The winners and losers as Sydney Metro shakes up city’s businesses

When Adrian Bryan arrived for his first early morning shift at Mister Minit in North Sydney station this week, he was immediately struck by the drop in customers in what was normally his busiest time. “It was completely dead,” he said.

Bryan, who lives in Mount Druitt and hasn’t had a reason to use the new metro himself, was hopeful sales would be steady as customers would come during the day instead.

Adrian Bryan works at Mister Minit in Greenwood Plaza. He says foot traffic has been “completely dead” since the Metro opening.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

But he’s not alone in noticing the drop in people. Businesses in older train stations near Sydney’s new metro stations say foot traffic and sales are noticeably down after the $21.6 billion metro rail line’s opening on Monday, with faster travel times and buzz around the project drawing morning and evening commuters away from established stores.

Shop staff in the Greenwood Plaza shopping centre, which commuters walk through as they exit North Sydney train station, said travellers favouring the new Victoria Cross metro station had affected the peak trading hours before 9am and after 5pm, with a knock-on effect for the lunchtime rush.

Traders in the rail concourse in Martin Place said the diversion of foot traffic through the metro concourse was having a similar effect.

Transport NSW data has shown the metro’s opening eased the strain on key rail stations including North Sydney, where tap-ons and tap-offs slumped by 37 per cent on Tuesday from the same day last week, to about 34,100 people in total. Some 20,249 fewer people entered or exited the station, while 29,630 people went through Victoria Cross on its second day.

Bakers Delight worker Charlotte Woodlock said business was “a bit slower”, and there was “not as much of a rush” during the day. Tony Petkovski, assistant store manager at North Sydney IGA, said sales had been affected, but he was “sure [they] would come back”.

“It’s only one or two days,” he said. “It’s just people’s curiosity for something new.”

An employee at The Lott, who did not want to be named, said a $100 million Powerball jackpot this week meant foot traffic had remained strong. But he said he hoped the Metro would “bring more people to North Sydney”, which, unlike the CBD, hadn’t “returned to normality” post-COVID, and felt “incomplete” because of fewer office workers around generally.

At Martin Place’s older rail concourse, Elaine Snowden, manager at La Cantina cafe, said the stream of morning commuters from the older rail lines had dropped. “Look now,” she said, “normally there would be three rows coming up.”

All expressed hope the Metro’s faster travel times might entice more to come into work instead of working from home, boosting general trade in the area.

There were 63,739 combined tap-ons and tap-offs for Victoria Cross and North Sydney on Tuesday, 17 per cent more rail users than last week, when only North Sydney was open, suggesting more may be choosing to come into work.

It is unclear if the metro’s faster commute times will change expectations for office workers to come in more.

This month, the NSW government issued a directive to staff to return to the office. Macquarie Group, which built the metro station at Martin Place and has opened a new office above it, declined to comment on the future of working from home at the company. It said its project would bring all of its Sydney staff together in one location for the first time in more than 25 years.

Meanwhile, business operators in the new metro station’s Vic X food precinct, including Bale Nguyen, who works at Marrickville Pork Roll, said the opening days had been “very busy”.

Samuel Lee, owner of Only Coffee Project, said business had been “very good, obviously”, not just from commuters buying coffee on their way in to work, but throughout the day.

“I think it will continue,” he said. “I really hope this place [North Sydney] changes.”

Lee said the suburb, which had been “very quiet” since the pandemic, needed a “place locals can come for dinner and on the weekend,” but the metro would also attract people from further afield.

“So many people are riding on the metro. It’s made commuting efficient.”

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