Sydney Metro Northwest railway to feature over 1m trees

The new $7.3 billion Sydney Metro Northwest rail project will be open to public this Sunday. The train stations have been designed to pay homage to the Australian landscape while allowing maximum passenger flow during peak hour.

• Revealed: How Sydney’s $8.3b metro will operate as it prepares to open in nine days
• Sydney Metro Northwest ushers in new era of train travel for commuters

The new Sydney Metro Northwest train stations have been designed to pay homage to the Australian landscape while also allowing maximum passenger flow during peak hour.

More than one million trees have been planted along the railway line including grids of orchards next to the train tracks and large trees in the paved plazas.

More than one million trees have been planted along the railway line. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Eight stations have been built from scratch and another five renovated to give the 13 stations a unified visual look and feel.

The 22 driverless trains along the 36km railway line are currently undergoing final testing before the $7.3 billion project opens this Sunday to the public.

Twenty two driverless trains are being tested. Picture: Dylan Robinson

The chief architect who oversaw the design and landscaping element of the Metro said the stations were designed to suit northwest Sydney’s hot summers and cool winters.

“We started with an idea that recognised before white settlement there were vast areas of forest and woodland (in northwest Sydney),” HASSELL principal Ross de la Motte said.

“When people came here they carved out large parts of the forest for orchards — Cherrybrook, Hills Showground, Eastwood — they were all known for their agricultural production,” he said.

Mr de la Motte said more than one million plants had been planted along the metro route to help restore the bush landscape.

“The landscape idea is big restoration with a grid of orchards close to the station,” he said.

There are four different types of stations along the Metro railway, including open cut stations, elevated stations, “cut and cover” stations and cavern stations deep underground.

The stations are designed to suit northwest Sydney’s hot summers and cool winters. Picture: Dylan Robinson

“The thing that ties them all together is the landscape and the canopies, people say the idea from the canopies came from a gum leaf,” Mr de la Motte said.

“We wanted a floating form that touched the ground gently so that people could come in and not feel any barriers, the wind could pass through and the sunlight could come in.”

He said another unifying design feature across the stations is the circular concrete seats located in the plazas which resemble oranges and apples which have been cut in half.

“This is effectively the fruit of the orchards that we were talking about, this is a slice through the fruit,” Mr de la Motte said.

“They come in different sizes … and they are all meant to be slightly playful so kids can jump on them, jump off them, sit on them, you can put your lunch on them.”

At the peak of the project in 2016 Mr de la Motte’s team numbered 110 people and included about 6000 design drawings.