Under our feet, Sydney’s new Metro ‘superhub’ comes to life

The opening of a massive new metro train station beneath Martin Place within the next six months is set to reshape the way commuters get around the CBD, eventually leading to the creation of a super transport hub in the area over the next decade.

The new Martin Place station is one of six new stations on the main section of the $21.6 billion Metro City and Southwest line between Chatswood and Sydenham, which is due to open in the middle of the year.

Beneath Martin Place, new pedestrian tunnels from metro train platforms resemble a labyrinth, connecting the existing Sydney Trains platforms for the Eastern Suburbs line, as well as a giant new concourse which will be the main exit point to street level.

Sydney Metro City and Southwest project director Hugh Lawson said the scale of the underground space at the new Martin Place station set it apart from the other stations, which was needed because of the 13,500 commuters forecast to pass through it during the morning peak by 2036.

A bank of escalators at the new Martin Place metro station. Credit: Rhett Wyman

“It will plug the gap between [the existing] Martin Place station and Wynyard,” he said during a tour of the new driverless train line on Wednesday.

Lawson said the new station would help commuters switch easily between the new metro and existing Sydney Trains lines without them all coming into one mega station and “having this hugely complex, single underground space”.

The opening of a neighbouring train station – for the Metro West line at Hunter Street – by 2032 will eventually create four stations at the northern end of the CBD connected by wide passageways (the existing Sydney Trains and new metro stations both at Martin Place, the Hunter Street stop for Metro West and Wynyard station). Commuters will not have to pass through ticketing gates to switch between Metro and Sydney Trains platforms.

The new Martin Place metro station is 25 metres below the ground. Credit: Rhett Wyman

Lawson said everything had been “scaled up” at the new Martin Place station in terms of the size of the passages, escalators and concourse, which had presented major engineering challenges during construction as contractors had to work above, below and between existing rail tunnels.

“We had to work so close to the operating Sydney Trains lines without disrupting them significantly. That was very difficult,” he said. “There was a huge amount of excavation required under people’s feet.”

Transport Minister Jo Haylen takes a trip on the new metro rail line beneath the heart of Sydney’s CBD on Wednesday.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Almost half a century after the last rail line under Sydney’s CBD opened, Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the new station at Martin Place would provide commuters with an “incredible interchange” between multiple transport modes right in the heart of the CBD.

Testing on the Metro City and Southwest line ramped up last weekend when 33 of the 45 driverless trains in the fleet completed at least one return journey between Sydenham and Tallawong, near Rouse Hill in the city’s northwest.

“We are entering the home stretch of this city-shaping project and it’s exciting to see our biggest weekend of testing go off without a hitch,” Haylen said.

Since testing and commissioning started last April, more than 7500 hours of a total 11,000 hours required for testing have been completed.

A new metro station at Waterloo features a giant mural of a local Aboriginal dancer.Credit: Rhett Wyman

The main section of Metro City and Southwest between Chatswood and Sydenham has to open before a 13-kilometre stretch of the Bankstown line can be closed to commuters in the third quarter of this year to allow workers to complete the conversion of the track to metro train standards. The Bankstown line conversion is the final part of the project.

Asked whether the conversion would, in fact, start this year, Haylen said the Bankstown line would not be closed until there was a high level of service reliability on the main section of the new metro line. “Our plan is to progress with the timeline we have outlined,” she said.

The rail project, which also includes new stations at Waterloo, Barangaroo, North Sydney and Crows Nest, has been dogged by cost blowouts and challenges converting the 128-year-old line between Sydenham and Bankstown into one capable of carrying driverless trains. The government estimates the conversion will cost an extra $1 billion, pushing up the bill for the entire project to $21.6 billion – almost double the price tag last decade.

The looming opening of the main section of the new line comes as former senior Sydney Metro chief executive Tim Parker has been selected as the inaugural chief executive of the federal government’s high-speed rail authority. He resigned as Sydney Metro’s head of project delivery last month.

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