Opinion
Sydney has reached peak metro. Is it all downhill from here?
Alexandra Smith
State Political EditorSydney, could it be that we love the metro too much?
As the city’s newest infrastructure offspring celebrated its first birthday this week, complete with cupcakes, balloons and trainspotters recreating its very first trip, adoration for the underground train system cannot be underestimated. The passenger numbers tell the story.
Martin Place metro station is particularly crowded. Credit: Sam Mooy
Take the new Martin Place station. In 2024, forecasts predicted an average 15,600 passenger movements through its gates during each morning peak. By June this year, less than 12 months since it opened, that figure had already hit 17,200.
Gadigal station, near Town Hall, boasts similar popularity. Daily passenger movements in the AM commuter rush have hit 9400, up from the forecast 7500. Other stations lag their expected numbers, including Crows Nest and Barangaroo, but there is no doubt that Sydney has fallen for the metro.
Sydney Metro chief executive Peter Regan says the reason for higher-than-anticipated numbers is obvious. Metro trains offer faster trips than the heavy rail system from the north shore to the CBD.
It is often standing room only, but that is the point. The metro is designed to move more people more quickly and more reliably than its older counterpart. Crowding is par for the course, as it is in every other major metro system around the world.
Its popularity, however, has left Sydneysiders wanting more. But with eye-watering construction costs and high ongoing operating expenses, the question is: Have we reached peak metro?
The answer depends on which political party you ask. The NSW Labor government, which has been able to bask in the glory of opening the biggest transport project in a generation, has ruled out building new metros beyond those under construction. Premier Chris Minns is unapologetic.
“We’re limited by what we can afford,” Minns stressed this month. “No one should be under any illusion that right now we’re at full capacity when it comes to what’s deliverable and what’s buildable in NSW today.”
Minns has also dashed any hopes of new stations for the under-construction Metro West having the same artistic flair that has given Sydney its first Instagrammable public transport project.
Mulu Giligu, the tunnel linking the two stations at Martin Place.Credit: Steven Siewert
A pedestrian tunnel linking Martin Place metro station with the existing station is called Mulu Giligu – meaning “path of light” in the Gadigal language. Artist Callum Morton used 10,000 brightly coloured porcelain enamel tiles to create two soaring murals at both entrances to Gadigal station. A portrait of an Indigenous dancer named Roscoe is a feature of Waterloo station.
The architecturally designed stations double as a tourist attraction and destination for art lovers. But Minns has foreshadowed that the new stations on Metro West – linking Parramatta to the CBD – will be function over form with a focus on moving commuters from A to B.
Minns’ reticence to overpromise more metros or art-filled stations is understandable given the underground lines come with multibillion-dollar price tags. The government argues that something has to give, and schools, hospitals and roads cannot be sacrificed for public transport that services only Sydney. But it is a bitter pill to swallow for a city that cannot get enough of its new toy.
Similarly, the opposition has seized on Sydney’s love affair with the metro which was, after all, a Coalition project. On the day Sydney was wishing the metro a happy birthday, Opposition Leader Mark Speakman was declaring that the Coalition had “metro ambitions”, creating its most notable point of difference with the government to date.
How a Coalition would pay for an expanded metro network will be the biggest question the opposition must answer if it is to be believed that it can deliver more fast rail. Where those lines would run will be another obvious question.
There are some clues on routes. A confidential review of Sydney’s metro projects proposed completing an extension of the airport metro line from Bradfield to “Bradfield South”. Cost? Nudging $2.5 billion. It also suggested a rail link from Leppington to Bradfield South. Add another $4.6 billion.
Those lines could be followed by a northern extension of the airport metro line from St Marys to Schofields by 2037 ($9.6 billion) and on to Tallawong for a further $3.2 billion. Those additions alone will cost NSW a whopping $19.9 billion.
The Coalition may not choose to pursue all those proposals, but regardless, it will face massive, if not insurmountable, financial challenges to pursue the metro dream. Ambition is not enough.
What is clear is that the metro has changed Sydney. The squeeze in peak hour, when commuters are squashed in like sardines, is a measure of the metro’s success. But it is also a source of frustration for some commuters who long for a little more personal space.
The government could increase the frequency of the peak services to every three minutes, down from the current four, or it could add extra carriages. But those changes also come with considerable operating costs and this is a Labor government determined not to be a spendthrift.
So where does this leave Sydney? We have a world-class fast, reliable rail system that has finally put the city on par with other global powerhouses. No wonder we love it.
Alexandra Smith is state political editor.
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