Opening of the $21b Sydney Metro delayed

The NSW government has been forced to scrap the $21 billion Metro City line’s launch just five days before its forecast opening and has put on new bus services to fill the gap.

A last-minute decision to delay the start of the $21 billion Metro City line has been lashed as “humiliating”, with the Minns government forced to scrap the mega-project’s launch just five days before its forecast opening.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen refused to give a new opening date for the Metro after confirming on Tuesday afternoon the NSW government wouldn’t hit the Sunday, August 4 deadline announced earlier this month.

The Minister blamed industrial action, as well as a major outage on the existing Metro Northwest earlier this month, as the key reasons the new line wouldn’t get sign-off from the national rail regulator in time for this weekend.

It’s understood a “code red” notice issued by the Fire Brigade Employees’ Union (FBEU) earlier this month, which banned their members undertaking safety drills on the new line, has led to a backlog of practice runs which need to be completed this week.

Ms Haylen added further safety documentation had to be provided to the national rail regulator after a system-wide outage on the Metro Northwest earlier this month stopped trains in their tracks, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded on board.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“The incident on the Northwest is another but (another factor is) also the complexity of what we’re doing,” she said.

“We just need a little extra time and I want to make sure the regulator has the time to do that … I’m putting safety ahead of popping champagne corks.”

The FBEU is locked in a bitter pay dispute with the NSW government, with the union’s state secretary Leighton Drury firing back by saying “industrial action from our members is not the cause of delay here”.

“Sydney Metro have consistently cut corners with safety and this is yet another example,” he said.

A new Sydney Metro platform at Central Station, ready and waiting for the network to start running. Picture: Richard Dobson

The NSW Premier apologised on Wednesday morning, admitting he’d heard about the likely delay earlier in the week.

“On Monday I got a briefing from the transport minister indicating it was possible but potentially unlikely that it could meet our Saturday opening day,” he told Ben Fordham on 2GB radio.

“Which is obviously a major concern for the state and we all want to apologise for it.

“It’s a lesson learned for us, we have to be careful about launching these big projects and making sure that there’s certainty around it.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns apologised for the delay. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

Opposition leader Mark Speakman said Labor “went to the election beholden to their union masters” and had failed to quell industrial drama, leading to the delay.

“This is incredibly embarrassing. This is humiliating for the Premier, and the Premier should step up and explain exactly what has happened,” he said.

Shadow Treasurer Damien Tudehope added: “We gave Labor one job – to open the projects – and that they can’t do”.

The Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator – the body required to green-light the Metro before passenger services can begin – said it would assess safety documentation “as it arrives”.

“Once this due diligence has been completed, the application for accreditation for the new line can be finalised and granted,” the statement said.

New bus service ushered in to help ferry people to the Metro will remain in place, with patrons to be delivered to heavy rail lines.

In an updated statement, Transport NSW said bus passengers in the North West and North Shore will have a new timetable kicking off this Sunday.

“As the Metro City line is yet to open, extra bus services will operate in the interim from the North West including the 610x on the M2 from Castle Hill to the City, as well as the 119 on the Pacific Highway between Gore Hill and North Sydney,” the Transport NSW statement read.

“In the period before Metro opens, bus passengers can continue to connect to Metro stations between Tallawong and Chatswood and also to Chatswood, St Leonards and North Sydney train stations.

Street teams will be put in place to help people get to where they need to go.

A new bus timetable has been created in response to the delayed Metro. Picture: Newswire /Gaye Gerard

“The new bus timetable will increase frequency for some bus routes, improve reliability and provide extra capacity for busy services across our network, as well as provide greater connections to other modes of transport, including the Metro City line when it opens and Sydney Trains,” Transport NSW said.

“Advice for Sydney Trains passengers is, if you were planning to try the new Metro from next week, continue to catch the train service you do today.”

The delay to the City Metro – which will run from Chatswood to Sydenham – is likely to have a knock-on effect for the Southwest portion of the line, which will run from Sydenham to Bankstown.

Ms Haylen confirmed the heavy rail wouldn’t be closed for conversion to Metro tracks on the Southwest section “until there is a high level of reliability on the City section”.

While Ms Haylen declined to give a rescheduled opening date, Premier Chris Minns on Tuesday told a business lunch the New Metro would open in “a couple of weeks”, adding the service would be running in “the not-too-distant future”.

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Originally published as Opening of the $21b Sydney Metro delayed