Continuing the adventure of our unexpected day in Sydney, I would like to show you the train trip back to our hotel near the airport. The airport line is fairly new, built for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. We walked from the Art Gallery of NSW through the city to Martin Place to access the Airport and East Hills Line.
We were relieved to see that our line was offering a good service, rather than trackwork and buses to replace the trains!
Then we noticed that our train was due in five minutes … perfect timing. We were travelling to Wolli Creek, the closest station to the Mercure Airport Hotel where we were lodging courtesy of Qantas. Wolli Creek was an industrial part of Arncliffe which has now been rehabilitated and is becoming a high-density residential area. Wolli Creek officially became a suburb of Sydney in 2002.
Like similar new stations all over the world the Martin Place station did not need any station master or ticket sales person, it was all automated, although I am sure a human being looked every now and then to refill the ticket machine or collect the money.
We had been using our $2.50 tickets all day, on train, bus, ferry and sure enough, they worked again for this train trip, being swallowed up and spat out again by the barrier machines.
We descended a long way underground on this huge escalator. The Airport and East Hills line must be very deep down, probably to avoid all the pre-existing tunnels of the City Circle.
The station was new and ‘clean’, people waiting stared at their screens as usual, their smart phones or similar. Once they used to read books or newspapers but those days have gone!
Here is the train, still moving, soon those big yellow doors will open.
I imagine that woman is telling her mother where to sit! I was at the top of the stairs on the upper deck, with a lovely view of the entry level. I liked the bright yellow rails and the changing view as people got off and on at each station.
Too soon we arrived at Wolli Creek, emerging into the station where policemen were talking to a large group of young teenagers on skateboards. I thought it best to put the camera away, and we walked out into the strange reclaimed landscape, high rise buildings, shopping precincts in their base, but still surrounded by construction, a suburb in the making.
dadirridreaming 
I so enjoyed this tour of the metro line. There is a second level? I’ve never seen that on a subway/metro before. Thanks for this post!
CityRail trains have been double decker for a long time, certainly helps to move the peak hour commuters!
I enjoyed reading this post. I like trains 🙂
thank you NN, i love trains too and often think of the old steam trains i travelled on as a child 🙂
Thanks for the tour of your city train. We called it a subway here in the U.S. It is interesting that we just built a new line on ours and it looks about the same as this one.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
do your subway trains have two levels?
Nice tour! Pics of the ordinary things we see helps us all be there too:)
thanks for your visit MM, fascinating how things look when we can ‘be there’ isn’t it?
Yes, it is. I like seeing things from other places, because it helps me remember that there is not just one way to do ANYthing ……….
such a relief isn’t it, compared to when i was young and there was only one right way!!!
Absolutely! I still catch myself now & then thinking that This Way is the only way………. it’s so good to find all the variations!
Thanks for taking me along with you, Christine. 😉
you are such a great traveller ad, now you have been on the Airport and East Hills Line too 😀
Gosh I’ve never seen a double decker tube!
i still feel as though the double deckers are fun, although i dont much enjoy the lower level where you look out at station height, seeing legs and shoes when the train is in a station, i prefer the top deck, or the station level entry area where the mums and bubs are, and the elderly and the standing etc 🙂
I love how you have made it appear interesting 🙂 My daily commute is not quite like this, but I was only commenting the other day to the G.O. when we made a weekend trip via rail than Sydney’s train service is not near as bad as the knockers would have you believe.
i realise it is busy in the peak hours, but this was a doddle, and so interesting … when we moved out of sydney to our self-sufficiency hideaway in 2000 wolli creek did not exist! my daily life has nothing like this technology, gates, screens, ticket machines, escalators, it is easy to see it all anew as something rather like a fairground!
I find it funny how many people stare at their phones while waiting for a train.
yes, and i guess i was too, the screen of the camera!
Wolli creek, love the name, are you exploring it next? MJ
dear mj, wolli creek was not photogenic on my scale, just a wasteland with high rise, although it looked promising, and down the road there was a circus, but it was cold and nearly dark, so we hurried on to the hotel!
$2.50! And I’ve paid $9.60 this morning for a return trip to North Sydney from Beecroft. Lucky tourists 🙂
our age bluebee, we are over 60! you are too young to qualify for these generous discounts …. i remember my mother telling me how she could travel all day to anywhere for a dollar, but i never thought i would be doing it one day too 🙂 i have often taken the train from and through beecroft, two of our sons were at OC class there, we lived at arcadia for 26 years so it was hornsby or pennant hills for the train …
I loved the double decker trains in Sydney 🙂
how long ago were you here claire?
I like the yellow design in your airport train very much – thank you for sharing!
it looks so bright, the newest train i have been on, and i love watching the people!
I really enjoyed this. I’m reading The Art of Travel right now, and finding the details of travel quite interesting. 🙂
thanks robin, that book sounds interesting, especially for us travellers!