Next Depart NSW · help
The next train, bus or ferry from your stop, on your watch.
Next Depart NSW finds the stop you are standing at, in Sydney or anywhere in New South Wales, and lists what leaves it next, with live delays where they are known. This page is how to use it, what “live” means, what it needs, and what each message on the watch is telling you.
Using it
- Allow location the first time it opens. A screen titled Location says the watch will send its position to our server to find the stops near you, and that the server answers and does not keep it. START allows it; BACK is Not now. Until you allow it, the GPS stays off and the app sends nothing.
- Read the departures at the nearest stop. Where a stop has more than one mode, the app lists them first — Trains, Light Rail, Buses — each with its next departure. Open one for its routes, each with up to three times and the platform.
- At the wrong stop? Use Change Stop. Scroll up past the first row to the stop’s name and press START, or tap the name. The stops nearby are listed nearest first, grouped within 100 m, 500 m and 1 km, each with its stop ID and distance.
- Choose a departure, then your stop. The route screen lists every stop to the end of the line, with arrival times adjusted for the live delay. Select your stop to set the get-off alert: the watch buzzes when it is within 400 metres of the stop, or 1, 2, 3 or 5 minutes before it is due, as set in Settings (hold the screen or UP). The time-based alert needs no GPS, so it works in tunnels. Keep the app open: the alert works only while it is.
What “live” means
Every time starts as the timetable, and is corrected with live data where Transport for NSW has it. A time with a dot beside it is a live estimate; a time without one is the timetable. Cancelled services are struck through, or left out if you choose that in the app’s settings in Garmin Connect. The data is Transport for NSW’s, under CC BY 4.0; Next Depart NSW is not affiliated with or endorsed by Transport for NSW or Garmin.
What it needs
A phone paired with the watch, running the Garmin Connect app, with an internet connection: a watch app’s requests travel through it, or through the watch’s own Wi-Fi or LTE where it has them. GPS, to find the nearest stop. To be in New South Wales. And a round colour Garmin watch with Connect IQ 3.2 or later.
It is in English only. Some things it does not do, on purpose: it plans no journeys, has no map, and does not run in the background, so it shows departures, and buzzes before your stop, only while it is open.
Questions
The things people ask.
Can I see Sydney train and bus times on my watch?
Yes, with Next Depart NSW on a round colour Garmin watch with Connect IQ 3.2 or later. It shows the next trains, metro, light rail, buses, ferries and coaches from the stop you are standing at, in Sydney or anywhere in New South Wales, with live delays where Transport for NSW has them. Choose a departure to see the stops ahead, and the watch buzzes before yours. The app’s page says where to get it.
Why does it say “Location is off”?
Because location was not allowed when Next Depart NSW first asked, or was turned off later. Until it is allowed, the GPS stays off and the app sends nothing, so it cannot find your stop. Press START, or tap the screen, to be asked again, or turn Location on in the app’s Settings on the watch.
Why does it say “No GPS fix”?
The watch has not found its position within 30 seconds, usually because it is indoors or the GPS is starting cold. Move to where it can see the sky and give it a moment. Once it has had a fix, Change Stop still lists the stops nearby.
Why does it say “Phone not connected”?
Next Depart NSW reaches our server through the Garmin Connect app on your phone, so it needs the phone paired and nearby, with Garmin Connect running and an internet connection. Check that Garmin Connect is open and the phone is online. A watch with its own Wi-Fi or LTE can use that instead.
Does it work outside Sydney, or outside NSW?
It works anywhere in New South Wales, not only Sydney: trains, metro, light rail, buses, ferries and coaches, from the stop you are at. It shows nothing outside the state: our server answers only for positions inside an area drawn around New South Wales, and beyond it the watch shows “Outside NSW”.
Does the get-off alert work with the app closed?
No. Next Depart NSW does not run in the background, so the get-off alert works only while the app is open on the watch: keep it open until your stop. The alert buzzes within 400 metres of the stop, or 1, 2, 3 or 5 minutes before it is due; the time-based one needs no GPS, so it works in tunnels.
What does Next Depart NSW send about me?
Nothing until you allow location. After that, each request sends the watch’s position, to about a metre, to our server, with the stop or mode you chose and the identifier Garmin gives this app on your watch, which we use to limit requests and to count how many watches use the app each day. Requests pass through the Garmin Connect app and Cloudflare’s network on the way. The server answers and does not keep your position. No account, no ads, no analytics. The privacy policy has the detail.
Still stuck?
Raise a case with or without an email address — your choice. Say which watch you have, and quote what the screen says.