Sydney commuters are facing a 5.4 % increase in bus and train tickets after holiday season this year, 2012. The fare increases are the first rise in public transport costs since April 2010.
The increases apply on the CityRail network, which covers Sydney, the Central Coast and the Hunter, Illawarra and Blue Mountains regions.
Weekly rail ticket will increase by up to $3, whilst a single ticket on the busses will go up by 10 to 20 cents.
Australian Immigration has provided a free booklet in 37 community languages. It provides useful national, state/territory and local settlement information for migrants, humanitarian entrants, their sponsors and service providers.
Here is the list of the booklet with its language:
The NSW Government is reforming fares to make travelling easier and simpler for commuters.
URL: http://www.myzone.nsw.gov.au
Delivering for commuters
As public transport services continue to improve, the NSW Government is delivering a fairer, simpler and easier fare structure. This will make travel on public transport more attractive, particularly for long distance and multi-modal commuters.
New MyZone fares
Commuters want a simpler and easier way to travel. The NSW Government’s new fare structure will use existing ticketing equipment to create a simplre and easier fare structure.
The new structure, called MyZone, will streamline ticket products for government and private bus users, and the most commuters will pay around $57 per week, regardless of where or how often they travel on the network.
Private bus passengers will have multi trip tickets, valid for ten trips with no expiry date, for the first time. These new tickets will be valid on both government and private buses. Three new MyMulti passes will provide unlimited travel on buses an ferries, plus travel in three train zones.
MyTrain
Distance band:
MyBus (private and government buses)
Section travelled:
MyFerry
Distance per single trip:
MyMulti
The M4 is a 40 kilometre motorway that extend from Concord in Sydney’s inner west to Lapstone at the foothills of the Blue Mountains.
On the 16th of February the operation was handed back to NSW government and the toll was removed.
So even though the toll fee was claimable (for private use), but now everyone would be able to use it for free.
It’s for sure a good news for the motorists.
As the accident rating is quite high, Australia is really strict with the driving law and in the process to get licence. It’s not easy to get driver licence here as it can be really tough. The normal procedure requires you to get thru many steps in order to have full driver licence.
You have to passed thru driving test knowledge and practical driving test in order to get full driver licence. After you passed driving test knowledge, you’ll get Learner Driver Licence which restrict you from driving unless you’ve been accompanied with someone that has full licence.
Here is the URL which you can practice before taking Driver Knowledge Test (DKT):
URL: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/tests/driverknowledgetest/demonstrationdriverknowledgetest/index.html
When you’re ready and have fulfilled the requirements (120 hours driving time and held the current licence for at least 12 months) to take the next step, which is practical driving test that will requires you to have official instructor sit next you when he/she will guide you thru the practical process of the test. It’ll take around 30-40 minutes in total. If you passed, then you will get P1 Driver Licence (Red) and you can convert it to full driver licence if you’re holding an overseas driver licence for more than 5 years.
You can be exempted from driving test knowledge and could get your overseas driver licence converted to full driver licence if it issued from recognised countries that listed on RTA website which you can find out the URL on below.
Recognition of licences URL: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/newtonsw/recognisedcountries.html
After holding P1 driver licence at least 12 months, you’re eligible to process to P2 licence (Green) after you passed the HPT (Hazard Perception Test). Before eligible to apply for Full licence (silver), you’ve to hold a P2 licence for a minimum period of 24 months and passed DQT (Driver Qualification Test).
Driver licences in Australia
Obviously, full licence won’t have any restrictions like others have (Learner, P1 and P2 licenses). Full licence holder is eligible to get Gold licence if they’ve been a good driver for the next 5 years without any offences. The advantage of Gold licence is cheaper fee and longer expiration date (5 years) if you extend your licence.
Once again here is the URL for the official government department who taking care of car licencing.
URL: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au
Here is the URL to get full information about how to get a licence in New South Wales / Sydney.
URL: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/gettingalicence/index.html
It’s a common to use online map in Sydney to find your destination, especially if you have to depend on public transportation. It could be the case where your destination place is far away from train or bus station, so it would be good if you can find out about where exactly it’s located beforehand. Most people are using Google Map either on their iPhone or web based or thru other website owned by private sector called Sensis.
Here are the most popular Online Map sites in Sydney:
You can also have an option to own your own map and bring it with you, in case you’re lost.
It would be a good tips for those who don’t want to use car, instead using public transportation to travel around Sydney. If this happen to you, there would be a website that could help you to plan your travel.
Link: http://www.131500.com.au
Tips:
Sydney’s transportation system is built up of 3 things which are bus, train and ferry. They are maintained and funded by the Australian government. Other than those 3, there are many things you can use to moving around Sydney and obviously car would be the most convenient and yet could be a bit frustration for you, depending which area you’re travelling to.
Another method would be taxi and it could also be your last option. The reason behind it that it’s not cheap to travel around Sydney by taxi. So it would be considerably luxury if you could afford to travel by taxi in Sydney.
There would be another method of transportation which is water taxi and it’s quite popular around tourist to cruising the harbours around Sydney especially between Circular Quay and Darling Harbour. It could be fun experience for you to explore different part of Sydney including Watson Bay and other places.
Here are the website links for bus, train and ferry transportation:
Here are also list of 4 major taxi companies website in Sydney:
