As Sydney Metro Turns One, Sydneysiders Are Pretty Darn Impressed

As Sydney Metro clocks one year of whisking multitudes under the harbour, sentiment seems uniformly positive.

On 19 August last year, a metro train carried eager passengers from Sydenham to Chatswood for the first time, making the now-familiar journey through the tunnels below the city centre streets.

A year later, scores of data on public transport usage – and many personal anecdotes – indicate that the railway extension has been a resounding success, making Sydney a little smaller for its millions of inhabitants.

210,000 trips are being made daily on Sydney Metro, including 120,000 under the harbour. Of 66.8 million metro trips made over the year-long period, 35.5 million traversed the new section between Crows Nest and Sydenham.

Meanwhile, 3,200 fewer road vehicles are crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge into the city centre per day.

A staggering 99.4 percent of services ran on time over the past year, a punctuality rate unlikely to be matched by any other mode of transport.

Happy travellers praise Sydney Metro

Satisfied Sydneysiders were eager to tell City Hub about how the metro had benefited them.

Jayden Sim lives near Crows Nest, where the northernmost new station opened a year ago. He said that the metro has “single-handedly” gotten his parents off the roads “for almost all trips they make themselves.”

Sim says it has given him “more buffer time when buses are late, because of the frequencies,” and means that he always has a rail connection home since the metro will “certainly” be running when the nearby suburban line is not.

Another traveller, from Wolli Creek, praised how “clean and sleek” the system is, and observed that it eases congestion on Sydney Trains services onwards from Sydenham. They said that, because it is in good nick, people want to look after it.

“And it’s quick and efficient.”

Anton Lising, a University of Sydney student from Killara, was similarly positive. “The metro has genuinely, without a doubt, been the best thing this city has ever done in my memory.”

A student who travels from Chatswood said that it had cut their commute nearly in half.

The extension has been a crowd-pleaser since it opened. In late August last year, City Hub observed a bigger-than-usual Wednesday crowd at the Lord Nelson Hotel in The Rocks. Sydney’s oldest locality had been enlivened by its newest, most behemoth piece of infrastructure.

Train passengers “selling their cars”

Sydney Metro chief executive Peter Regan was jovial, saying the system “had a monumental first year of city services, with the line fast becoming Sydney’s favourite new way to get around.” 

“We’re hearing great customer stories, from people selling their cars, to students saving half an hour a day just by switching to M1 services,” Regan said.

Sydney Metro City, he proclaimed, “has delivered the biggest boost in public transport in a generation, and commuters can’t get enough of their fast, reliable, city-shaping modern new transport service.”

Bankstown line conversion nearing completion

The final section of the line is slated to open in 2026.

That will see scores of Sydneysiders in the south-western suburbs regain their rail service. Stations from Marrickville to Bankstown which were previously served by suburban trains will become part of the Metro North West & Bankstown Line.

Premier Chris Minns said that the line conversion “is a massive city-changing project, and it’s going to transform the way people move around Sydney.”

“This service will change Sydney for the better, delivering faster, safer and more reliable public transport for people living between Bankstown and Sydenham,” the premier said.

 “We have to acknowledge this has been disruptive for the commuters in south-western Sydney who used the heavy rail line we’re converting, but once this is completed and in place it will make life far easier.”