Sydney Trains

Sydney has a great railway system that is easy to use, mainly on time and safe, connecting most of the main features of the city. It is easily the best way to travel central Sydney and the suburbs linked.

The city of Sydney has a large train service to local destinations and beyond. City Rail the service provider has a useful website at www.cityrail.info which contains maps of the various lines, and easy to use timetables and a fare calculator.

Traveling by train in Sydney is a great way to get around as Sydney traffic can be very heavy particularly at peak travel times. The infrastructure is slowly catching up with demand but commuters and travelers have paid a heavy price for many years with regular delays on the roads.

The trains are usually on time, clean and also regularly patrolled by both transit security officers and police from commuter crime units based across the city. Despite this is does pay to be vigilant on the trains particularly after dark.

City Rail has services along the north shore towards Hornsby via Chatswood and Killara, but not near the coast at all. There is a line going west out to the Blue Mountains via the Western Suburbs of Parramatta, Blacktown and Penrith. There is the City Circle line, traveling along the George Street stations of Wynyard and Town Hall, and further round to Circular Quay and Museum. There are also lines going South towards Wollongong and further on down the South Coast, and a Southern Highlands line via Campbelltown.

It is helpful to note that there are large areas of the city not accessible by train, such as most of the Hills District in the North West of Sydney, and also the northern beaches suburbs of Manly and beyond are not serviced at all by rail. In the Eastern Suburbs, there is only one station at Bondi Junction. The suburb of Cronulla in the Sutherland Shire to the south of the city is the only beach front suburb with a railway station.

If traveling further than the city, the main railway terminal is Central station in Surry Hills at the South end of the city. Longer distance trains start and finish at Central and there is a large interchange onto city lines. Trains regularly depart for Newcastle and the Hunter Valley, Wollongong and the south coast, Goulburn and out to Lithgow in the Blue Mountains. All Railway stations have lifts for the disabled traveler or the traveler with children. Most trains are double decker which can be a novelty especially for children.