Revealed: The confidential warning days after Sydney metro line’s opening was announced

Safety regulators warned high-ranking bureaucrats about the tight timeframe for the opening of Sydney’s $21.6 billion metro rail line at a meeting just five days after Transport Minister Jo Haylen announced plans for the first passenger services in early August.

Confidential minutes of the meeting on July 12 of senior officials from Sydney Metro, the National Rail Safety Regulator and Fire and Rescue NSW show concerns were raised about the ability to open the mostly underground line between Chatswood and Sydenham on August 4.

At the meeting, senior rail safety regulator Colin Holmes warned of the tight timeframe to open the line due to assessments, and that the watchdog was monitoring fire-and-life safety issues and those arising from trial exercises. He also told officials that a number of alarm-related issues had to be resolved.

Sydney Metro’s acting head of project delivery, Josh Watkins, acknowledged the tight timeframe, adding that there was no tolerance for safety errors, according to the “sensitive” minutes of the meeting obtained by the Herald.

Watkins noted that there was a fall-back option to open the line on Sunday, August 18 if an alternative date was required.

The meeting of about two dozen senior officials was held five days after the transport minister announced the targeted opening date. Last Wednesday, Haylen revealed the line could not be opened on August 4 due to a combination of problems including a lack of final approval from the regulator, a recent meltdown of a connecting stretch of line and industrial action from the firefighters’ union.

A spokesperson for Haylen said the government and Sydney Metro made it clear from the start that the target date for opening the line on August 4 was subject to receiving final testing and regulatory approvals.

“As is often the case, the minister received ongoing advice from Sydney Metro, Transport for NSW and other agencies. The minister considered that advice and then informed the public,” he said.

Coalition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said the confidential meeting minutes showed Sydney Metro, the rail safety regulator and Fire and Rescue NSW were all aware of significant issues with the government’s plans.

“The question still remains: what did the minister know and what did she do about it?” she said.

The official opening of the city section of Sydney’s mega metro under the harbour has been delayed.Credit: Nick Moir

Premier Chris Minns has said he first heard on Monday last week that the planned opening of the line on August 4 was “possible but unlikely”.

Asked on Monday about the project, Minns said a new date would be announced when the government was confident it could open. “Once bitten, twice shy. We want to make sure when it is announced to be open you can actually catch the metro,” he told reporters.

Minns said evacuation plans were a large part of the reason for the delay. “In the event of the shutdown of the metro system, we would have to evacuate hundreds of people. We need to make sure that those systems are in place,” he said.

The latest revelations come after a firefighter received a “minor electrical shock” during a final evacuation drill last Thursday at the Barangaroo station, compounding the problems besetting the project.

In an internal memo to staff on Friday, Fire and Rescue NSW commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said the agency’s safety team was looking into the incident involving the firefighter, and it had been reported to the state’s workplace safety regulator.

“The train involved is being checked as part of the safety investigation to determine how an electric shock could have occurred,” he said in the memo.

A Sydney Metro spokesperson said the target date for the opening was determined on the basis that significant progress had been made to get the project ready and on the advice received from the operator and other stakeholders.

“[The rail safety regulator] has consistently acknowledged the good levels of co-operation, and reinforced the joint need to continue to work towards agreed target dates, so all parties are aligned on priorities,” she said.

A new date for the opening will hinge on Fire and Rescue NSW’s assessment of the new metro line, and the rail safety regulator issuing an operating licence to the private operator.

A spokesperson for the rail safety regulator said it had consistently advised that it would assess the application as quickly as possible, but that it required sufficient time to do so.

He said the regulator had received the bulk of evidence to support the operational safety case for the new line, and had been reviewing the material as it was handed over.

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