instead ascribe the differences to the lazy, emotionally loaded usual suspects – the ‘casualness of the American’ versus the ’stiffness and class-consciousness of the European’ – the respect for the old traditions versus the New World pioneer and other silly stereotypes.

And when confronted with the possibility of the alternative type of wagon being transported across the Atlantic – the sheer impossibility of it. The Europeans would never accept it, according to these commentators. Being stuck bolt upright in a small compartment, locked in and trapped was clearly preferable to the insufferable possibility of seeing other passengers in a saloon car. Quasi medical excuses given for how a European could never sleep on a train.

Rather than face the fact that the bogie was a technical innovation whose need was clearly greater in the USA, but was becoming useful in Europe too.

After a series of high profile on-board murders, well before Agatha Christie, raised the danger of being stuck in a locked compartment with someonie who might want to kill you, the Europeans explored the possibility of how one might escape, or at least alert the train staff of the danger whilst in motion. Peep holes and other silly nonsense were suggested in parliamentary enquiries and newspaper editorials – but nothing so logical as a saloon car where the perpetrator might feel much less inclined to kill with witnesses – and where escape might be possible for a potential victim.

Anything but adopt an American innovation!

Eventually the Europeans settled on side corridor compartment bogie car- such as would become standard European car design till well into the C20th – whilst in the USA the saloon car became standard.

Even in Australia we saw a tension between the dog boxes in many cities – Brisbane’s Evans cars for example, and the saloon stock that replaced them, such as Melbourne’s Taits.

This might seem a curious but historic post hoc fallacy from a distant world, and not worthy of further discussion.

But it is typical of so many post hoc rationalisations I have read in the recent media, on railfan blogs and forums and elsewhere.

I am lead to believe Australians won’t stand on trains, they won’t change trains, they won’t pay the full price of tickets, they won’t catch a bus to the station. They won’t do various things that people overseas routinely do given the right information and incentives. Why?

Because they are Australian? Because of their ‘culture’? Their ‘laziness’ characterised in the Asian press, means they can’t stand up? Their mental vacuity means they can’t work out how to change trains?

If I followed these sorts of sentiments to their natural limits I would be either accused of racism or in a position to accuse others of it.

Point being, any country, whether the India of the chaotic Indians, the China of the scheming and cheating Chinese, or the Arabia of the ungovernable Arabs – if you install a modern underground railway system like the ones say in Delhi or Shanghai or Dubai – if you install such a system with clear rules, modern reliable technology and well maintained systems – you get a similar result no matter what the culture.

To look at the problems of Australian transport and rail in particular and to find cute ‘cultural’ defences rather than genuine systemic weaknesses; that is the same laziness that Schivelbusch pointed to in the 19th century and which he wrote about 30 years ago.

If this feebleness and spongy thinking was limited to only railfan forums that would be one thing – but when I hear similar utterances from the mouths of Transport Ministers or academics who should know better – then I can see the problems such spongy thinking will cause for rational planning and policy.

I see it when I read Lynne Kosky saying that Myki’s problems were inevitable because Melbourne people ‘love’ their zone system. I recall Hong Kong people ‘loved’ their last ride bonus (who remembers having 3 or 4 different stored value cards in their wallet, all with small amounts on them, to benefit from this bonus?) but happily sacrificed it for a better system, the Octopus, which had no such bonus but other benefits.

I see this feebleness of mind too when I read how metros ‘don’t work’ according to several newspaper editorials and politicial commentators – when all they are really saying is they would rather the money spent in the underserved extremities of Sydney, as opposed to the congested but served inner areas.

I worry these things become an echo-chamber. If the Office of National Assessments, charged with providing the Prime Minister with clear information on national security, only regurgitates its own and public domain information rather than genuine secret intelligence, as happened in the Iraq war – you have to wonder how low the public service can go in getting genuine new, independent and accurate advice, rather than simply quoting the usual sources, from the same small intellectual pond that is Australia.

Anyway, I recommend Schivelbusch for this topic and several others on how rail transport changed the 19th century world. It is changing the world of many developing countries too. I suspect India and China are right now experiencing the changes Schivelbusch documented – towns becoming cities and villages becoming suburbs. The world shrinking and becoming more interconnected. And we are seeing something Schivelbusch never saw, with the internet further changing interpersonal relations in a way even the 1970s never forsaw.

