How Sydney’s new metro train system compares with other global cities

Costing a staggering $65 billion, Sydney’s growing metro network is one of the largest suburban rail projects in the world, rivalling an expansion of Paris’ rapid transit system.

Known for the past decade as Metro City and Southwest, the main section of the $21.6 billion second stage from Chatswood to Sydenham is set to reshape the way people traverse Sydney.

It is an extension of the Metro Northwest line from Tallawong to Chatswood, which opened in 2019 at a cost of $7.3 billion. More than 264,000 passenger trips are forecast each weekday on what is now known as the M1.

The final part of the M1 from Sydenham to Bankstown is due to open late next year, followed by a 23-kilometre metro link to Western Sydney Airport in 2026.

When the $25 billion Metro West line between the CBD and Parramatta opens in 2032, the driverless system will span 113 kilometres and 46 stations in Sydney.

Importantly, it will connect to Sydney’s existing double-decker train network, which will still carry the lion’s share of rail commuters after the metro system is complete.

So how does Sydney’s metro network compare with other global cities?

Tokyo

Japan is renowned for the Shinkansen, or bullet trains, which have crisscrossed the nation since the 1960s and spurred a revolution in high-speed rail.

Tokyo’s extensive web of subway lines that carry millions of passengers each day is an engineering marvel in its own right and it is super efficient. The Japanese capital has two main metro rail systems in the Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway.

With more than 280 stations, the city’s metro rail system is one of the most extensive in the world, impressing visitors by its service frequency and on-time performance. Trains operate from 5am to about midnight.

The sharemarket-listed Tokyo Metro has nine rail lines with 180 stations extending 195 kilometres, carrying about 6 million passengers a day. Toei operates four lines and 106 stations, transporting about 2.8 million people a day.

As well as the subway systems, suburban and regional trains transport tens of millions every day across greater Tokyo.

Singapore

The city-state might cover only 734 square kilometres, but six metro rail lines span 200 kilometres of the island.

Singapore’s mass rapid transit system, which has more than 140 stations, carries more than 3 million passengers a day.

Known as the MRT, it runs from 5.30am to about midnight each day. It is operated by two operators in SMRT Corporation and SBS Transit. Singapore has plans to expand the rail network to about 360 kilometres by early next decade.

Paris

The metro system that snakes under the City of Love is almost as well-known as the Eiffel Tower. The huge network of 320 stations makes Paris among the best-serviced cities in the world. Within the centre of the sprawling city, there are 244 stations within 105 square kilometres.

Running on a combination of steel wheels and rubber tyres, trains are mostly conductor-driven, although three lines so far have been updated to be automatic.

Extensions to Paris’ Line 14 opened in late June, a month before the Olympics started.

Under the €35 billion ($58 billion) Grand Paris Express project, the city is rapidly increasing its rail network.

Unlike existing lines, the five new ones are configured in rings that avoid passing through the middle of the city. The north-south extension of Line 14, which opened in June, is the first part of the expansion project, which will comprise 200 kilometres of extra track and 68 new stations.

Montreal

The Canadian city’s four metro lines extend for 69 kilometres and sport 68 stations.

Montreal’s metro trains run on rubber tyres rather than steel wheels. They operate daily from 5.30am to 1am (1.30am on Saturdays). The railway was built entirely underground, partly due to Montreal’s cold winters.

A 5.8-kilometre extension of Montreal Metro’s blue line is due to open in 2030, a year later than planned, at a cost of $C6.4 billion ($7 billion).

A new automated metro line consisting of five stations between the CBD and suburbs south of the St Lawrence River opened in July last year. Extensions of the driverless train line to Montreal’s international airport and the city’s western suburbs are also under way.

New York

New York’s subway, with a mammoth 472 stations (or 423, depending on how you count them), is the largest in the world. It is also among the oldest and it operates virtually 24 hours a day.

However, the subway’s size, age and funding problems have made it a challenging system to improve. Parts fell into near-disrepair around the time of the 2007-08 global financial crisis.

After introducing the MetroCard in 1993, the Metro Transit Authority established contactless fare system OMNY in 2017, where commuters pay for the first 12 trips taken in a week.

The most recent line, Second Avenue Subway, opened in 2017 after a decade of drilling. The second phase of that line into Harlem is being developed at an expected cost of $US5.23 billion ($7.8 billion). It is due for completion by about 2032.

Barcelona

Barcelona’s privatised metro network is made up of 183 stations that stretch across the city and its suburbs, mostly underground.

Uniquely, the network is made up of three different track gauges. Some of the 12 lines contain only driverless trains. Barcelona’s Lines 9 and 10 routes are being constructed using one giant boring machine, which will create tunnels containing two rail tracks. Many other metros around the world including Sydney’s have twin tunnels for trains in either direction.

Once completed, the lines in Barcelona will be nearly 48 kilometres long, the longest driverless metro line on the continent.

Hong Kong

It’s the envy of the world: a 218-kilometre rail line with a 99.9 per cent punctuality rate and an average of more than 5.5 million daily riders.

Opened in 1979 with just 15.9 kilometres of track, Hong Kong’s rail network quickly expanded to 11 lines stretching across most of the city, including the airport.

The group running the project, the Mass Transit Railway Corporation, was initially wholly owned by the government, but in 2000, it was partially privatised and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Uniquely, the metro system records profits – huge ones: in the 2022-23 financial year, it reported a profit of almost $1.5 billion. But it also has among the cheapest fares in the world. The shortest trip costs just 91 cents.

That’s because the major driver of the corporation’s huge revenue is its property development arm. MTR holds a portfolio of about 50 properties, which were provided to the company by the government for free for the development of new train stations. Above the stations sit some of the city’s largest skyscrapers, owned by the company.

MTR is the company leading the private consortium that runs Sydney’s M1 metro line from Tallawong to Sydenham, and eventually onto Bankstown.

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