Communiting on trains with bikes in NSW

[epic turtle]

Hey everyone,
My partner and I are planning a visit to Australia for about two months in January and February (6 weeks for me and 10 weeks for her), and are looking into transportation around NSW. We've come across a deal with NSW trains that allow unlimited usage for a period of 6 weeks, and 3 or 6 months. For us, this seems just what we're looking for since it's reasonably priced and gives us the opportunity to bike around and do some smaller bike tours. The problem is that I can't find consistent information on whether they charge to bring bikes on the Regional Raillines between cities like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Their handbook says that for non-booked routes, which I take to mean their buses and intercity trains, there's a fee during peak hours. And it says for booked routes "A charge will apply for each item per Single Journey, as published from time to time." And really I have no idea what that means, and I can't find any info on what the charge would be. I know for non-booked routes, it's the fare of a child, but I don't know if that applies to booked routes. And if that is the case, it's going to be too expensive to pay for our bikes, and we'll need to find alternative forms of transportation.

Basically, I'm just seeing if anyone on here has had experience with bringing bikes on the longer train routes, and what the procedure/cost is. I actually have a lot of questions about biking in Australia, but am going to leave it at that until I know if it's even an option.

Thanks!
Danny

[trailgumby]

We find it pretty confusing too. It's a major disincentive to holiday by bike.

[Mulger bill]

Travelling Syd-Mel on the XPT train (The Worm) with a bike is possible but spaces are limited to 5 bikes. AND the bikes must be boxed for travel. Cost per leg appears to be S12.10.

More info HERE.

[trailgumby]

I can't believe how stupid that is.

[epic turtle]

Sweet. Thanks for the information. It's good to at least have a concrete sense of what to expect and plan for. Well, I'll probably be floating around asking more questions about biking in Australia. See ya around!

Danny

[thomashouseman]

The Sydney Metro train/bike rules are a tad different to the intercity/interstate trains: http://www.sydneytrains.info/travelling ... of_travel/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;