* Arrival

If coming by Prospector or Indian Pacific, alight at the East Perth terminus, noting the long platform. It’s worth going inside the station building, formerly known as the Westrail Centre, as Perth bus and train timetables and staff newsletters, were freely available when I visited. There’s also refreshments, toilets and information on TransWA country coaches, as this is the main terminal.

Unlike Sydney or Melbourne you’re a bit out of town, so you’ll need to take an electric train into the city proper. Walk towards Perth along the platform, up a long ramp and over a footbridge to get a view of the city. Then down to East Perth station for trains towards Perth/Fremantle or Midland. More information: http://starwon.com.au/~cfrench/Signals/East_Perth.htm

If coming by air, let’s hope you’re flying domestic as the international terminal is some distance away and not served by Transperth. Route 37 buses run from the airport to the City and Kings Park (the signage to the stop isn’t that great but there is a timetable at the stop). Service is every 30 minutes Monday – Saturday and 60 minutes evenings and Sunday (Like many Perth bus routes services finish around 7pm Sundays). Depending on your anticipated travel for the day ask for either a 2 hour or daily ticket.

37 is not the most direct route into town and the trip will take about 40 minutes. You can however alight at Belmont Forum for the 98/99 Circle Route (every 15 min weekdays/30 min weekends) or the Victoria Park Transfer station, where bus connections exist to many southern suburbs. The Belmont area has many low income earners who are heavy bus users. While not many will be waiting with you at the airport, the bus will get quite full past Belmont Forum. This was recognised when the previous Route 37 20 minute weekday service from the airport was replaced with a 15 minute service to Belmont and only every second bus serving the airport. 37 goes near but does not enter Esplanade Station, but if you get off somewhere near William Street it’s a fairly short walk.

* Places to go and see

The first place to go is Perth Station. Enter off Wellington St and visit the Infocentre. Decide if you want to buy a SmartRider, though the staff may be reluctant to sell them to tourists. Or go with cash 2 hour and daily tickets bought from the driver or vending machines. A DayRider costs $8.80 and is good value, allowing unrestricted travel all day after 9am. You can also get bus and train timetables for all routes from here.

Walk around Perth Station, noting the nearby Perth Underground (Clarkson and Mandurah trains leave here) and the Wellington Street Bus Station next door. Then back to Perth Underground and train to Mandurah. This is the newest and longest Perth suburban line, and like its northern predecessor mostly runs via a freeway median. Station spacing is wide and travel speeds easily beat cars.

Before surfacing you’ll notice Esplanade Station. This is near Esplanade Bus Station, which is the second major bus terminal in Perth. To cover off all modes it’s not too far to walk to the ferry at the end of Barrack Street and get it across to South Perth (your ticket will cover this as well). Around here you’ll see little buses – these are CAT buses and run free around the CBD. Take note of the ‘minutes to’ information displays at stops.

But assuming you stayed on the train, you’ll be at Mandurah in no time, after about 10 min of river views after the train surfaces. Look round Mandurah Station, possibly taking the shuttle to Mandurah foreshore. Get train back to Rockingham (although there’s also a bus as well). New stations in Perth aren’t well integrated into the urban fabric. Rockingham is an example, though there is a bus link (every 15 minutes until 9pm) to a nice beach foreshore and cafe strip (Rockingham Beach). If you do go on the shuttle, you’ll go past the sprawling Rockingham City Shopping Centre and near the site of the former shed-like Rockingham Bus Station (now demolished). Rockingham City supplanted Rockingham Beach as the main retail area in the 1980s, but the foreshore has seen a renaissance with new cafes and high-rise residential replacing fibro beach shacks.

Back on the train, looking out for the transit oriented development at Cockburn. Alight there if you want, or stay on until Murdoch Station. This is one of the busier stations and is served by the 98/99 Circle Route to Fremantle, Curtin Uni and other places. Curtin Uni bus interchange is worth a look, so go there somehow. Either via the Circle Route from Murdoch or route 100/101 from Canning Bridge Station (which was a bus interchange before the rail was built). Both these feeder routes are timetable harmonised with the train and run every 15 minutes on weekdays.

Curtin University is an ex-institute of technology 8 kilometres south-east of Perth. It is one of the nation’s finest examples of late ’60s brutalist concrete architecture. Like other campuses (eg Monash Uni Clayton) it was built in a new infill suburb 2-3km from the nearest station and is surrounded by vast car parks.

Public transport improved greatly in the last 15 years or so. Back then Curtin had one main city-based route running every 30 minutes off-peak towards the city, with very limited service in other directions. Now the campus has routes in four directions on 15 minute headways. These service stations in Perth CBD, Oats Street, Canning Bridge and Murdoch.

