You can do it in a hurry, you can travel in daylight or you can travel overnight, you can stop overnight or you can do it the roundabout way. If you have no time, you can of course fly on the world's third busiest air route. Or you could battle the seemingly endless bitumen of the Hume Highway in a car. But why not enjoy the trip and experience a bit of Australia instead?

Perhaps you're a Flygskam (Flight Shaming) devotee, though we prefer the slightly more statesmanlike #Trainbragging (or as the Swedes say #tågskryt ). But, whatever your motivation, and whatever you call it, here are eight innovative options for train and bus travel between Australia's two largest cities.

Some options get you there same day, some let you break your journey and stay overnight. Some are train all the way, some are a mixture of trains and buses. But no matter which you choose, you'll get to see the real Australia.

Train 100% of the way.

NSW TrainLink runs two trains between Sydney and Melbourne each day between Sydney Central station and Melbourne Southern Cross station. One train departs early in the morning, travels throughout the daytime and arrives at the other city in the evening. The other train departs in the evening, travels through the night and arrives at its destination early the following morning. The direct journey takes about 11 hours.



Trains are fully air-conditioned. On-board facilities include economy and first class seats, first class sleeping berths, toilets, baby change facilities and take-away buffet service. There is no power for mobile devices and there is no on-board wifi although 3G and 4G mobile reception is available for significant parts of the journey (but not all).

Summary timetable for these four trains:

1. Depart Sydney Central station at 7:32am, or pick up the train at Campbelltown station at 8:17am. Then get off in Melbourne's northern suburbs at Broadmeadows at 5:57pm or Southern Cross Station in downtown Melbourne at 6:30pm.

2. Depart Sydney Central station at 8:32pm, or pick up the train at Campbelltown station at 9:14pm. Then next morning get off in Melbourne's northern suburbs at Broadmeadows at 6:51am or Southern Cross Station in downtown Melbourne at 7:25am.

3. Depart Melbourne Southern Cross station at 8:30am, or pick up the train at Broadmeadows station at 8:54am. Then get off in Sydney's southern suburbs at Campbelltown at 7:09pm or Sydney Central Station in at 7:53pm.

4. Depart Melbourne Southern Cross station at 7:50pm, or pick up the train at Broadmeadows station at 8:16pm. Then next morning get off in Sydney's southern suburbs at Campbelltown at 6:08am or Sydney Central Station at 6:53am.



Detail Timetable Links:

Table 25

Sydney-Melbourne

Online Booking Links;

Sydney-Melbourne

Melbourne-Sydney

Train 100% of the way.

If you have a day to spare and would like to experience a bit of classic Australian country hospitality, consider breaking your Sydney-Melbourne journey along the way.



Catch the morning train from Sydney or Melbourne, get off in the middle of the day at a town near the middle of the journey. You’ll have plenty of time to check into a nearby hotel, rest, have a meal, then in the morning spend a leisurely few hours shopping or sightseeing before boarding the train again next day to complete your journey.

When travelling from Sydney to Melbourne you could conveniently break and re-commence your daylight journey at:

• 12:12 at Harden
• 12:46 at Cootamundra
• 13:27 at Junee
• 13:54 at Wagga Wagga
• 15:11 at Albury

When travelling from Melbourne to Sydney, you could break your journey at

• 11:55 at Albury
• 13:07 at Wagga Wagga
• 13:51 at Junee
• 14:38 at Cootamundra
• 15:14 at Harden

The railway station in each of these towns is centrally located to shops, restaurants and accommodation. Albury and Wagga Wagga are large provincial cities whilst Junee, Cootamundra and Harden are smaller towns. There are other even smaller towns where you could also make a stopover, but note that not all have the facilities of these larger towns. Yass Junction station in particular, being quite a distance from the town of Yass itself, is not conveniently located (although taxis into town are available). NOTE: You can’t make this stopover journey on a standard Sydney-Melbourne train ticket. You have a couple of options: 1) You can purchase two separate tickets (eg Sydney-Wagga Wagga plus Wagga Wagga to Melbourne), or 2) you can travel on a ‘Discovery Pass’ which allows you unlimited NSW Trainlink travel over a 14 day (or longer) period.

If you break your journey in Albury, you have additional options to continue your journey to or from Melbourne on VLine who run three trains each way each day between Melbourne and Albury.

Rail Passes

Detailed Timetable Links:

Table 25

Sydney-Melbourne

Table 36

Albury-Melbourne

Online Booking Links;

Sydney-Melbourne

Melbourne-Sydney

Melbourne-Albury

Albury-Melbourne

Train 80% Bus 20% of the way

You can stop over in Canberra by taking a bit of a diversion and doing a short part of the journey by bus.



