Inside the high-tech nerve centre bracing for Sydney’s new metro line

In a nondescript building on the outskirts of Sydney’s north-west, controllers are repeatedly practising drills involving driverless trains that whisk under the heart of the city more than 40 kilometres away.

Unpredictable passenger behaviour is at the forefront of their minds as they prepare for the $21.6 billion second stage of Sydney’s metro network opening early next month.

The expanded control centre for the metro rail line at Tallawong in Sydney’s north-west.Credit: Rhett Wyman

The metro line will carry tens of thousands of passengers every hour when it opens, many of whom will be travelling on the fully automated trains for the first time.

In a drill last week, controllers in the operations centre at Tallawong worked to remove a box jammed in train doors at the new Barangaroo station. The box was removed within two minutes and 26 seconds, which was shy of a 90-second target.

Located beside a giant stabling and maintenance facility for the single-deck trains, the high-security operations control centre is the brains of the metro network, and runs around the clock.

Opened late last decade, it has been doubled in size for the city section of the extended metro line under Sydney Harbour. The operations centre is home to a 17-metre-long digital display, which comprises 63 screens to keep watch over the entire line.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen and Metro Trains Sydney chief executive Daniel Williams in the operations control centre.Credit: Rhett Wyman

More than a dozen train, station, engineering and information security controllers, as well as customer information officers, work 12-hour shifts in the control room.

In a room next door sits a giant computer that controls the line and the trains which make 454 trips a day between Tallawong and Sydenham. A back-up computer at a nearby site is ready to take over in the event of the main computer failing.

The nerve centre and the rest of the rail line is operated by Metro Trains Sydney, a private consortium led by Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation.

Metro Trains Sydney chief executive Daniel Williams said the system had “layer upon layer of advanced cyberthreat technology” that protected it against cyberattack.

Operators in the centre at Tallawong conduct a drill to remove a box stuck in a train door at the new Barangaroo station. Credit: Rhett Wyman

The operator has plans to use artificial intelligence in some of the 3500 CCTV cameras deployed across the metro network after the line’s city section opens.

“AI will be deployed for any kind of antisocial behaviour. So it will spot threats before they become a real issue,” Williams said.

Ahead of the opening, scores of drills are being run to prepare for incidents ranging from children being separated from their parents to delays caused by passengers or items getting stuck in doors.

It will culminate in a mock evacuation of 600 passengers from a train in the coming weeks, involving firefighters and other emergency services.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen said testing had been under way for months, giving her confidence in the line’s safety and reliability ahead of its August opening.

“We’re seeing a 98–99 per cent reliability. Now it’s all about the people – how are passengers going to interact with the metro system?” she said.

“We want to make sure we’re testing all of those different systems and scenarios so that it’s absolutely safe and reliable when passengers jump on board in August.”

Passengers interacting with the platform screen and train doors was one of the greatest challenges after the Metro Northwest line between Tallawong and Chatswood opened in May 2019.

Haylen said staff would be on board each train for as long as was required to ensure passengers were safe and knew what was happening, especially in the unlikely event of an emergency.

The government expects the line will open on a weekend in early August, although the final date is subject to the outcome of trial operations and approval from national rail safety regulators.

The ribbon cutting is expected to occur on a Saturday, either August 3 or 10, and the line opened to passengers shortly after 4am the following day when the first trains leave either end of the railway in Sydenham or Tallawong.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.