The first big improvement came in the late 1990s when the 98/99 Circle Route started. This 3-hour long route removed the need to go into the city for many trips and proved an instant success. When you go on it notice how the bus goes via Adie Court through a narrow busway into the next street. Buses never used to do that – previously Adie Court was strictly a cul-de-sac and buses used to waste a lot of time and fuel backtracking through it. This is an example of a low-cost improvement that sped bus travel to a major trip generator and improved operating efficiencies. Other improvements at Curtin were the opening of a bus interchange and improved pedestrian access across Hayman Road – again all happened since the 1990s.

From Curtin you can either get a bus to Cannington Station to explore the Armadale Line (and the Thornlie spur, opened in 2004) or a Circle Route to Oats Street Station (also on the Armadale line but nearer town). The Thornlie spur has just one station, though an extension to Canning Vale would make sense.

On its own Thornlie probably doesn’t stack up but it became necessary to build since the Court Liberal government had promised that Mandurah trains would run via Thornlie, with the new line running between Cannington/Kenwick and Mandurah. A new Labor government scrapped this in favour of a more direct alignment via Murdoch and the Kwinana Freeway to a new station at Espanade. Fortunately this alignment was the one that was built due to its benefits in reduced travel times, improved train capacity and added coverage of the CBD and inner-southern suburbs. Thornlie still got its train and it usefully serves as a stopper, allowing most Armadale trains to run express (even off-peak), reducing travel time on this older line with closely spaced stations.

Even earlier (1980s) there was a proposal to route the Mandurah line via Rockingham and Fremantle, with trains continuing to Perth. The argument that much travel was in that corridor and not to the CBD. The problem with that is poor travel speed and capacity constraints on the Fremantle line (which has close station spacing). To cater for this need Fremantle – Rockingham got the Route 920 bus. This is a high-service bus route (every 15 min weekdays with wide operating spans) and attracts good patronage. The only other major 900-series bus is a Perth-Hamilton Hill service (940). 900-series buses were part of a previous government’s ‘System 21′ proposal for more frequent buses along major corridors. Only two routes ever got the 900-series numbers, though several more were straightened and got service upgrades.

The 880-series bus routes can best be described as direct CBD-based medium-service routes serving some outer suburbs. You’ll see them in some southern and north-eastern suburbs. Other than that route numbers are geographically-based, with the first digit being the rough area (eg 400s is the northern suburbs, 500s is southern suburbs, 2 digits is inner etc).

From Oats St you can either go into town to connect with Clarkson train to explore northern suburbs stations or Armadale/Thornlie train for trip south east. If time is limited I suggest the former. Don’t forget to look out the window for the new Victoria Park Station. This is between the site of the old Victoria Park Station and the former Lathlain Station, which closed several 10 years ago.

The Armadale line from the south-east used to be through-routed to Clarkson trains in the north, but now runs indepenently since Clarkson was connected to the new Mandurah line. Hence you will need to alight at Perth Station and then board at Perth Underground to travel north. Grab some more timetables if you need them on the way past the Info Centre.

Once on the northern line step off at two or three stations (say Clarkson, Joondalup and Warwick). And note that you don’t need to tag off to look around some of the bus interchanges as they’re still inside the fare paid area and SmartRider will deduct less fare than if you did. The passenger information such as maps and bus timetables is worth a look – Perth does multimodal information extremely well.

The northern line is the first of the ‘modern’ lines. You’ll notice the station spacing is wider than on the older lines. Plans dating back to the 1950s proposed some form of northern rail line, but by the time the northern suburbs developed public transport’s role had declined and the freeway got built first. When the government pleged to build a line to Joondalup in the late 1980s the only corridor left was via the freeway median. Because freeways disperse rather than concentrate trip generators and residential development, almost no one works, shops or lives near the stations and most must catch a feeder bus or drive to reach the train.

To watch this in action, visit one of the major commuter stations (eg Warwick or Whitfords) and watch people alight the train, go up the escalators and board waiting buses during the pm peak (or vice versa in the morning). This is classic commuter country; 1970s – 1990s dormitory suburbs with few jobs within.

Urbanists should step off the train at Joondalup and see how a transit-oriented development became a transit-adjacent development that isn’t that well integrated wiht the station. Joondalup is basically a large shopping centre near the station, with the fine-grained ‘main street’ some walk away. The university campus is also sufficiently far for a ‘CAT’ shuttle service to operate.

