Metro opening triggers carnival atmosphere and new chapter for Sydney

More than 18,000 passengers boarded driverless trains at stations along the final stage of Sydney’s $30 billion M1 metro line for the first time on Friday morning, creating a carnival atmosphere and ending more than two years of major disruptions.

In a historic milestone for the mega project, the opening of the 13-kilometre section between Bankstown and Sydenham completes the 66-kilometre M1 line which has been built in three stages over more than a decade and now connects the south-west to the north-west via the central city.

The 18,000 trips taken up until 10am from the 10 stations along the Southwest section on Friday took total patronage along the entire M1 line to 92,000 journeys during the morning period.

Premier Chris Minns paid tribute to the project team, engineers and others who were responsible for turning a 130-year-old heavy rail line in the south-west into a 21st-century metro railway.

“It was incredibly difficult. It was expensive. It did take time. I’m so pleased they did it, however,” he said. “We’ve seen a big boom in suburbs along the metro line, wherever it’s been built, and I expect the same thing to happen on this Canterbury-Bankstown corridor.”

About 1200 people turned up to catch the first service, which pulled out of Bankstown station on time at 4.31am to loud cheers.

Earlier, Bankstown Labor MP Jihad Dib cut the ribbon for the Southwest Metro project at the entrance to the station, joined by fellow MPs Jo Haylen and Sophie Cotsis about 40 minutes before the first train departed.

The extended metro line operated smoothly during the morning peak, which was its first major test.

Unsurprisingly, Bankstown station recorded the highest number of boardings on the new Southwest section, as more than 3000 passengers used it up to 10am, followed by Campsie.

The opening of the final stretch was a relief for commuters who have endured trips on pink replacement buses for the past two years while the T3 heavy rail line was converted to handle fully autonomous metro trains.

At Dulwich Hill station, resident Ylana Magni said the community mood was celebratory after the start of metro services. “I think it’s going to be more popular than we realise,” she said.

Will Randall, who studies engineering at the University of NSW, said the metro line would shave about 15 minutes off his morning commute from Dulwich Hill. “[It has been a] long time coming, but [I’m] thankful that it’s here. It’s going to make the commute a lot quicker,” he said.

Transport Minister John Graham, who was on board the first service, said south-west residents were relieved the metro line had opened. “It was a relief as the train took off this morning,” he said.

He acknowledged the drivers who had operated the pink buses over the last two years, although conceded that the community will not miss the replacement services.

“I know everyone’s happy to be off the pink buses … [but the drivers have] been really important to this community over the last couple of years,” he said.

The pink replacement buses will continue running along the south-west corridor over the weekend as a back-up before they are removed, which should reduce congestion on local roads.

Like the rest of the M1 line, trains run every four minutes on the Southwest section during weekday peak hours, every five minutes between 10am and 3pm, and every 10 minutes in the evenings and on weekends.

However, they have been boosted to one every seven minutes this weekend to accommodate greater interest.

While the fully completed M1 metro line is popular, Minns reiterated that the driverless rail projects were “very expensive” to build.

“They transform cities, but [you] shouldn’t forget the price tag. They’re incredibly expensive, and we will build metros when we can afford to build them,” he said.

He disclosed on Monday that the final section of the M1 metro line cost $10 billion. The government has not previously broken out the cost of converting the T3 heavy rail line to metro train standards, referring only to the combined bill for the city and Southwest sections of nearly $23 billion. That is double the forecast of about $11.5 billion when plans were unveiled last decade.

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