August 19, 2024 was a historic day in NSW’s transport history: a 15.5 km section of the Sydney subway was opened to the public. The route runs from Chatswood in the northwest of the city, under the harbor, through the central business district to the suburb of Sydenham.
This new section of line is part of the M1 Northwest & Bankstown Line, which now stretches 51.5 kilometres across Sydney and serves 21 stations, 6 of which are new, between Tallawong and Sydenham.
The remaining 13 kilometres of the M1 line will open following the reconstruction of 10 existing stations on the T3 Bankstown Line.
The newly expanded metro network provides unrivalled connectivity to Sydney’s employment, financial and retail districts, opens up the Barangaroo waterfront by providing the first railway station and has the capacity to carry more people across Sydney Harbour during the busiest hour of the day than the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel combined.
The first journey under the harbour departed from Platform 1 at Sydenham station at 4.54am on Monday. The weekday timetable will now apply across the integrated network, with a train arriving every four minutes during peak hours and every seven minutes during the day. After a few weeks, the 7-minute weekday service will be changed to a 5-minute weekday service.
In total, 445 new underground services will run through the heart of the city every weekday, accommodating around 34,000 people per hour at peak times, significantly reducing pressure on existing transport and road networks.
In the coming days and weeks, as commuters become familiar with the city’s new modes of transport, additional Metro staff will be present at every station and on trains during operating hours. There will be audio and video help points at each station, directly connected to friendly staff at the Metro’s Operations Control Centre, who will be available to answer queries.
Although all of the city’s stations are now open, commuters will notice construction fencing at most of the new stations and minor ongoing works in the station areas. These works mainly include improvements to roads, footpaths and transport interchanges and will not impact customer journeys.
The new buildings above Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Gadigal and Waterloo stations are still under construction and will be opened gradually once they are completed.
New turn-up-and-go metro services are the fastest way to get from northern Sydney to the city centre. A metro journey from Chatswood to Martin Place takes 11 minutes, while a journey along the entire route from Sydenham to Tallawong takes less than 60 minutes.
WKZ, source Sidney Metro