From Stirling (also on the Clarkson line) it’s possible to get Circle Route bus back to Fremantle. You will go near the Univesity of WA, WA’s first university. Observe student patronage and grab tea at Fremantle. From there it’s easy to get a train back to Perth.

The above has covered more than half the rail network, with the main omissions being parts of the Armadale and Clarkson line, plus all of the Midland line. The next few days can be spent completing this part of the network, and some more bus routes. Armadale and Cannington are examples where the government has tried to develop town centres around the station. Kelmscott is an ingenious example of the bus interchange being built on a station platform, so provides very easy interchange.

The staffed station, as known in Sydney and Melbourne, is almost unknown in Perth. There is however heavy security at stations, especially noted on the Armadale line. Apart from window scratching (which is extremely common, on both trains and buses), notice that vandalism and graffiti is much less visible than in Sydney or Melbourne. Perth appears to have fast clean-up policies, whereas in the larger cities it’s implicitly tolerated trackside, on substations and in the pit.

Tram enthusiasts might get a bus up Beaufort St since it was here that the last tram ran, in 1958. Trams also ran to Victoria Park, Subiaco while a seperate system operated lines east from Fremantle until 1952. Perth was also one of the great trolley bus cities, with services running until as late as 1969.

More than most cities, Perth turned its back on its rail system and, after the Fremantle line was closed in 1979, the network was reduced to just the Midland and Armadale lines. This made buses, especially those running along the (then) new Kwinana and Mitchell freeways, important. A whole series of bus stations were built mostly near major shopping centres such as Innaloo, Karrinyup, Warwick, Kwinana, Rockingham, Mirrabooka and Morley. Sometimes these were open-air (Kwinana) but other times (eg Rockingham) they were grim dark sheds that were not regarded as particularly desirable. From here local suburban buses connected with freeway expresses to the city.

Rail expansion made most obsolete, but a visit to Mirrabooka (planned for redevelopment) and Morley is suggested to get a taste of how public transport in Perth was before the rail renaissance. These areas are notable for another reason; while Perth’s basic weekday frequency on train and major bus routes is now 15 minutes, Morley and Mirrabooka trunk services remain stuck on a less frequent 20 minute headway with limited Sunday service. Morley does however have the Circle Route, and an easy connection from there to the Midland line is possible.

Still in the eastern suburbs are a couple of places of gunzel interest. Whiteman Park has a heritage tram. Hire a car or take a taxi to get there. Better served is Rail Heritage WA, located in Bassendean, on the Midland line. Midland itself has a rail heritage and was formerly the site of railway workshops. It is one of the early settlements and still has other historic buildings (Perth initially grew east-west along a Fremantle – Perth – Midland axis following the river and the railway, and started its big north-south growth spurt after WWII).

Some routes can be quite scenic. Different parts of the river are visible from portions of some routes like the 106 between Perth and Fremantle every 15 minutes. Perth’s most affluent suburb is Dalkeith, and this is reachable via 20-series routes from the city. 381 is an unusual (but infrequent) north-south route up the coast from Fremantle. 400/408 to Scarborough is the most frequent beach service, while 100-series routes run to famous Cottelsoe beach. But for bigger hills one can go on one of the routes out east to Mundaring, Lesmurdie or Kalamunda.

I haven’t said much about the country. Compared to Victoria the frequency of regional services is very limited and you need to plan trips carefully. The larger towns have one to three (mostly coach) services per day but some might be only two or three per week. Places like Bunbury, Albany, Kalgoorlie, Geraldton and Busselton have their own (sometimes limited) town bus services. Tourist attractions at places like Margaret River are invariably remote from the coaches that do run, so car hire would be the best option.

Macquarie Park station

To illustrate my concept for a transport tourist’s guidebook that we can all share on TT, I will post a ‘guide’ I produced for a colleague when they visited Sydney recently, based on my knowledge as both a former Sydney local and also as someone who worked in the transport system up there. I welcome any refinements or alerting about errors and omissions of other things of value for the transport tourist to see in ‘the magic place’.

I assume that people are flying in – still the only rational choice for getting to Sydney until someday in the future when High Speed Rail links (at the very minimum) Sydney to Canberra and Melbourne.

1. Take the Airport Line from the Airport to the City (if staying in the CBD). Don’t forget to pay the ‘Station Access Fee’ to pass through the barrier line at Domestic!

