I am a transport nerd, and a map nerd, as evidenced by all the previous hackathons I seem to do involving maps.

Thus, when I discovered that Sydney’s public transport system data is available to download, it seemed only logical that I should involve a map somewhere.  The result is a map to show you where you can live if you want to be within “x” minutes of the city by train. I defined the city to be any of the following stations: Central, Circular Quay, Martin Place, Museum, St James, Town Hall, Wynyard.

There are some unexpected results, because the trains don’t stop at all stations for every journey.

For example:

• The central corridor supported by T2 inner west line and T1 western line has the best density of minimum times across all stations.
• Getting to the city from Sutherland or Campbelltown is faster than getting to the city from Hornsby or Pennant Hills.
• Bondi Junction is a measly 7 minutes away!
• The fastest train to Glenfield is 14 minutes faster than to its neighbouring station, Macquarie Fields.
• Eastwood station is just 21 minutes to the city, faster than 3 stations on either side of it.
• Burwood, Ashfield and Petersham – all on the same line – have almost the same minimum travel time at 10 or 11 minutes.

You can explore the map yourself at http://daphnechong.github.io/transport-maps/.  I’d like to do a lot more on it, such as adding the bus and ferry timetables and identifying the individual lines, but it’s a work in progress. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them!