The Sydney suburbs on list of station sites for new metro line

Up to 10 stations will be built along a new metro rail line between Sydney's central business district and Westmead near Parramatta as part of a project expected to cost up to $15 billion.

An artist's impression of an underground metro station planned for Westmead.

A year out from the state election, the Berejiklian government has committed to building a new underground station at Concord West or North Strathfield, which will be linked by pedestrian walkways to either of those suburbs' existing stations on the T1 Northern Line.

It has also promised to build an underground station at Westmead, near the suburb's sprawling hospital, research and education precinct, and identified Pyrmont, Kings Bay, North Burwood or Five Dock, and Camellia or Rydalmere, as potential sites for “intermediate” stations.

When it first unveiled plans for Sydney Metro West in late 2016, the government named only Parramatta, Olympic Park, the Bays Precinct around Rozelle, and the Sydney CBD as station sites for the mostly underground line along which driverless, single-deck trains will run.

The latest announcement dashes any hopes Sydney University had for its campus at Camperdown in the inner west being included on the new line. The university missed out in 2015 to Waterloo as a site for a station on the second stage of a $20 billion metro line already under construction.

The government is spruiking a journey time of about 20 minutes for passengers travelling on the new line from Parramatta to the Sydney CBD once it is opened late next decade.

However, the trip could turn out to take longer if more stations are constructed along the line because of the time trains take to load and unload passengers when they stop.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance said there was a balance to be reached in deciding on the number of stations and the travel time for a journey between Parramatta and the CBD.

“That's why we will work through the intermediate-stop options with the community and industry before coming to a final decision,” he said.

Most of the proposed metro line between Westmead and the CBD will run through tunnels.Credit: Geoff Jones

Councils such as Burwood are clamouring for stations on the Sydney Metro West line to be built within their boundaries, while large property owners have been eagerly awaiting the final route design because of the expected surged in values it will bring.

Leaked cabinet documents have shown the metro line could cost up to $15 billion, part of which would be funded through applying levies on developments under a "value capture" mechanism.

Mr Constance said the total cost would not be known until contracts to build it were signed, and would be “contingent on the scope and the design”.

Asked whether he would like to see the Turnbull government help fund the metro line, Mr Constance said: “Bloody oath. [But] we've got means through our 10-year capital works budget to be able to start to put very significant dollars towards this.”

Construction of the stations will be the most expensive part of a project featuring 25 kilometres of tunnel, which will make it the longest rail tunnel in the world for “this type of train”.

Driverless, single-deck trains will run along the new line to Parramatta.

Under the government's timetable, construction will begin on the new line by 2022, while trains will begin to carry passengers in the second half of next decade.

Mr Constance said the metro line between Westmead and the CBD was a “must build” because the existing T1 Line would be at capacity in just over a decade.

While welcoming any discussion about station sites, Labor's transport spokeswoman, Jodi McKay, said the opposition was concerned about the project's timing.

“It is just not happening quickly enough. There is no money behind it and it is still the late 2020s before it is built," she said.

Labor has promised to prioritise the metro line as a project, while dumping plans to build the Beaches Link road tunnel to the northern beaches and reconsider extending the F6 motorway.

Mr Constance said it was “too early to say” where in Sydney's CBD the new metro line will stop. However, leaked documents have shown it will run from Pitt Street, most likely on the corner of Park Street where a metro station is about to be built.

Corridors from Westmead to Sydney's new airport at Badgerys Creek, and from the CBD to the southeast via Zetland, will also be safeguarded to ensure that the metro line can one day be extended further west or east.

Demands on public transport are becoming acute at the Green Square precinct around Zetland, south of the CBD, which is about to become Australia's most densely populated urban area.