New Sydney Metro Line Welcomes Over One Million Riders In First Week

The new Sydney Metro Line attracted around 1.4 million riders in its first week and achieved an impressive 98.9 percent on-time performance.

According to Sydney Metro, around 200,000 passenger boardings have taken place on the new metro per day in its first week. Premier Chris Minns praised the metro’s launch at the official opening on Saturday, calling it “world-leading infrastructure.” 

Last Monday, tens of thousands of commuters experienced their first ride on Sydney Metro’s new city section. Premier Minns described the project as a “huge change for Sydney and a big step forward” for the transport network.

“I think the reason this has been almost shocking to Sydneysiders is that most of the work has been done underground for literally years and years and it was almost as if it opened on a single day,” Minns said. 

More Than 190,000 Trips Taken On Metro’s Debut

The $21 billion public transport faced setbacks, with its initial August 4 launch date postponed due to a delay in receiving approval from the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR).

However, once final approvals were granted, the NSW government rescheduled the opening for August 19th. 

On its opening day, over 190,000 trips were taken on the new driverless service, marking the debut of trains running beneath Sydney Harbour. 

For the first time, passengers from Sydney’s north-west can remain on the train from Chatswood, travel under the harbour and through the Sydney CBD, all the way to Sydenham.

Sydney Metro Chief Executive Peter Regan remarked, “It was an amazing first day of passenger service. We were thrilled by the positive feedback and the incredible reactions to the seamless integration of these new stations into the transport network.”

The Metro trains can carry around 1150 people and hit speeds of up to 100km/h. 

State-Of-The Art Metro Trains

The M1 Line will see 45 state-of-the-art metro trains that move through six new stations across the city. These include fully accessible stations at Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Martin Place, Gadigal, and Waterloo, as well as new platforms at Central and Sydenham.

With the new metro, a journey from Chatswood to Sydenham takes approximately 22 minutes, while travelling from Sydenham to Tallawong takes just under an hour.

Sydney Metro City Project Director Hugh Lawson remarked on the metro’s launch, “It was a really proud moment for me and my team as we saw people tap onto Metro under the CBD for the first time.”

“Years of work is finally on show as hundreds of thousands of Sydneysiders flow through our brand new stations. Well done to everyone who played a role in the project and thank you to everyone who’s given Metro a go and tapped on,” he said. 

Express Services On New Metro 

The Metro North West line, which opened in 2019, now extends to 51.5 kilometres through Sydney with stops at 21 stations between Tallawong and Sydenham. The remaining 13 kilometres of the M1 Line will be completed following the conversion of 10 existing stations on the T3 Bankstown Line.

The new line significantly reduces travel times, with journeys from Victoria Cross in North Sydney to Barangaroo taking just 3 minutes, and from Martin Place to Chatswood in 11 minutes. 

Opening Week in Numbers (Source: Sydney Metro):

• 1.4 million metro trips up to Sunday last service
• 98.8% percent of services ran on time
•  On average 210,000 metro trips per weekday
• Weekday morning peak average of 62,000 metro trips
• Weekday evening peak average of 74,000 metro trips
• The busiest train station was Central, closely followed by Martin Place
•  2,852 number of new metro services, including 1980 new weekday services
• The 8 am to 9 am hour in the morning peak on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday is the most popular time to travel, with approximately 28,900 metro trips
• About 259,000 interchanges from Sydney Trains to metro and about 83,000 interchanges from bus to metro during the first week of metro services

Passengers can plan their metro trips by visiting transportnsw.info.