Passengers on Sydney’s new metro line surge beyond opening day numbers

About 55,000 passengers travelled on Sydney’s new extended metro rail line under the harbour in the morning peak on Tuesday, an increase of more than a third on opening day, amid strong commuter flows from the north into the city centre on driverless trains.

More than 190,000 passengers travelled on the M1 line on Monday when the 15.5-kilometre extension between Chatswood and Sydenham opened after seven years of construction. The figures include the 36-kilometre section between Tallawong and Chatswood, which opened five years ago.

The 3–7 pm evening peak was the busiest period on Monday, according to government figures, with 71,000 trips.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the metro line’s initial patronage was “very encouraging”, citing the 55,000 passengers who had travelled on it in the five hours to 10am on Tuesday, up from 40,000 in the same period a day earlier.

She said Tuesday – one of the three busiest weekdays – was the big test, and only minor teething problems had been experienced so far, including four lifts at the northern entrance to Victoria Cross station in North Sydney causing a bottleneck of schoolchildren.

The northern entrance is lift-only access to the station because it is a 45-metre drop from the streets to the platforms.

More than 18,000 passengers passed through the new metro platforms beneath Central Station on Monday, making it the busiest stop on the extended line. The new underground Martin Place metro station followed closely behind as the second busiest.

One in five passengers on metro trains on Monday had earlier switched at stations from double-deck trains, while 6 per cent – or 11,500 people – had interchanged from buses.

Transport for NSW secretary Josh Murray said a trend was emerging of commuters travelling on NSW TrainLink services from the Central Coast and Newcastle switching to the metro at Epping and Chatswood stations for a faster journey into the city centre.

“Epping and Chatswood this morning were particularly busy with new riders joining the metro services,” he said on Tuesday.

“A lot of those services have been full or standing room only as they’ve come through from the north. We also had a lot of people interchanging from Sydney Trains ... at Sydenham and getting on the metro to come in for that fast journey.”

The new line’s operator is keeping metro train doors open for 90 seconds at platforms to give passengers more time to get on and off and familiarise themselves with the new services.

Sydney Metro chief executive Peter Regan said metro systems around the world had so-called dwell times at platforms as short as 30 seconds, and the length of time that metro train doors were open here would be gradually reduced, making trips faster.

The entire system recorded 99.76 per cent of services on time on Monday.

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