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Commuters who have had to catch pink-coloured replacement buses while the southwest metro project was underway will know exactly how long the passenger rail corridor between Bankstown and Sydenham has been closed.
But for those who are not regular southwest commuters, a bit of history is in order.
Under the original plans of the previous Coalition government, the south-west section of the M1 metro line was meant to open in 2024, at the same time as the rest of the second stage between Chatswood and Sydenham.
A decision was made about four years ago to open the southwest section later amid rising construction costs and challenges turning a century-old rail line into one for driverless trains.
In mid-2018, the then Coalition government told commuters the T3 heavy rail line would need to be closed for three to six months before the metro conversion was completed. Before the T3 was shut in September 2024 , the Minns government said the shutdown might last longer than its earlier estimates of 12 months.
Train enthusiasts were out in force in the early hours of Friday at Bankstown station in Sydney’s southwest. Several hundred had gathered outside the metro station by 3.45am.
They had come for one thing - the first passenger service along the southwest section of Sydney’s M1 metro line. Attica Sparrow, from Parramatta, met three friends at Town Hall at about 2am catch a night bus to Bankstown for the first service. “It’s being a part of history,” she said amid a carnival atmosphere outside the station. They bought a cake to celebrate the opening, as well as a birthday card for metro.
Welcome to the opening day of the final section of Sydney’s $30 billion M1 metro line.
For commuters in Sydney’s southwest who have endured pink replacement buses for the last two years, the opening of the final stretch between Sydenham and Bankstown of the 66-kilometre M1 line could not come soon enough.
We will be meeting some of those commuters this morning, as well as those who woke in the early hours to catch the first passenger service at 4.31am from Bankstown station.
Like the opening of the city-section of the metro line in August 2024, we are expecting a festive feel on the trains and at stations along the southwest. Tens of thousands are expected to travel along the M1 line’s southwest section on Friday for the first time.
It will be an historic day and a new chapter for Sydney’s public transport.
