There's still some value in the current designations, as they indicate whether a train will stop at all the stops shown on that line on the map – it's "All Stops" if it will, "Limited Stops" if it skips at least 1, and "Express" if it skips many.

The only way the stopping patterns are distinguished is by the stations shown as the destination and where the train is going via, and by the list of all the stops the train stops at. I think there should be a better way of designating stopping patterns in Sydney.

Next-train indicators say "Limited Stops" for all of these patterns, except at the last few stops where they say "All Stops", since each of these stopping pattern stops at all of the last few stops on the line.

I agree that train designations should ideally do that, but in Sydney they don't really. For example, the T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra Line has 3 stopping patterns in off-peak periods, all of which are limited-stops and stop at different combinations of stations.

I assume so. "Limited Stops" is still accurate in this case, as it tells you that you can't go to every stop on that line in that direction on that train.

I think Sydney Trains next-train indicators will say "Limited Stops" when at least 1 stop is skipped.

While saying "all stops service" may not be strictly necessary if all services make all stops, I think saying it is fine, since it would reassure passengers that the train will stop at the stop they're going to, considering it's common for services on other lines in Sydney to skip stops.

The regular announcements on trains still said "This is an all stops service" even though the train was skipping a stop, and the displays between the doors still said "All stops to [destination]", but there were special announcements about how trains were skipping Barangaroo.

The line diagrams on trains still showed Barangaroo. But between arriving at the station before Barangaroo and arriving at the station after it, the station icon for Barangaroo was replaced with a different icon with an exclamation mark.

Next-train indicators didn't list Barangaroo as a stop and said the service was "Limited Stops" instead of "All Stops", though they weren't doing this at all stations, as at Sydenham I saw they were still showing the service as stopping at all stops.

While extending the Parramatta Light Rail line from Carlingford to Epping would probably be possible, it would be difficult due to the steep topography in Carlingford and the width of Carlingford Road. And an underground rail line would be faster than a light rail line.

However, branching also complicates services, and limits the frequency of each type of service. While diverting South Line services into a new tunnel would require changing trains on many trips, it would increase the overall capacity of the network.

Currently, South Line services join the Western Line north of Merrylands, branching in both directions. Branching like this allows the Western Line's capacity to be used for multiple types of services, allowing many kinds of trips to be made on a single train.

But I've changed my mind on this, as diverting South Line services into a tunnel to Epping would allow significant simplification of services on the Western Line, and more services on the South Line as well.

I thought this idea wasn't very good because I thought it wouldn't improve services on the South Line much, and I thought a Parramatta Light Rail extension would be a better way of creating a rail link between Parramatta and Epping.

When Sydney introduced line numbers on its train network in 2013, the T2 and T8 were the same line (before this they were separate named lines). But the lines were split in 2017, which was a good change as it made it clearer where a train was going when catching a train in the city.

The intersection of Hill Road and Stromboli Strait close to this sign is planned to have traffic lights added as part of the construction of the Parramatta Light Rail Stage 2 line next to Hill Road, which will include a stop behind where this sign is now.

Sydney's Sydney Metro City & Southwest and Melbourne's Metro Tunnel have increased the number of tracks through the city from 6 to 8, and Brisbane's Cross River Rail will increase the number of tracks through the city from 4 to 6.

Australia's 3 largest cities all have recently built or are currently building new city-center rail tunnels to increase the capacity of the rail network, by redirecting some lines into the new tunnel and increasing the frequency of other lines which continue to use the existing tunnels.