Submitted by Felix, who says:

Transport for NSW released a new bus route map for the Eastern Suburbs, which I noticed a hard copy of and they provided a PDF upon request.

There are many bus routes in the area and, because of the hilly terrain, many have quirks in their routes. I’ve spoken to many a tourist or visitor at Bondi Junction interchange, or one of the beaches, confused about which bus to take. I assume this is one of the objectives of the map and why it uses a physically accurate map, with the beaches clearly marked – many tourists are visiting multiple beaches and walking between them, where possible. Also of note, the map omits buses such as the multiple 37_ buses that go from Randwick to the city – both areas on the map. I understand not including all routes, as there’s no natural cutoff point, but I think would be worth having them as faint lines or similar.

Design issues I noticed are: the grey lines of roads are not on the legend (and these roads are mostly not straight in reality), two buses are in black but it’s not clear why, there is no end dot for the 323 or the 311, it omits the arterial roads either side of the Moore Park green wedge, because they wouldn’t fit on the 45 degree orientation, some T-intersections of the blue lines show a turn, others do not (e.g. 381 at Bondi Road), and the bus interchange at Edgecliff and Bondi Junction are on top of the underground platforms, but the map suggests they are kind of near each other. Also, there are two floating train stations at Hyde Park, and despite the title, there are clearly ferry and train routes on the map, why not call it Public transport around the Eastern Suburbs? Lastly, there are time estimates for some walking routes (I think are helpful), but not the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee segments.

Transit Maps says:

Before I address Felix’s concerns with this map (many of which are valid), I will note that this map does represent a pleasing maturation of the “new”  Transport for NSW house style: it’s definitely the most confidently executed and aesthetically pleasing map I’ve seen thus far from them. The combination of simplified routes and geography in particular is working quite nicely. There is a bit of “bus number hunting” that needs to be done to follow some routes across the map, but as it’s really meant as an overview of services, I don’t think it’s too bad.

That said, the omission of buses that reach the Eastern Suburbs from Central Station (the 37x routes that Felix mentions) is kind of baffling. I commuted to Randwick from Central on the 373 back in 1991–1992, and all of those buses are a major method of moving between the two areas. As it stands, this is only a map of Eastern Suburbs buses if you start or end your journey at Circular Quay or Bondi Junction. The fact that the 388 – a very short route from Paddington to Bondi Junction which runs just once each weekday – gets included on this map over any of the 37x routes is (for me, at least) more than a little bizarre.

I don’t have a huge problem with the roads around Moore Park being omitted – as the routes shown don’t interact with them at all, they’re superfluous detail. I would have liked the City Circle rail lines to have been shown as the Eastern Suburbs line has been – as Felix says, the “floating” stations just look a bit odd. Straightening out windy roads is absolutely fine on an overview map like this.

As far as walking times go, I’m fine with what is displayed. Walking distances between transit modes need to be shown because that’s very useful information for a user to have. The coastal walk is a recreational path over a much longer distance, so the time taken to walk it will vary widely depending on the abilities and goals of those who are walking it.

Our rating: Looks great, and does a reasonably good job of showing an overview of the routes that have been included. The exclusion of routes to/from Central Station is mystifying, however. Two-and-a-half stars.