Getting to the Zig Zag Railway in Clarence NSW

[Polrail]

Question for the experts, as I'm getting frustrated trying to find into!

I'll be in Sydney 15-19 April. I'd like to go out and ride the Zig Zag. This is supposedly possible to do by public transport, taking the train from Sydney to the NSW station "Zig Zag Railway" which is "Bottom Point" for the Zig Zag. The problem is the for the entire month of April tickets from Bottom Point are sold out.

There are some limited tickets available from Clarence Station, HQ of the Zig Zag. But I cannot find any reasonable way to get to Clarence by public transport.

There are a number of tours by coach from Sydney offering a ride on the Zig Zag (mainly on the GetYourGuide site), but I'd prefer to avoid this option if possible. It appears that tour operators may be buying up blocks of tickets, limiting public sale by the Zig Zag.

I wrote to the Zig Zag some 10 days ago asking for advice, but no reply has been forthcoming.

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions? Thank you in advance!

JD

 

[dutchflyer]

There are some OZzies from down yundah on here-but due to time difference they sleep-so will surely come later.
But MY guess when I read things like this-especially if its for a whole month, is that its simply NOW not released/open for booking yet. Even more when its just a local/regional train. Remember that the PKP in PL also did not offer selling tickets till 30 days before travel not that long ago?
OR the timings are not finalised yet for then. There may be works planned or whatever that may hinder running those steel things on steel rails.
Suggest if it really feels like you want to know now:
try google/AI, there may be a suggestion. IF it has, it most likely comes from somewhere, maybe a bit hidden, on the NSW-rail/transport site, which you may also try to then plow through
use a general touristy site like TripAdvisor-it fairly often has the general places many want to go to already covered and sees 1000x more often response as this specialist forum
Also the dates you quote are some 2 weeks after Easter this year, so I dont think its the busiest high season then

 

[AdamWW]

There are some OZzies from down yundah on here-but due to time difference they sleep-so will surely come later.
But MY guess when I read things like this-especially if its for a whole month, is that its simply NOW not released/open for booking yet. Even more when its just a local/regional train. Remember that the PKP in PL also did not offer selling tickets till 30 days before travel not that long ago?
OR the timings are not finalised yet for then. There may be works planned or whatever that may hinder running those steel things on steel rails.
Suggest if it really feels like you want to know now:
try google/AI, there may be a suggestion. IF it has, it most likely comes from somewhere, maybe a bit hidden, on the NSW-rail/transport site, which you may also try to then plow through
use a general touristy site like TripAdvisor-it fairly often has the general places many want to go to already covered and sees 1000x more often response as this specialist forum
Also the dates you quote are some 2 weeks after Easter this year, so I dont think its the busiest high season then

I think the issue here is of a tourist railway having "sold out" of tickets, not regional public transport.

I was hoping to take a trip on it into a visit some years ago, but I didn't get as far as looking at tickets because I couldn't fit it in. I did however see one of their trains high above me from the window of an XPT.

 

[Polrail]

I think the issue here is of a tourist railway having "sold out" of tickets, not regional public transport.

Exactly! It's about first booking the Zig Zag from the connection point to the NSW rail system, and then figuring out how to get there from Sydney.

use a general touristy site like TripAdvisor

But that will generally be the coach/day-trip crowd, and not those of us want to make a rail day out of it.

JD

 

[matt]

Question for the experts, as I'm getting frustrated trying to find into!

I'll be in Sydney 15-19 April. I'd like to go out and ride the Zig Zag. This is supposedly possible to do by public transport, taking the train from Sydney to the NSW station "Zig Zag Railway" which is "Bottom Point" for the Zig Zag. The problem is the for the entire month of April tickets from Bottom Point are sold out.

There are some limited tickets available from Clarence Station, HQ of the Zig Zag. But I cannot find any reasonable way to get to Clarence by public transport.

There are a number of tours by coach from Sydney offering a ride on the Zig Zag (mainly on the GetYourGuide site), but I'd prefer to avoid this option if possible. It appears that tour operators may be buying up blocks of tickets, limiting public sale by the Zig Zag.

I wrote to the Zig Zag some 10 days ago asking for advice, but no reply has been forthcoming.

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions? Thank you in advance!

JD

Clarence is only served by rail replacement buses. I'm surprised it is sold out already. It might be worth emailing them to make sure.

 

[Richard Scott]

Clarence is only served by rail replacement buses. I'm surprised it is sold out already. It might be worth emailing them to make sure.

When we went it was rail replacement so got dropped at the top. Decided to do it on a whim (wanted to do the waterfalls but was such a wet day had a change of plan) and no issue buying a ticket on the day. Glad we did do it as the diesel came out for a run up the hill from bottom to middle station!
Looks like there's a bus from Lithgow, so could do train to Lithgow from Sydney and then bus to Clarence?

 

[zero]

It may be that they are just operating one round trip from Clarence on 18th and 19th of April, although it's possible a tour operator may have booked up an entire train.

According to

https://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/system/files/media/documents/2026/260220FutureTrackwork.pdf

if you're staying in the city you'll have to take a bus from Granville to Penrith before continuing by train up the mountains.

There is a walking track from Zig Zag to Clarence which should take less than an hour provided that it's accessible, I've walked a bit of it but not the full route and no idea about what condition it is in now.

Taxi from Lithgow is an option.

