It's taken me a little while to figure out the Sydney rail system myself, esp. in Central Station, where I can never find a map to tell me what line I want to take, what platform it leaves from, or how to get to that platform. OTOH, at least Sydney HAS maps; I never understood how tourists were supposed to be able to figure out the Melbourne tram system.

In local slang, Oz tends to mean places that aren't real, or the block of science buildings on the campus since they're reached through a bridge that used to be called the Rainbow (but then the Rainbow Alliance was formed, so that name was stopped so that people wouldn't think the bridge was gay.) So Oz is a sort of equivalent of Xanadu or Nevereverland or Rand McNally - unless it's specifically said to pertain to that country.

Zoe, do you live in Edinburgh?

No, I commute between Edimbru and Corescant.

Edit which in this flat are represented by the bedroom and the living room with Edinburgh being the hallway in between :-P

I never understood how tourists were supposed to be able to figure out the Melbourne tram system.

In the old days, you asked a conductor. But sadly the conductors were all sacked and replaced by machines (and some of them were re-employed as ticket inspectors because no-one bothers buying a ticket any more!). It may be a Darwinian system but we're fond of it. (Not.)

But maps of the tram system are pretty widely available, I would have thought?

The New Orleans bus system is pretty much designed to be as hard to figure out as possible. The bus stop signs all just say "Bus Stop" and have no indication as to what lines stop there or where they go. I've been here for four years, and I only know where three of the lines actually go. (It doesn't really help that, at college orientation, we're told, "The buses are dangerous. Don't take them," so it took me until the middle of sophomore year before I even tried.)

Angus, I never saw any at any of the tram stops, which is where one might reasonably expect to find them (except for the fact that most tram stops don't have shelters, so maps would get rained on and ruined pretty quick). They may be available elsewhere, but I wouldn't know where to look. Some of the tram stops did have little maps for their individual lines behind fogged-up glass, but stops that are used by several lines don't have maps of every line.

It's also possible that I just didn't try very hard to find a map. Because it should be easy, dammit! :-)

Because Australia is too sodding long to type!

Yes!

The Sydney one does look a little confusing, but it also looks liek it has a LOT of stops, which is neat. DC's is easy, but only becuase there aren't so many stops...

Lothian buses are informationly excellent all the stops are well marked and have little route diagrams.

Yeah, but you have a Pentagon stop, which is dead cool.

Whats a Pentagon stop?