2. If you’re loitering around the airport, take the time to observe Sydney Buses Route 400 that has provided (relatively) high frequency PT to Sydney Airport for the last few years – something Melbourne is yet to do – or alternately, travel the whole of Route 400 from Bondi to Burwood.

3. Once you’re in the city, purchase a Green Travel Pass – it covers all Sydney Buses routes and all Sydney Ferries routes and a fair whack of the inner CityRail network. The TravelPass Guide gives you the lowdown on the system and also shows the limits of ticket integration in Sydney. Beyond the Green Travelpass area, integrated ticketing disintegrates:

4. Get on the Eastern Suburbs Railway (ESR) to Bondi Junction. This was a major and controversial project to retrofit a heavy rail network into an already highly urbanised part of Sydney when it was finally completed in 1979. In some ways it compensated the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney for the loss of its extensive tram network 20 years beforehand. However, the ESR did act as an ‘enabler’ of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in the Eastern Suburbs, particularly around the stations at Kings Cross and Bondi Junction. Get out at both and have a look around.

- Just down the hill from Kings Cross (about 10 minutes walk) is Elizabeth Bay, the most densely populated suburb in Australia, and you’ll see some fine Art Deco and later blocks of flats that show it has been densely populated for a long time. There are also significant numbers of newer buildings (both high and low rise residential) along Victoria Street that were infilled in the 1970s and after – part of a controversial development process – google ‘Juanita Neilsen’ or ‘Green bans’ and you’ll see what I mean.

- Also, keep your eyes open for the ‘phantom station’ in the cutting between Edgecliff and Bondi Junction stations. It’s the site of the projected (but never built) Woollahra station, killed off by resident objections (and possibly its poor location away from shops and businesses).

- Bondi Junction is a better example of the role of the railway as a TOD ‘enabler’. Bondi Junction was largely low-rise shops and housing until the mid-1980s, The arrival of the railway, the closer proximity to the city (and beaches) and rising land values made Bondi an attractive place for development. The anchor to the area is the Westfield Shopping Centre (I think it’s still a Westfield) to the east of the station. Notice how the Oxford St Mall to the North is not as appealing or active as the eastern area of shopping around the Westfield. The bus/rail interchange is interesting as it has been extensively redesigned recently, but still (as I recall) not developed over for mixed use retail/commercial/residential development, which is a shame as it’s a prime TOD site. The interchange however is quite significant as a hub for ‘tram replacement’ feeder bus routes that serve Bondi Beach, North Bondi and other affluent areas of the eastern suburbs as well as the Oxford Street-CBD bus corridor and a number of cross town routes and the 400 sub-orbital route.

5. From Bondi Junction, take one of the 380 or 382 buses to Bondi Beach and have a look around. The high-frequency of feeder buses down Bondi Road from the rail interchange is sufficiently good to forestall calls for a rail extension (along with objections from high-profile locals and obvious engineering/operational problems such a link would create).

6. Come back up Bondi Road and catch the 400 bus to Burwood. It’s a high-frequency service from from Bondi Junction to Eastgardens Shopping Centre (10 minutes) and a lesser-frequency (20 minutes) to Burwood between 0630 and 1830, 7 days a week, dropping back to 30 minute frequencies along the whole route after 1930. The trip takes around 80 minutes for the whole length and connects up with five CityRail lines at key, relatively high frequency nodes (Bondi Jct, Rockdale, Bexley North, Campsie, Burwood). Some points of interest include -

• Randwick Junction – an old-style strip shopping area with a small mall retrofitted into an affluent district centre once served by trams. The bus ride along ANZAC Parade through Moore Park and along Alison Road toward Randwick should take you down the off-road ‘bus lanes’ (formerly used by trams)

• Maroubra Junction – the end of affluence in the ’sand belt’ of the Eastern Suburbs. Note that there is significant land available in the centre of the ANZAC Parade corridor to allow either for bus rapid transit or light rail on a segregated alignment. South of the junction are large areas of low-density ‘Commission’ (public) housing with significant income and educational (but not transport) disadvantage. South Maroubra’s Commission housing is the home of the infamous ‘Bra Boys’

• Eastgardens – a major road-based retail development on a former TOAD (Temporarily Obsolete, Abandoned or Derelict) site (the old British Leyland car plant – home of the P-76). When Eastgardens was built, Sydney Buses re-organised many of the bus routes to run into Eastgardens as a hub for local and linehaul services in the south-eastern suburbs

• Domestic and International airport terminals – the 400 is a good example of a retrofitting of bus-based route PT services into a largely road-based activity centre, providing a radial alternative to the rail line and somewhat of a model for what Melbourne’s Yellow and Green Orbitals should be doing at Tullamarine.

