u/Marlon_Ranch

They’ve tweaked the Metro announcements a little bit very recently and it’s good news!

So prior to now, the Metro would announce loudly “This is an all stops service to ____, The Next stop is ___” after the Metro would depart every single station.

I don’t know about you but I found it got tiring hearing that so often on a longer trip so I submitted feedback suggesting to cut down on it, eg, there’s no need to say this is a service to Tallawong after every single station.

Sure enough as of now, as per my video, they only do the “The next stop is __” after most stations and leave it at that, so like a Waratah. The “this is an all stops service to Tallawong” still plays but at far fewer stations now and if they do it they leave a short gap before announcing “the next stop is ___”.

Really nice to see an example I guess of them actually listening to reasonable feedback and it’ll be appreciated when the Bankstown Line opens and we start taking longer trips on this thing.

Hopefully the Mariyungs are next for trimming down the excessive automatic announcements, I’m sure I can’t be the only one who’s submitted feedback on that

At least out of Leichhardt depot, the last of these old Scania L113CRL buses have finally been withdrawn in the last couple of days.

They have been replaced by a big new batch of electric Volgren buses which have just entered service, which is second picture attached (coincidence both old and new are route 470 pics), those buses I find are actually really nice, they have crazy fast acceleration I noticed, I’m happy with them but will miss the old icons of my childhood.

The new electric buses will also be replacing the remaining Mercedes gas buses (fleet numbers 18XX/19XX) at Leichhardt depot as well and I understand Leichhardt will be fully electric with the exception of the articulated buses until those can eventually be replaced with electric counterparts.

Kingsgrove depot do have a final few Scania L113CRL’s left, will be a sad day when those go.

As VIVID for this years wraps up, for me personally there was something about this year that just felt a lot more empty and less to see?

I scrolled through my camera roll over the last decade and wanted to share certain parts of previous VIVIDs that I both really loved and also wasn’t there to see in 2026.

Photos 1 & 2: Martin Place, 2025. Yup, only last year, Martin Place was decked out with these beautiful live flowers that were bursting with light and colour. It was so nice to walk through and look at, this was the nicest memory I had of VIVID 2025. At VIVID 2026, Martin Place bizarrely had nothing to see at all.

Photo 3: Central Station Clock Tower, 2024. Not the best photo but previously the clock tower would have rotating colours and artwork shone on it, very much like the Opera House. And this wasn’t unique to 2024, I’m pretty sure it was actually most years in the previous decade. At VIVID 2026, Central Station Clock Tower was sadly left alone.

Photo 4: Walsh Bay Water Baubles, 2022. These made for a very scenic look with the Harbour Bridge in the background. Considering the location of this photo is right in the middle of the main walking path for VIVID 2026 I’m really surprised they left this area alone and put nothing in the water here this year.

Photo 5: Chatswood Station, 2017. An oldie but goodie. In what feels like an eternity ago of the 2016-2018 era, VIVID also made its way to Chatswood too. This wasn’t limited to Chatswood Station, at night in the dark, the Victoria Avenue shopping strip would also be decked out in colourful lights as well. Sadly, VIVID in Chatswood appears to be a thing of the past for good so I’m glad I got to experience it.

I did this last year, its a Sydney Bus Museum event - in a nutshell, you get to ride some vintage double decker buses during the evening, from the Museum in Leichhardt, over the ANZAC Bridge, through the city, then over the Harbour Bridge and back, all while VIVID is on.

It is on next Saturday and Sunday 5-10pm.

This is personally my kinda thing, getting an actual uniquely good view of the lights while riding on some vintage buses, all of which have very soft mood lighting anyway. Several different models of bus and they let you ride all of them if you wish. They also have stops in the city where you also free to use to leave the event if you wish - I attach a picture of a vintage Hong Kong double decker bus I got off from in the city.

More information and tickets at the below link

https://www.sydneybusmuseum.com/deckers-in-the-night

There is sadly no Dark Spectrum or Tekno Train this year, I really wanted to do it in 2023 alas wasn’t in a position to, but I think this is a great alternative. I for sure would have done this again this year if only I hadn’t already made plans to go away for the long weekend

Felt a bit nostalgic. What a difference and gives me joy comparing. The current station is more or less almost unrecognisable from the old station of my childhood.

You notice details of little things that were lost with the modernisation, such as the little food shops on the concourse of the old station, or at the top of the York St escalator.

“Then” photos all from Wikipedia commons.

I was looking through some photos from 2016 as a flashback and stumbled upon a screenshot from the Opal app back then, highlighting a beloved but now very much forgotten perk - back when after 8 paid journeys on Opal, you got free travel for the rest of the week, across the entire network on all modes of transport.  I looked through so many of my old photos looking for other picture references to this perk and indeed, there were hardly any. 

Some context is this perk was introduced as part of Opals original incarnation from the transition from paper tickets. The idea being the former weekly tickets were the cost of 4 return trips between an origin and destination stations, as such, 8 paid trips then free would be to match this up and help encourage uptake. However a key difference was unlike the paper weekly tickets, with Opals free travel you could use the free trips for those other trips that went beyond your office or uni commute. 

It didn’t take long for people to discover the 8 trips to clock up could be of a short length, eg that you could walk between Pyrmont Bay and The Star tram stops tapping and going, and then use the free travel for the rest of the week to take longer and more expensive trips for free. Gladys as the original minister encouraged and gave her blessing (although years later I realise she probably in reality despised everyone who did it) and sure enough not long after when Andrew Constance became the new minister, he became the face of shutting down this loophole, and exactly a decade ago today, he announced the free trips were being replaced by half price trips. I still remember that announcement and thinking how much it would suck the fun out of recreational travel vs the free trips. I do think since the $50 cap came in its much better than 2016-2019 when it was a $62+- adult weekly cap with half price fares after 8 trips, that just discouraged taking extra trips for me, however now the $50 weekly cap its a lot easier to unlock the free travel.

I have vivid memories of using the free trips after 8 to ride the Manly Ferry for the first time in my life (I was a teenager back then). 

Does anyone else look back fondly to this time?