13.5 km Sydney Southwest Metro conversion line in Australia officially opens

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 30, the Sydney Southwest Metro in Australia officially opened for passenger service, with the first driverless train departing Bankstown Station at 4:31 a.m. local time. The newly opened Sydenham to Bankstown section is approximately 13.5 km long and involves the upgrade and renovation of 10 stations, ending a closure for construction that lasted about 25 months since September 30, 2024. With this section integrated into the Sydney M1 metro system, the total length of the through-operated line reaches 66 km.

The works covered existing railway tracks, electrical systems, station facilities and the driverless train control system, with more than 6,300 construction personnel deployed in total. The project installed 360 platform screen doors, 170 platform gap fillers, 790 CCTV cameras, 145 passenger information displays and more than 2,000 wayfinding signs.

All 10 stations have been fully upgraded, with five stations—Wiley Park, Dulwich Hill, Hurlstone Park, Punchbowl and Canterbury—equipped with lift-based accessible access for the first time. Some heritage stations underwent curved platform modifications and train-to-platform gap adjustments, and 6 platform screen doors were temporarily closed in the initial period of operation.

After the opening of the Southwest Metro, train headways are 4 minutes during weekday peak periods, 5 minutes during the day, and 10 minutes at night and on weekends. Up to 15 trains per hour can operate during peak periods, compared with 8 on the former T3 Bankstown line during the same period. On the first operating weekend, October 31 to November 1, the headway was adjusted to 7 minutes.

Travel time from Bankstown to Sydney Central Station has been shortened to 28 minutes, saving 6 minutes; Lakemba to Victoria Cross is 37 minutes, 24 minutes shorter; Campsie to Macquarie University is 44 minutes, 17 minutes shorter. In the first 5 hours of official operation, the new metro stations recorded more than 18,000 additional passenger trips.

Before opening, approximately 30,000 km of train testing and more than 6,000 timetable-based running tests were completed. The New South Wales government confirmed on October 22 that the project had received final safety approval from the Australian National Rail Safety Regulator.

The Sydney City & Southwest Metro project has now completed the opening of all sections, with the latest total cost estimate for the project at AUD 22 billion to 23 billion.