Sydney Metro Northwest, the first stage of Australia’s largest public transport project, is on track to open to customers on Sunday 26 May, delivering a ‘turn-up and go’ rail service from Rouse Hill to Chatswood.
Sydney Metro Northwest is the first stage of the Sydney Metro project and will deliver eight new railway stations and 4000 commuter car parking spaces to Sydney’s growing North West (a region with the highest car ownership levels per household in Australia).
Trains will run every four minutes in the peak – that’s just 15 trains an hour. This will assist users to simply turn up to the station and go.
Formerly known as the North West Rail Link, Sydney Metro Northwest will be the first fully-automated metro rail system in Australia.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Minister for Transport Andrew Constance confirmed the opening date of the new Metro line today, which is now undergoing final commissioning.
“This is an exciting time for the future of public transport. Thousands of commuters will have access to world-class metro rail,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“We have delivered the North West Metro on time and more than $1 billion under budget.”
“This project is the result of hard work, discipline and focus. I want to thank all those involved in delivering this important project,” she added.
Mr Constance detailed that the new generation of driverless trains have now completed more than 180,000 kilometres of testing (for context, a trip around the Earth at the equator is 40,000 kilometres) and final commissioning is currently underway.
Testing of Sydney Metro trains involved high-speed tests on the skytrain, calibrating the system with the platform screen doors and loading one train with more than 100 1,000-litre tanks of water to simulate customer loads.
Australian-first technology will also be employed, such as platform screen doors to keep people and objects like prams away from the tracks and allow trains to quickly get in and out of stations.
“Sydney Metro is Australia’s first fully accessible railway which will deliver fast, safe and reliable travel,” the Transport Minister said.
“The Metro line is currently being extended from Chatswood to Bankstown and by 2024 Sydney will have 31 metro stations and a 66-kilometre standalone metro railway.”
The second stage of the Sydney Metro project involves Sydney Metro City and Southwest.
More information on the Sydney Metro project can be found here.