Tens of thousands of commuters are expected to ride on the Sydney Metro’s city section on Monday morning as the first new train line running underneath the city centre in more than four decades opens to the public.
The first metro train service on the new section was scheduled to depart Sydenham at 4:54am, travelling the newly opened stretch of the extension under Sydney harbour to reach Chatswood station by 5:16am, where it would continue on to Tallawong on the original north-west line that opened in 2019.
In the reverse direction, the first train from Tallawong to travel past Chatswood was scheduled to arrive at the newly built Crows Nest metro station at 5:20am, before commuters rode the services to work in the morning peak.
The highly anticipated city extension of the driverless metro line had been scheduled to open on Sunday 4 August, but this was postponed after final safety approvals were not received in the days leading up to its opening, amid reports a firefighter conducting safety drills received an electric shock that raised authorities’ alarm.
Last Thursday, the New South Wales government set Monday as the new opening day, hours after the rail safety regulator granted final approvals.
Works on the Chatswood to Sydenham section began in 2017, with a tunnel boring megaproject under Sydney harbour drilling a new rail line under the ocean floor.
Five new stations – Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Gadigal, Waterloo – as well as new platforms and entrances at the existing Martin Place and Central stations make up the 15.5km new section.
The Chatswood to Sydenham part of the $21.6bn line – which will reach Bankstown after an existing heavy rail track conversion is complete in coming years – will drastically cut travel times in Sydney.
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A trip from Victoria Cross in North Sydney, under the new harbour crossing to Barangaroo, will take three minutes as top speeds reach 100km/h, while the entire Chatswood-Sydenham journey lasts 22 minutes.
While metro trains carry fewer passengers than the famed multi-carriage doubledecker workhorses of Sydney’s train network, the metro line’s overall capacity will exceed existing train lines due to its high frequency of services.
At peak times, the Sydney Metro line through the city will carry up to 40,000 passengers an hour.
The NSW government has also billed the line as a “turn up and go” service: a train will arrive at least every four minutes in morning and evening peak periods, with a capacity of every two minutes if pushed.
Services will run every five minutes in the middle of the day and every 10 minutes at night and weekends.
Changes to bus routes surrounding new stations will come into effect after the opening. The Sydenham-Bankstown train line will be shut down for up to 18 months as its tracks are converted to accommodate metro services.