Boost to frequency of Sydney’s metro train services as fuel crisis bites
The frequency of services on Sydney’s M1 metro rail line will be temporarily increased from Monday to meet demand as more passengers leave their cars at home to catch trains due to the fuel crisis.
An extra 166 services per week will be added to the M1 line between Tallawong in the city’s northwest and Sydenham in the south via the CBD, amid fears that oil prices will rise after the collapse of talks between the US and Iran.
The frequency of trains will be increased from every four minutes to every three and a half minutes during morning and evening rush hours.
Weekend services will also be temporarily increased to one train every seven minutes, between 10.00 and 21.00 on Saturdays and every 10 minutes between 10.00 and 19.00 on Sundays.
The temporary increase in services until June 7 was made possible by the state government diverting three trains purchased for the not-yet-open final stage of the M1 line between Sydenham and Bankstown to the operating section.
Transport Minister John Graham said the government had decided to increase services on the metro line, where demand is rising, “rather than trains being left empty” as the final section of the M1 is completed.
“World-class public transportation is a lasting relief in the cost of living, so we are providing more of it,” he said.
The three redeployed trains from the Southwest Metro project will not need testing until June 7. They are part of a fleet of 45 driverless trains for the entire M1 line.
The government has said keeping three trains on the existing M1 line running after June 7 will delay the opening of the final section between Sydenham and Bankstown, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Line tests on the southwestern part of the line were stopped until May 1 to complete works such as the installation of 1140 fixed gap fillers on the station platforms, overhead cabling and signaling.
When train testing on the south-west section resumes in May, the entire M1 line will be closed on the weekends of 9-10 May and 16-17 May. Approximately 1.5 million passengers use the M1 line every week.
The fuel crisis has encouraged more people to leave their cars at home and choose public transport. Last week, toll road operator Transurban published figures showing traffic growth on some motorways had decreased since oil prices skyrocketed due to the war.
Sydney Trains managing director Matt Longland said the rail operator’s network had experienced a several percentage point increase in patronage since the US and Israel launched an attack on Iran in late February.
“Some of the intercity services from Newcastle and the Central Coast are peak trains in the morning and afternoon hours. We will look at those and of course flex the service offer as much as we can,” he said.
However, Longland said demand on the network had not yet returned to levels seen before the COVID-19 outbreak and the operator was confident it had “plenty of capacity”.
Despite Victoria and Tasmania offering free public transport, NSW Premier Chris Minns has resisted pressure to follow suit, arguing cost-of-living measures must be an “effective intervention”.
Matt O’Sullivan is the transport and infrastructure editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X or email.