• Rockdale Station – a major rail interchange that features in most stopping patterns (except for Illawarra line trains) with a large bus interchange for buses to Botany Bay and across the south-western suburbs (to Canterbury, Ashfield and Burwood), an old-style strip shopping centre near the station (another formerly-tram based centre) and a small mall development near the Princes Highway

• Campsie – a place I know well. A down-at-heel but still vibrant strip shopping centre, with a small mall (Campsie Centre) behind it and a station that features both local and express stopping patterns on the Bankstown Line. Note the heavily Korean feel of Campsie – it was a major attractor for Korean ‘chain migration’ in the 1980s and 1990s

• Burwood – A good example of what Sydney does (to my mind) better than Melbourne – a still vibrant strip shopping area along the main road (Burwood Road) near the railway station, with some more intense development nearby and a Westfields set back off the main road. As good an example you’ll find of relatively peaceful co-existence between big and small retail on a suburban shopping street (Burwood Road). If you’ve got time, get on a bus to the Parramatta Road end and watch how the area tapers away to become a low density wasteland of used car lots and light commercial and industrial uses along the traffic sewer of Parramatta Road.

7. Take a train from Burwood into Wynyard Station. Get out and wind your way up through the small scale version of Melbourne Central up to the Carrington Street bus terminal. Wave hello to David Marchant at ARTC headquarters on Carrington Street and have a walk around the terminal. You will notice that all the buses are now pre-pay from this stop, which services most of the lower north shore runs up the Military Road corridor (another former tram corridor). Nearby you’ll find the Sydney Buses ticketing outlet and the nearby newsagents/7-11s will mostly be ‘Pre-Pay’ agents. In fact, all Sydney Buses stops in the CBD are now pre-pay.
You can jump back on the trains at Wynyard and go around the City Circle to look at the London Underground-inspired largely unaltered Bradfield-era stations at St James and Museum (St James is my favourite of the two): visit them not merely for the nostalgia but because an understanding of the past is essential for an appreciation of the present and the possibilities of tomorrow.

8. Go to Central Station and catch the Light Rail to Lilyfield and back. Not integrated with the Ticketing system, so you’ll have to pay a cash fare to the friendly conductor. At Lilyfield, have a look at the old Rozelle Goods Yard (a vital piece of infrastructure when there were coal and grain loaders at White Bay), but now rusting and in decay. The goods line from Rozelle continues through to the junction with the Metropolitan Goods Line to Port Botany at Dulwich Hill and this has been touted as the logical terminus of the Light Rail system, possibly with some on street running up Marion Street and Norton Street in Leichhardt. Don’t forget the light rail was part-Federally funded as part of the ‘City West’ urban renewal strategy of the Sydney City Council during the 1990s

9. Take the Manly ferry to Manly and get the bus back – this is always a good trip to do. Bear in mind that this was the last major ferry route to switch from private to public hands (in the mid-1970s) largely after state-funded improvements to the road network and widening the Spit Bridge drove the private operator to the wall. If you come back by bus, do ride it through to Town Hall. In terms of the remainder of the ferry network, if you have time, it’s worth a trip. Particular favourites are the Neutral Bay and Mosman trips after dark when the city and the bays are lit up with thousands of lights.

10. Take the Route 10 MetroBus to Leichhardt. Have a look around Norton Street (a bit like Carlton for its Italian flavour) and around the terminus at Leichhardt Marketplace. This area has been touted as an area for increased densities and high-rise development if the Ron Christie-inspired West Metro gets up. Get back on Route 10 and go the other way to Kingsford. Note the major fault of this route is that it comes into the CBD then heads out again. That aside, watch as the Metrobus goes down ANZAC Parade from Moore Park onwards to Kensington as the bus runs on its own alignment off ANZAC Parade. This is the old tram reservation that was used from the 1920s as a way of dealing with then tram priority on already congested roads and has now become a bus priority corridor for Eastern Suburbs services.

