Sydney’s new $7.3 billion northwest Metro is expected to open later this month, according to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she’s “awestruck” by the new driverless northwest Metro, which is expected to open just days after the federal election.
The line will open on May 26, and will run trains every four minutes during peak hour from Tallawong and Chatswood once it reaches full operation.
Trains will run once every five minutes for the first six weeks of operation, which Transport Minister Andrew Constance described as a “ramp up period.”
“It will be an opportunity for commuters to experience the power of Metro, the power that it will bring to communities in the northwest, and around the corner, the rest of Sydney,” Constance told reporters.
He said the trains had been comprehensively tested, travelling more than 180,000 kilometres on the new tracks, the equivalent of circumnavigating the world more than four times.
Some of that testing included Sydney Metro workers loading more than a hundred 1,000 litre tanks of water onto the trains to simulate customer loads.
The project was completed A$1 billion under budget at a final cost of A$7.3 billion.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who announced the project as transport minister in 2011, said she was “absolutely awestruck” by the metro.
“I can’t wait for the public to have this experience in just three weeks time,” Berejiklian told reporters after taking a ride on the new train between Kellyville and Castle Hill with media and Sydney Train employees.
