How ‘metro mania’ could derail the housing crisis

From little kids waving cardboard signs to trainspotters, long-suffering commuters and people – like me – who simply love being part of history: Sydney is unlikely to see the same level of excitement attached to a piece of infrastructure as what we saw on Monday when the new metro shot under the harbour for the first time.

No one, from Premier Chris Minns to Transport Minister Jo Haylen or even project director Hugh Lawson, who knows the 15.5-kilometre line inside out, had any real idea of the scale of metro mania that would be unleashed. They expected enthusiasm, but nobody anticipated the throngs of passengers lining up hours before sunrise to be the first to ride the $21 billion M1 line. Or the constant flow of joyriders taking selfies aboard Sydney’s newest train then wandering aimlessly around the stations (that was me).

Passengers on the first regular passenger metro service left Sydenham at 4.54am on Monday.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

At last, the city had something to be excited about.

It is not Sydney’s first metro – a driverless train has been linking the north-west of the city and Chatswood since 2019 – and it will not be the last. Two lines are still to come plus the final stretch of the M1 to Bankstown. The line to Sydney’s new international airport will be open by the time the first planes take off in late 2026, while Metro West, along Sydney’s east-west spine, is slated to be ready in 2032.

But the Chatswood-to-Sydenham line has already won over Sydney with the sheer feat of digging deep under the city and harbour, with impressive stations at Martin Place, Barangaroo and Gadigal (Pitt Street), as well as Victoria Cross (North Sydney) and Crows Nest.

Minns and his government cannot claim credit for building the metro, but he should capitalise on it. The key to Minns’ housing density push is convincing Sydneysiders that we must build up around train stations, especially the metro stops. He now has the perfect sales pitch. As people calculate how much time they can shave off their commute thanks to the super speedy metro, Minns can mount a compelling argument around the benefits of his signature transport-oriented development program.

That program is the centrepiece of his housing plan. The Minns government needs 377,000 new homes to be built in the next five years, an ambitious target which is unlikely to be met. However, a key part of the plan is building apartment blocks around 37 stations. Minns needs to convince people that the great Aussie dream of a house on a quarter-acre block can be replaced, or at least complemented, by high-density living, with everything at your doorstop. Including a metro stop.

He will undoubtedly hit roadblocks, and already has. The Liberals attempted to kill off the planning rules that allow development around stations. They failed because the bill they introduced to parliament was voted down. There will be more opposition to the program along the way, but at least Minns now can point to the metro as an example of how we can move about the city.

Minns was gracious on Monday, acknowledging that the Liberals had delivered the new metro and singled out former premier Gladys Berejiklian for her vision. It was undoubtedly the former Coalition government’s project, which is why the politically astute premier was reluctant to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The government also had the small hiccup of announcing the opening date too early – an embarrassment.

Unlike the former government, NSW Labor was not elected on an infrastructure platform. It will finish building the metros, but Minns stressed that while mega-rail projects were city-shaping, Sydneysiders “shouldn’t kid themselves” about them being built all over the city because they are expensive and “someone has to pay the bill”. Minns will not be known as the metro premier.

Meanwhile, Berejiklian’s colleagues were not as gracious as Minns about the role they played in delivering the metro. As the NSW Liberals were deep in the humiliating debacle of failing to nominate 140 candidates for next month’s local government elections, party members were waving placards on Monday that said: “Sydney Metro. Designed, funded, built by the Liberals”. Had Minns tried to claim the credit, that would have been a reasonable tactic. Instead, the Liberal apparatchiks looked petty, not least because they had to tape over the authorisation on the political signs because the party’s state director, Richard Shields, who had approved them, had since been sacked over his role in the council-nominations bungle.

Nonetheless, the Liberals, Minns and the rest of the city had good reason to be excited about the metro. Finally, Sydney feels like a grown-up city. The premier will not be able to create the same level of enthusiasm with his housing plans, but he can use the metro opening as motivation for it.

Berejiklian was the metro premier. If Minns pulls it off, his legacy will be as the housing premier.

Alexandra Smith is state political editor.