As I covered in my previous article on Brisbane’s Airtrain, the service calls at each of the city centre stations before heading south out of the city; as I was going to be in Brisbane for a few days I had the opportunity to have a look at these stations. From the outside they all appear to be operated by the Queensland’s transport authority, TransLink. What is also noteworthy about Brisbane is segregated busways through the city centre, these BRT lines act in part as a high

Continuing my tour of Australia’s east coast, I flew up to Brisbane. Brisbane’s Domestic and International airports are served by the airtrain which is a stub from the main rail network for the city. I used the service in the off-peak when trains leave every 30 mins. Domestic Airport Landing at the Domestic Airport, it was ironic that one of the first signs I saw when I entered the common airside area was an advert for Sydney’s Airport Link. There’s no mention of the local ra

This is a bonus 3rd article from Sydney to mention some of the quirks that I didn’t cover in my two other articles, on the Light Rail service and on the Airport Link. In a harbour city, it’s not unusual that there is a large water based transport system. As such, many areas of the city are served by Sydney Ferries, rather than an urban rail network: apart from the spur to Bondi Junction,  Sydney Trains services are exclusively west of the central area (the CBD).  I found myse

A Quick Intro to ensure this article makes sense: Like many Australian airports, International flights arrive into a different airport (terminal) than domestic flights. This means that international visitors proceed through a segregated arrivals process into one large terminal. Domestic passengers exit their plane straight into the common airside area mixed with departing passengers, this has an impact on what information a passenger is given in the segregated or mixed enviro

What comes to mind when you think of Sydney, Australia? Probably not the Light Rail line but there is one and I actually had a reason to use it when I was there recently. The Light Rail line doesn’t really take you to any of the sights but it does provide the only rail link to the western part of the inner city. And so it was that on a drizzly day in March we were walking around the Western Suburbs and saw on my phone that Leichhardt North station was nearby. I’d never used t

In the first and second articles on Perth’s transport network I focussed on getting around the city so it seemed the obvious choice to use the Australind train to get down to the South West. Unfortunately, due to historic line closures the train only travels as far as city of Bunbury, so I booked onto the train to skip Perth’s highways before renting a car at the end of the line. Things didn’t really work to plan as I ended up on a replacement bus, on the highway, the whole w

In the first of our articles on Perth I looked at the Passenger Experience provided across the city. In this second article I’m concentrating on the quirks found in the central interchange stations. For a relatively small city centre, there is a lot of public transport: the high-quality, modern infrastructure provides a comfortable travelling environment but it was the consistency of integration between modes that needed some improvement. Perth Station Perth is the main stati

In the first of 3 articles covering a visit to Perth, Australia, I travelled around this remote state capital on the relatively modern Transperth network. Transperth forms the urban part of the wider TransWA regional transport network; however, I found a few examples of confusing route maps or non-existent visitor information which make my journey difficult. Tickets I found simply buying a ticket to be a challenge: Trying to get a Smartcard – Having flown in from Hong Kong I

Author: Sharon Moller Melbourne Historic Network Almost unique amongst western cities, Melbourne retains its original, Victorian era, on-street tram system. This presents the city with a dilemma: how to best incorporate modern, low-floor, light rail vehicles on its 19th Century infrastructure. As most of the network was laid down in the middle of the wide city streets, passengers wait on the footpath before crossing out into the road to climb up onto the tram. After trying so

Surfing the G:Link: The Gold Coast’s New Light Railway Opened in 2014, the 13 km G:Link (or Gold Coast Light Rail) is an entirely new rail provision through this geographically disjointed city, characterised by inland waterways and long beachfronts, this first phase of the system runs between University Hospital in the north and Broadbeach South. The Route: Faced with increasing traffic in the city, the G:Link has the major advantage of running on segregated tramways through