Commuters feel pain at extra year on buses as M1 metro delay goes unexplained

Commuter Alexis Salerno is no stranger to waiting in snaking lines and crowds of hundreds that transport marshals shepherd onto pink train replacement buses. It’s been the norm for her for more than a year.

Now she faces the prospect of another year of pain after the Herald revealed on Monday that the final stage of the M1 metro line was set to open as late as September next year, two years after a section of track in the city’s south-west had been closed to complete the mega-project.

Metro rail commuters switch to buses at Sydenham station, a task they will probably have to continue until September 2026.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Premier Chris Minns refused to be drawn on the reasons for the year-long delay and whether the cost had blown out because the time to convert the line had doubled.

Salerno – an Earlwood resident who takes a bus to Canterbury, a replacement bus to Sydenham, then the metro to Victoria Cross station for work in North Sydney – described her hour-long commute as “a pain”.

“Even now, getting the metro, I’m a little bit over having to take the [replacement] bus because it takes me two buses and a metro to get to work. It’s a shame that it [the M1 opening] will take even longer,” she said.

Alexis Salerno says her commute is a pain.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Salerno also said many commuters who lived further south-west than her were more badly affected, as their travel times had doubled as a result of the line’s closure.

When delays were first flagged, the complexity of the conversion was blamed. Since then, progress has also been hampered by the installation of 170 mechanical gap fillers at eight stations and a dispute with Fire and Rescue NSW over a lack of fire hydrants on platforms.

Minns on Monday did not answer why the upgrade had taken so much longer than anticipated and he would not commit to an opening date beyond saying it was expected in 2026, citing the “complicated change” from a fixed heavy rail network to a rapid metro system.

“There’s not many places around the world where one line is being substituted for another, and it’s a costly, expensive process,” he said.

“We also want to make sure that we get it right. We’ve learnt our lessons from the past when we announced our ambition to open the line on a particular date. People prepare their lives, particularly businesses on that route. And if we don’t meet it for any one of a million reasons, but particularly weather and the complexity of the build, then we’re letting communities down.”

Minns would not be drawn on the cost of the delay, but he said “we’ll hold our contractors to account and we want it done as soon as possible”.

The state opposition seized on the delay to warn communities along the Sydenham to Bankstown corridor to brace for more date slippages, more excuses and more hollow announcements.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said Labor had embraced the metro late and could not deliver it.

“The people of Sydney deserve better than a government that can’t finish what it inherited,” Speakman said.

High-speed testing of automated trains on the final stage of the $29 billion M1 line is expected to start within the next few weeks, and the opening date will ultimately hinge on final approval by the national rail safety regulator for passenger services.

The final stage had been planned to be opened in late 2025 after a 12-month shutdown of the old line, but that was later delayed until some time next year.

Under the original plans of the previous Coalition government, the south-west section was meant to open in 2024 at the same time as the rest of the second stage between Chatswood and Sydenham.

Marrickville resident Angelo Nicoli, who works in a warehouse at Matraville, was not surprised at the delay, but he said the end result would be worth the temporary inconvenience, “as long as they do a good job, and the services run on time when opening”.

“It’s government work, and government work is always delayed,” Nicoli said.

With Matt O’Sullivan

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