Printed timetable/map information in Sydney?

[DarnedYankee]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm an American who will be travelling to Australia in January/February, and will be without a car in Sydney and Melbourne (naturally, this question pertains to Sydney, I asked a separate question on the Victoria subforum about the latter). I'm also a transit enthusiast, so yes, I will want to stock up on timetables and maps if available.

Just by looking through recent posts related to this topic, it seems that finding these things is very tedious in Sydney. The TfNSW website is very unclear about anything besides the fact that there are information desks at Central, Circular Quay, and Town Hall, and states that transit information for all of New South Wales is available at those locations. This contrasts with what I saw just by looking at another thread here, which states that, at the very least, State Transit and Hillsbus do not print timetables anymore.

If possible, can someone give me a clear answer to the following:

1) What types of timetables and maps are available at the three locations (Central, Circular Quay, and Town Hall) that I mentioned above?
2) Are there other locations where timetables and maps are available?
3) At these locations, do I have to ask for timetables, or are they available on a rack?
4) What bus operators print timetables?
5) Are there still hard copies of commuter and intercity timetables available?

[Liamena]

There is a map of the rail network on every train station and in nearly all the train carriages.
In addition, at most stations there is a street map for the area about 2 miles wide in a circle around the station. These are often very
useful to find out how to walk to the location you are actually going to.

Most stations which are used by NSW trains as well as Sydney trains, still have posters on the wall with their timetables. Sydney trains
stations used to, but dropped them about 4 years ago.

There are almost no maps of bus routes anywhere. Even at major interchanges like Bondi Junction, you would have to learned where all the routes go
in order to figure out which route to catch.

Train timetables are relatively easy to look up online before you go. Bus timetables are harder to look up unless you know the route number for the bus.

The trip planner online works fairly well. It can tell you how to do trips using both trains and buses, and what time they run, and instructions for
any places where you need to walk.

This can also be done by seeking directions from Google Maps.

Other people can advise you whether the trip planner or google maps or some other app works on smart phones.

Each bus route tends to have a skinny pamphlet or booklet with timetables. You can view these online. I don't know if they still have downloadable
PDFs or actual hard copies. Some, but not all of these, have a sort of map on them, often rather useless unless you already know the area.
A drawback of these is where major routes have multiple different services running along them, or part of them, it would be quite a bit
of faffing about to get the total information.

There are a few maps online which show all of the routes in various parts of the metro area. These are quite hard to find and have a number
of limitations. It is a huge A2 PDF which takes a long time to download. They are also probably a few years out of date.

[Liamena]

Here is a pdf of the train network map.
http://www.sydneytrains.info/stations/p ... an_map.pdf

Here is an example of the network map for state transit services in the eastern suburbs.

https://transportnsw.info/document/1699 ... y-east.pdf

[Liamena]

It is also sometimes difficult to find out where bus stops actually are, as more and more of them get abolished.

Most of them appear on google maps. They all have a six-digit number, which doesn't seem to be very useful
as they don't appear on the actual bus stop and they don't seem to appear online anywhere.

[Liamena]

I would recommend going to www.transportnsw.info and following all of the nooks and crannies there and downloading everything you can find.

[boronia]

Train timetables should be available at the locations (1) in your first post. They are "under the counter" and you have to ask for them.

Individual bus timetables and maps are available on line here https://transportnsw.info/routes#/bus

Region maps can be found here: https://transportnsw.info/travel-info/w ... rator-maps

It is also sometimes difficult to find out where bus stops actually are, as more and more of them get abolished.

Most of them appear on google maps. They all have a six-digit number, which doesn't seem to be very useful
as they don't appear on the actual bus stop and they don't seem to appear online anywhere.

Most bus stops do display the number, often it is in small print at the bottom of a displayed timetable. It comprises the location's 4 digit post code followed by a 1, 2, or 3 digit identifier. They are probably only useful if you wish to report something, although some apps may refer to them with stop information.

[Mike M]

Can I add that printed timetables are still available for Sydney Ferries services & can be obtained from the Transport Information Office at Circular Quay.