11. Catch a North Shore line service over the bridge to Chatswood. Note the development along the Milsons Point – St Leonards – Chatswood Corridor that follows both railway and freeway that was at the start, overspill from CBD development, but now has taken on a life of its own, particularly around Chatswood, which has a very Asian feel about it these days. Transfer to the Epping-Chatswood line and have a ride. It’s worth getting off at each station to have a look around and see what kind of modal interchange is available. The most interesting station will be Macquarie University station which serves both the Macquarie Centre shopping mall and the University, which was once the most car-centric university in Sydney. Macquarie Park station is also interesting as it aims to serve the ‘high-tech’ business parks that have been promoted in the area over the last 20-30 years through an alliance between the local council, Macquarie University and the State Government. Geographers and urban planners often use the North Ryde/Macquarie Park area as an example of an Australian ‘edge city’ as it meets many of the American-developed criteria for one.

12. Go back to Chatswood and take the Shore line up to Hornsby and have a look at the works there on the station redesign, bus interchange and rail freight bypass of the station. Fairly major rail infrastructure work taking place on a constrained site. Note also the fairly high residential densities around Hornsby station and the relatively low density commercial densities too. It shows one aspect of Sydney’s urban planning (maintain the primacy of the CBD), where the smaller ‘district centres’ like Hornsby are mostly medium-density dormitory suburbs with few jobs of their own beyond retail and service industries.

13. Take the train back to the City via the Northern Line and keep an eye out for the track works south of Hornsby to provide a long freight train crossing loop on the approach to Hornsby to deconflict freight and passenger operations. This is much more of an issue in Sydney as it is in Adelaide, Brisbane (south of the river) or Melbourne, since freight is not mostly gauge segregated from the passenger network in Sydney. While heading south, you might want another look at Epping station (or maybe not). It’s still a fairly low-density activity centre, but does (or did before the new railway) have a good bus interchange. Finally, have a look out the right hand side of the train once you cross the Parramatta River at Meadowbank for the ‘One Nation’ works of the freight line between Rhodes and North Strathfield. Watch at North Strathfield as the line diverts down the western chord of the junction at Strathfield as it heads toward Flemington to access Enfield and Clyde Yards.

14. Get off at Strathfield and transfer to a Western Line train bound for Lidcombe. Once again, you’ll pick up the One Nation freight route on the right hand side of the train. Change at Lidcombe to ‘Platform Zero’ for the Olympic Park shuttle that runs on a 20-minute frequency. Have a look at the station and the surrounding area, which is still finding its feet after the Olympics and having the Showground functions transferred to it from Moore Park (in the eastern suburbs). Check out the growing corporate presence, the new shopping and restaurant strip, the proposed sports hospital and residential towers, the growing range of leisure activities and the preparations for the Grand Prix.

An alternative way to get to Olympic Park from the City is to catch an ‘interurban’ service from the terminal platforms at Central in the late mornings (they’re actually V-sets that have completed their morning peak runs and are returning to Flemington, but fit an OP run in on the way). The reverse services run back in the early/mid afternoon. The STA 401 connects with the ferries running from Olympic Park Wharf and the latter is a truly delightful way of traveling to or from the Quay.

Get back on the train and go back to Lidcombe (or back to the city if you’ve had enough for the day). Alternatively, stick around in the PM peak (or if you’re there in the AM peak), marvel at the numerous extra bus services to places like Strathfield, Chatswood and Hurstville leaving from the north end of OP station. Finally, be startled and perhaps a little perplexed at the gaggle of Commonwealth Bank commuter buses and coaches shuffling their employees off to lunchtime shopping venues, nearby car parks and adjacent suburbs (usually paralleling existing STA routes!). What would the STA bus frequencies be like now if ComBank’s 6000 employees had been offered corporate funded (green) Travel Tens instead?

15. Head out to Liverpool from Lidcombe on the Southern Line. Again, look for the One Nation-funded freight route on the right hand side of the train and then watch it disappear around the back of Flemington EMU Maintenance Centre to go under the mainline to Enfield and Clyde Yards. Look also for the number of disused industrial sidings along the route, especially around Yennora, Warwick Farm and Liverpool.

16. At Liverpool, have a look at the works going on to put the Southern Sydney Freight Line through the constrained site of Liverpool station, and a look at the bus interchange before getting on the Liverpool-Parramatta T-Way. An interesting project that opened in 2003 has 35 stops on the 31km route. It uses a right-of-way in the Sydney Water pipeline corridor and was originally designed as a Light Rail project. Some issues include the more general failure to integrate fares and ticketing across Sydney, the placement of stops in relation to trip generators, lack of integration with connecting bus services and an emphasis on urban design and landscaping of stations over utility that led to cost blowouts and disappointing patronage. However, some interesting stops along the way may include: Prairiewood (about half-way) which Graham Currie has identified is starting to see some urban development around the stop, Green Valley (Mark Latham territory and a classic 1960s-era public housing estate) and Miller (Park and Ride facilities). At Parramatta, have a look at the underground interchange between Bus and Train. Also have a look around Parramatta itself. There has been some major development around Parramatta as the CBD for Western Sydney (an area that is the 3rd largest contributor to national GDP), especially the Westfield shopping centre near the station (2nd largest retail turnover in Australia after Chadstone) and also on the other side near the mall.