Travel from Sydney to Canberra in around four hours on one of NSW Trainlink's three daily XPLorer trains. From Sydney Central Station, you can depart in the early morning, around midday or in the early evening, then arrive at Canberra Railway Station in Kingston. There are connecting buses that depart right from the station forecourt, or you can take a taxi downtown or to your accommodation of choice. You can depart Sydney Central on the morning train at 07:12 arrive Canberra at 11:20, on the afternoon train from Sydney at 12:01 arriving Canberra at 16:09, or on the evening train from Sydney at 17:42 arriving Canberra at 22:05.

Spend a day or two in Canberra, then catch the conveniently-timed mid-morning NSW TrainLink bus from either Canberra Station at 09:22 or from Civic at 09:37 to Yass Junction (or on to Cootamundra) where you board the XPT train mid-way through its Sydney to Melbourne daylight journey. You then arrive in Melbourne that same evening at 18:30.

Summary Timetable:

In the other direction, leave Melbourne on the morning XPT at 08:30, alight at Cootamundra at 14:38 or Yass Junction at 16:05 for the connecting bus that takes you to Canberra arriving at 17:40 in the afternoon. After a night or two in Canberra, you can then complete your journey up to Sydney on one of the three daily XPLorer trains from Canberra railway station departing at 06:55, 11:55 or 17:08 arriving in Sydney around 4 hours later.

Summary Timetable:

Detail Timetable Links:

Table 26

Sydney-Canberra

Table 2584

Canberra-Yass-Melbourne

Online Booking Links:

Sydney-Canberra

Canberra-Melbourne

Train 40% Bus 60% of the way

If you're a beach-lover and if you don't mind quite a bit of bus travel and stopping over for a night, you can go the long way around via the coast all the way.



Starting from Sydney Central Station, board a Sydney Trains South Coast line train destined for Kiama. These trains, which you can just hop on without a reservation, depart approximately hourly and take about 2 and a quarter hours to reach Kiama - a delightful seaside town that is a potential stopover location if you wish. From Kiama, there are diesel trains that travel further south for another 30 minutes or so to Bomaderry station. The timetable is co-ordinated to make convenient connections at Kiama station, but they don't connect with all trains from Sydney. Once you reach Bomaderry station, that's as far as you can travel by train, so you have to then transfer a bus.

The most convenient bus south from Bomaderry is Premier Motor Service no 700/701 between Bomaderry and Eden. This bus, which should be booked in advance, departs Bomaderry station at 12:50 then calls at every major town down the South Coast before arriving at Eden at 19:00 (7pm). That's as far as you can get on the same day as departing Sydney, so you will then need to stay overnight before heading further, but that's certainly no sacrifice as this is a beautiful part of the country.

The remainder of the journey, from Batemans Bay, Narooma or Eden is by VLine, Victoria's long distance bus and train operator. They run buses from Batemans Bay or Narooma to Bairnsdale where they connect with trains from Bairnsdale to Melbourne. Three days per week (Tuesday, Friday and Sunday) the buses start from Batemans Bay, and the other four days per week they start from Narooma. Mondays to Saturdays, the buses depart early in the morning and get to Barinsdale just after midday connecting into a train that arrives Melbourne late afternoon. On Sundays only, the bus departs from Batemans Bay at a more civilised hour a bit later in the morning, getting to Bairnsdale in the late afternnon in time for a train that gets to Melbourne later in the evening. These VLine buses and trains should be reserved in advance.

Summary Timetable:

Detail Timetable Links:

Table 2551

Sydney-Eden

Table 3891

Batemans Bay-Melbourne

Online Booking Links:

Bomaderry-Eden

Narooma-Melbourne

Note that travel on Sydney Trains between Sydney and Bomaderry is not pre-booked. Just tap on and tap off at stations with your Opal Card or any major Credit card.

Train 40% Bus 60% of the way

This one is a bit of a combination of the previous two routes. You can travel from Sydney to the South Coast via Canberra, then take the VLine bus and train to Melbourne just as described above.



Starting from Sydney Central station, catch the midday Canberra XPLorer train to Canberra station where you will be met by NSW TrainLink Bus service no 771 that will take you to Eden via Cooma. You then stay overnight, and the next day you can catch the VLine bus to Bairnsdale which connects there with the VLine train to Melbourne. Of course, you can stop in Canberra or anywhere else along the way.

Summary Timetable: This route is also possible in the other direction. Take the morning VLine train from Melbourne to Bairnsdale and change to the co-ordinated connecting VLine bus for the trip to Eden (or on to Merimbula or Bega). After an overnight stay (or longer if you wish), board the NSW Trainlink bus for the trip up to Canberra which then connectes at Canberra station with the NSW TRainlink XPLorer train to Sydney.

