Billions will be needed for extra Metro West train stations

The NSW government will be forced to find billions of dollars in funding if it decides within days to build extra stations along the Metro West line between Parramatta and central Sydney or extend it further east.

After receiving a final report from a review into Metro West, the government will reveal within the next week whether it will significantly expand the size of the $25.3 billion underground line, along which nine stations have been planned.

Construction of the Metro West line is powering ahead despite Premier Chris Minns casting doubt on the project several months ago.Credit: Kate Geraghty, Wolter Peeters, Louise Kennerley,

The mega project is already costing $1.05 billion per kilometre, compared to the $720 million per kilometre to build the Metro City and Southwest line from Chatswood to the CBD, and onto Sydenham and Bankstown.

Infrastructure financing expert Martin Locke, who is on the technical advisory panel for Singapore’s rapid transport network, said the cost of building extra stations along the Metro West line and altering its alignment would add billions of dollars to the price tag.

“As soon as you start adding each station you would add a billion dollars of costs. It is a significant sum,” said Locke, a former Deutsche Bank managing director. “It begs the question of where the money is going to come from.”

Locke, who is an adjunct professor at Sydney University’s Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies, said delaying the 24-kilometre Metro West line beyond the planned 2030 opening to build extra stations or extend it would also likely increase the project’s cost.

The cost per kilometre of Metro West is also more than double that of the new metro rail line to Western Sydney Airport, which will have six stations and is about $480 million per kilometre.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the government had stated publicly that it was looking at possible additional stations and an extension for Metro West.

“The review will consider other extensions to the broader Sydney Metro project,” she said.

Asked whether the industrial suburb of Camellia, near Parramatta, was firming as the favoured site for an extra station, Haylen last Tuesday said: “We’ll release the final report of the independent Sydney Metro review this month.”

Transport Minister Jo Haylen, right, says the government has stated publicly that it was looking at possible additional stations.Credit: James Brickwood

Premier Chris Minns has previously emphasised his desire to get “maximum impact” out of the Metro West line while noting the lack of stations in the previous government’s plans.

Asked on Sunday whether extra stations would be a catalyst for more housing, he said: “They may be, yes. That’s been part of our discussions, particularly in relation to infrastructure projects that we are examining, but I don’t have a public announcement in relation to that today.”

Despite construction being well under way, Sydney Metro chief executive Peter Regan said extra stations could still be added to Metro West, but it would have “time and cost implications” for the project.

“Any material change to the alignment does have an impact. It’s not simply a matter of just moving the machine over a little bit and tunnelling in a different direction,” he told a parliamentary inquiry a week ago.

Regan said an extra station would likely add about three to four minutes to the journey time, which from Parramatta to the Sydney CBD is about 20 minutes under the plans approved by the previous government.

Camellia and the inner-city suburb of Zetland have been repeatedly named as potential sites for extra stations for Metro West. Silverwater and Newington are two other potential sites.

Two sources close to the project, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, estimated a station at Camellia will cost at least $1.5 billion due to extensive ground contamination in the area.

Despite the premier casting doubt on Metro West several months ago, excavation of nine station sites is well advanced, while two boring machines have each tunnelled more than three kilometres from Rozelle towards Sydney Olympic Park. Another two boring machines have begun tunnelling in an eastward direction from Rosehill towards the sporting precinct.

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