Commuters face at least another eight-month wait for new metro line opening

Sydney commuters will have to wait until at least April next year for the final stage of a $21.6 billion metro rail line to open, forcing tens of thousands to continue catching replacement buses or seeking alternative ways to travel.

Converting the former T3 heavy rail line between Sydenham and Bankstown to one for driverless metro trains has been one of the most complex parts of the M1 mega-project, leaving the Minns government reluctant to commit publicly to a date for its completion.

Premier Chris Minns tours the new metro train platform at Bankstown station on Monday.Credit: Steven Siewert

Sydney Metro is halfway through low-speed testing – up to 25km/h – of new single-deck trains on the line between Sydenham and Bankstown. High-speed testing is expected to start in September or October, subject to regulatory approval.

Marrickville station is the most progressed of the 10 on the south-west section of the line, followed by Bankstown, Belmore and Punchbowl. Campsie and Canterbury stations require the most work to complete.

Asked whether it would open in the first quarter of next year, Premier Chris Minns said he was not committing to it because of the government’s bitter experience announcing opening dates and not meeting them.

“We’ve obviously got a target date and a completion date. But when you’ve got major infrastructure projects like the one that we’re trying to pull off here, things can go wrong, and it’s been with some bitter experience that that’s been the case,” he said.

“We want to make sure that when we announce that date, the public has got confidence that it will be completed. We believe it will be in 2026, but the date will be released as soon as possible.”

Last year a planned opening date of the city section from Chatswood to Sydenham via the city centre of the M1 metro line was missed by two weeks.

Minns emphasised that the conversion of the existing rail line was highly complex, warning that any one of a number of aspects could “go wrong between now and the opening date”.

“This is not an easy build. Reconfiguring an existing heavy rail operation is one of the most difficult transport projects you can imagine. To do it in an active corridor, on a tight time-frame with people watching over your back is particularly difficult,” he said.

The 13-kilometre section of rail track between Sydenham and Bankstown has been closed since last September, forcing up to 60,000 commuters a day to use replacement buses or find other ways to get to their destinations. It was meant to reopen as the final part of the M1 metro line in late 2025, but this year that date was delayed until 2026.

Under the original plans of the previous Coalition government, the Sydenham-Bankstown stretch was meant to open in 2024 at the same time as the rest of the second stage of the M1 line between Chatswood and Sydenham.

At Bankstown, new 170-metre metro platforms, lined by 36 safety screen doors, have been constructed at the station, which will be at the south-western end of the 66-kilometre M1 line to Tallawong, in the city’s northwest.

The former railway platform at Bankstown has been rebuilt to create a central plaza between the metro and heavy rail parts of the station. Paving of the concourse at the metro station building and the installation of 19 Opal gates are nearing completion.

Major work is due to start shortly on a 90-metre plaza for food outlets and shops. It will provide a pedestrian link between the northern and southern sides of Bankstown.

Once the conversion is complete, a trip on a metro train from Bankstown to Central Station will take 28 minutes, six minutes faster than the previous journey on double-deck suburban trains. A trip from Bankstown to Macquarie University in Sydney’s north will be 54 minutes, a saving of 25 minutes.

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