 

[Polrail]

Just a short time ago some tickets opened up for 18 and 19 April. However, the only given choices are:



I understand that if you take the NSW train from Sydney to Zig Zag Station, you are adjacent to Bottom Points station, and there is no starting option there.

EDIT: But there seems to be only one trip that day to Bottom Points, so I guess there's no way to get back.


I'm going to see if there is a Lithgow taxi, as someone suggested above.

 

[matt]

Using https://ecom.roller.app/zigzagrailway/bottompointscheckout/en/home which I'm not sure is actually linked to on the website. I had to e-mail them to get the link. For all of the running days before the weekend you want to travel there is plenty of availability starting at Bottom Points. It might be worth e-mailing to clarify, they were prompt in replying to my query.

 

[LesS]

This is very disappointing news, particularly as I am a founding member who like all founding colleagues has been forced out by a group who by the above posts is not very attuned to customer service.
First, check what the timetable operating on those days is. This is the last weekend of the NSW school holidays.
The last train at Clarence must return to Bottom Points to shed even as an empty train.
Travelling on the trains from Sydney you must travel in the last car; notify the guard; and alight from the last door.
I would be surprised if on arrival they did not find a way for you to travel a round trip.
Remember that it is a 3hr trip from Sydney to Lithgow.
The station from Sydney is next to the engine shed and it is a steep, rough walk uphill to the narrow gauge station.

Please let us all know how you get on.

 

[Polrail]

Post-weekend update.

The Zig Zag Railway responded to me: "Unfortunately, due to a changing our timetable arriving by electric train is not possible from Easter onwards. The only solution at this stage is to catch an electric train to Lithgow station, and then travel to Clarence station via Taxi."

I checked with NSW Transport, and there is a train to Lithgow. I also wrote the local Lithgow taxi service, and they can set me up with a ride the 10km or so to Clarence. So, it looks like the trip is on.

Many thanks to all who provided input.

JD

 

[matt]

Depending what time you want to go to Lithgow you could combine it with a trip on an XPT. Whilst its not part of the NSW fares cap a single to Lithgow is quite cheap.

 

[Polrail]

I plan on these trains:

427 Sydney (0719)-Lithgow (0945)
536 Lithgow (1546)-Sydney (1841)

Neither seems to be available for online booking even for closer dates, so I've written Transport NSW asking about that.

I don't know if either is an XPT. On my last trip I rode the XPT Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne, so at least I've had the experience!

 

[43094]

427 is an XPT.

536 isn't.

 

[Polrail]

427 is an XPT.

536 isn't.

Thank you for the info.

 

[LesS]

Sydney Trains are every hour to Lithgow. No reservations are necessary or available. The XPT does require reservations and the fares are higher.

I am pleased that you received an answer from ZZR even although it is not the one you wanted.

 

[Polrail]

Sydney Trains are every hour to Lithgow. No reservations are necessary or available. The XPT does require reservations and the fares are higher.

This is good to know, too. I didn't realize it from the PDF timetable. I may have been looking at a PDF for long-distance services.

 

[LesS]

For details of public transport services in Sydney and NSW go to https://transportnsw.info/

 

[Polrail]

For details of public transport services in Sydney and NSW go to https://transportnsw.info/

Thank you. It looks like there is an 0624 BMT service arriving Clarence at 0919. That will be perfect.

 

[Richard Scott]

Just hijacking this thread for a quick question that's loosely related. Looking at going out to Blue Mountains, if took the Intercity train out on tap and go, what's the fare (on a Saturday), if I went to Lithgow? Possibly stop off at Wentworth Falls and head off to Lithgow later. I could then do evening XPT back (I know I'd need a separate ticket for that).
Also not quite so related, can I use tap and go from Sydney to Tahmoor? If so any idea of fare, please, at the weekend?

 

[zero]

Just hijacking this thread for a quick question that's loosely related. Looking at going out to Blue Mountains, if took the Intercity train out on tap and go, what's the fare (on a Saturday), if I went to Lithgow? Possibly stop off at Wentworth Falls and head off to Lithgow later. I could then do evening XPT back (I know I'd need a separate ticket for that).
Also not quite so related, can I use tap and go from Sydney to Tahmoor? If so any idea of fare, please, at the weekend?

On Fridays to Sundays the daily cap is $9.65 for the entire network, which includes Tahmoor. That's really all you need to know...

If you really want the details:
- Central to Wentworth Falls (or Lithgow) any time on Fri-Sun is $7.46
- Wentworth Falls to Lithgow any time on Fri-Sun is $5.79, but will be $2.19 as you'll have reached the daily cap
- tapping off then tapping back on to the same transport mode within 60 minutes is treated as a continuation of the previous trip
- so if you spend less than an hour at Wentworth Falls you will just get charged for a Central-Lithgow trip anyway
- Central to Lithgow has a max journey time of 6 hours
- so if spending 2.5 hours or less at Wentworth Falls and not taking any other public transport, you could not bother tapping and still get charged $7.46. Obviously, this is against the law and not worth it to save a measly $2

 

[LesS]

For Opal and Tap$Go the allowable time for a journey is 5 hours. Time for transfers is 60 minutes. A stopover at Wentworth Falls is ok A gap of more than 60 minutes before tapping back on would start a new journey and a new 5 hours.
I strongly advise against weekend train travel to Tahmoor or anywhere on the Southern Highlands. The service frequency is every 2 hours. An appalling at best.

 

[zero]

It's 6 hours when you cross the boundary between suburban and intercity https://transportnsw.info/tickets-fares/fares/maximum-journey-times