Summary Timetable:

Detail Timetable Links:

Table 2630

Sydney-Canberra-Eden

Table 3891

Batemans Bay-Melbourne

Online Booking Links:

Sydney-Eden

Eden-Melbourne

Train 50% Bus 50% of the way

You can travel from Sydney via Canberra and the NSW High Country, then take the VLine bus and train to Melbourne via Bairnsdale.



Starting from Sydney Central station, catch a NSW Trainlink Canberra XPLorer train to Canberra station where you can change to a NSW TrainLink Bus south to Cooma or Bombala. You then stay overnight, and the next day you can catch the VLine bus to Bairnsdale which connects there with the VLine train to Melbourne. Of course, you can stop in Canberra or anywhere else along the way.

Summary Timetable: * Note that the Sunday southbound bus from Canberra to Bairnsdale runs ONLY during Victorian School Holiday periods.

This route is also possible in the other direction. Take the morning VLine train from Melbourne to Bairnsdale and change to the co-ordinated connecting VLine bus for the trip to Bombala, Cooma or even through to Canberra. After an overnight stay (or longer if you wish), board the NSW Trainlink bus for the trip up to Canberra which then connectes at Canberra station with the NSW TRainlink XPLorer train to Sydney. Note that on Saturdays the VLine train departs a few minutes later than on other days of the week, but it still reaches Bairnsdalein time to connect with the bus to Canberra. The Saturday bus from Bairnsdale to Canberra runs only in Victorian School holidays.

Detail Timetable Links:

Table 2630

Sydney-Canberra-Bombala

Table 3888

Canberra-Melbourne

Train 75% Bus 25% of the way

Catch the twice-weekly NSW Trainlink Griffith XPLorer from Sydney Central to Griffith. Stay overnight, or a few days, then catch the VLine bus to Shepparton and change there to the connecting VLine train to Melbourne.



Starting from Sydney Central station, catch a NSW Trainlink Griffith XPLorer train to Griffith station where you then stay overnight (or linger longer and visit local wineries). The next day you can catch a VLine bus to Shepparton which connects there with the VLine train to Melbourne. There are a couple of things to be aware of if planning this route. Firstly, the Griffith XPLorer train runs only twice per week from Sydney - so you have to fit yourself around that schedule. Secondly, most days of the week, the VLine bus departs Griffith VERY early in the morning. Too early, to be honest. However, on Sundays, it's a much more civilised timing, so that's probably the one I would recommend. In fact, a very comfortable weekend journey with a Saturday night stopover is easily done by catching the Saturday morning train from Sydney then the late morning VLine bus out of Griffith on Sunday.

Summary Timetable:

In the other direction, take the afternoon VLine train from Melbourne to Shepparton and change there to the connecting bus destined for Griffith. Stay overnight (or a few days), then catch the NSW Trainlink XPLorer train on Thursday or Sunday morning for the daylight trip to Sydney arriving there late afternoon.

Detail Timetable Links:

Table 29

Sydney-Griffith

Table 3636

Griffith-Shepparton-Melbourne

Train 70% Bus 30% of the way

Catch the morning XPT train from Sydney to Wagga Wagga or Albury and change to the connecting bus that takes you west through the Riverina along the Murray Valley to the historic town of Echuca. Stay over for a night (or two) before boarding the VLine train direct from Echuca down to Melbourne. You can also stop over in Wagga Wagga, Albury or even Bendigo on the way if you wish.


Every morning, the Melbourne XPT departs Sydney Central station. Whilst you can obviously travel on this train all the way to Melbourne, this option takes a bit of a diversion. Depart Sydney at 7:40am, travel through the morning and early afternoon and then, depending on the day, alight at either Wagga Wagga at 13:53 or Albury at 15:10. Then, depending which day of the week it is, board a connecting bus from Wagga Wagga at 14:15 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays that gets you to Echuca at 18:50, or on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, board the connecting bus at Albury at 15:30 that gets you to Echuca at 19:45. Stay overnight (or longer) at the historic riverside town of Echuca, then board your VLine train from Echuca station straight through to Melbourne. Trains depart Echuca three times daily each weekday for Melbourne via Bendigo (twice daily on weekends).

Summary Timetable:

In the other direction, on any weekday, catch one of the three daily VLine trains from Melbourne Southern Cross station to Echuca (twice daily on weekends). Stay overnight (or a few days), before catching the early morning NSW Trainlink bus from Echuca that takes you across to meet the Sydney-bound XPT train at either Albury (on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) or at Wagga Wagga (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays). Change at Albury or Wagga Wagga to the XPT and travel through the afternoon before arriving at Sydney Central station late in the afternoon.

Detail Timetable Links:

Table 2656

Sydney-Wagga Wagga-Echuca

Table 2647

Sydney-Albury-Echuca

Table 356

Echuca-Melbourne