16a. If you have the time at Parramatta, try riding the North-West T-way to Rouse Hill and back. It’s a different animal to the Liverpool-Parramatta T-way, being only partly on a dedicated alignment with long sections of on-road running. This was definitely T-Way on the cheap (although it cost around twice as much as the Liverpool-Parramatta T-way). Don’t know much about it, so can’t help you too much on that.

17. Make sure that you travel on the Cumberland Line (Campbelltown-Blacktown) while you’re there. It was a Federally-funded project under the ‘Building Better Cities’ program in the 1990s, but never quite fit in with CityRail’s operational thinking. As such it is only used at present for 5 trips on weekdays (2 from Campbelltown in the AM peak and 3 from Blacktown in the PM peak). A wasted asset in anyone’s language. It might be best to catch it in the PM peak from Parramatta to Liverpool after a trip on the T-Way.

18. If you’ve got a bit more time, head down to Campbelltown and Macarthur from Liverpool. On the right hand side of the train, you’ll see the painfully short ‘long crossing loop’ between Glenfield and Ingleburn that was another One Nation project and the first section of the Southern Sydney Freight Line (which is only now starting construction) – there should now be more than survey pegs and markers by now. Campbelltown is a wasted opportunity to develop a compact district centre around a train station. A badly-designed bus interchange that cuts the station off from the town centre and a council without vision has seen few big buildings and little development in the town centre. Most of the development is at Macarthur Square opposite Macarthur Station along with the hospital and some large ‘Macmansion’ style housing nearby at Glen Alpine.

19. Take the train back from Macarthur to Glenfield. Have a look at this bustling transport hub (it isn’t, but it should be) ripe for a Transit Oriented Development. Junction of two major rail lines (South and East Hills) with good access to the City, Liverpool, Campbelltown and other parts of Sydney (especially if the Cumberland Line ever got decent services). One day it may also be the junction of the South-West Rail Link into the new growth areas between the railway line and the Nepean River. It can’t just be the close proximity of Macquarie Fields that is dragging Glenfield down? Take an East Hills Line train back to the City and have a look at some more Rail Clearways projects too (especially the quadding between Revesby and Kingsgrove.

Finally, you’ll notice the urban fabric a bit different to Melbourne and many other Australian cities. More active intervention in planning matters by the NSW Government has seen local councils overruled in the ‘market’s’ (i.e. Meriton and Lend-Lease) drive to build bigger and bigger apartment blocks in the inner areas close to railway stations in particular. If you’re observing the AM peak, I suggest visitors go to an inner city station (i.e. Newtown on the inner western line) or Erskineville and St Peters on the Bankstown line and watch the overcrowding on narrow-ish platforms that have not been upgraded to deal with the huge demand for rail transport the orgy of apartment building has created, especially when services have also failed to be upgraded to keep passengers moving (4 trains an hour in the AM peak is my recollection, with two 20-minute gaps as limited expresses run through Erko and St Peters).

Britomart Station

I’ve been discussing the concept of a ‘transport tourist’s guidebook’ on-and-off with Peter Parker for some time, having informally assisted each other with an itinerary of public transport-related things to see in our respective home towns (Sydney and Perth respectively). At the end of September, I have the opportunity of spending 4-5 days in Auckland for a conference and some work visits. Not knowing too much about happenings across the ‘ditch (apart from Britomart, electrification and so forth), I’d like some help on focusing in on some areas of interest.

My interests are (in no particular order):

1. Transport and land-use integration
2. Major projects
3. Modal interchanges
4. Infrastructure
5. Service standards and quality
6. Customer information
7. What works and what doesn’t in the system

John-ston, as our local expert (of NZ matters) and any other of our contributors who’ve been to Auckland, is there a list of transport things worth visiting that can be assembled for my (and everyone else’s) benefit? Once one has been drawn up, I am quite comfortable with posting it on here for the use of others, along with my list of transport tourist sites in Sydney. Peter P may wish to do the same with his Perth itinerary.