Commuters face weekend closures for Sydenham to Bankstown testing
Passengers face around eight more weekends of closure of part or all of Sydney’s M1 metro line to allow testing of trains and other work on the final stretch of the rail project between Sydenham and Bankstown before it opens.
As the high-speed tests accelerated in the final stage, a metro train traveled the entire 66-kilometer M1 line through the city from Tallawong to Bankstown, stopping at all 31 stations. The train reached speeds of 100 kilometers per hour on the final section between Sydenham and Bankstown.
Southwest Metro project director Alia Karaman said some or all of the existing M1 line would need to be closed for about eight weekends to complete the final phase.
“If we don’t close, that means we won’t be able to complete a critical part of the business,” he said. “Number [of shutdowns] “It will vary depending on the functionality required, the events we are targeting and the weekend.”
There will be no tube services on the M1 line between Tallawong and Sydenham this weekend and 24-25 January to allow system testing. Commuters will be given at least four weeks’ notice of other weekend closures.
The final stage between Sydenham and Bankstown was due to open in late 2025. 12 month closure Construction of the old heavy railway line started but was later postponed to the second half of this year.
According to the previous Coalition government’s original plans, the south-west section was due to open at the same time as the rest of the second phase between Chatswood and Sydenham in 2024.
Transport Minister John Graham declined to give a target date for opening and reiterated it would be in the second half of this year. “We will be when we can be more specific,” he said Thursday.
Describing the full-length train journey as a breakthrough for the project, Graham said it was not possible to convert the existing heavy rail line between Sydenham and Bankstown to metro train standards without causing some disruption to passengers.
“There are many tests to be done. There will be more disruptions ahead of us. We warn that the metro line will be out of service on January 17-18 and January 24-25 so that we can carry out this important work.”
Coalition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said Graham needed to announce when the final section of the M1 line would open. “The worker told the passengers that they would use this subway in September last year. Now it is January 2026 and they are still waiting,” he said.
The final phase of high-speed testing of the trains requires a minimum of 9,000 hours and 30,000 kilometers of combined testing to be completed before the final stage of the M1 line opens.
Work on corridors and stations in Sydney’s southwest is approximately 79 per cent complete. At four stations, paving is largely complete, and progress continues on the final section at six other stations, while painting and landscaping is ongoing at most stations.
Testing on platform screen doors has also made good progress and 170 mechanical gap fillersand the latter passed the first round of testing at each station.
The installation of gap fillers on platforms at eight stations has added complexity to the operation of driverless trains. Small hydraulic platforms extend into subway cars before the screen doors open, ensuring passengers can safely board and disembark when the line opens.
The cost of completing the final stretch between Sydenham and Bankstown pushes the cost of the project, formerly known as the Metro City and Southwest project, up to $23 billion from previous estimates. $21.6 billion.
The price tag for the city and its southwestern portions is more than double the original estimate of about $11.5 billion over the past decade. When combined with the $7.3 billion cost of the first stage from Tallawong to Chatswood, which opened in 2019, the price tag for the entire 66-kilometre line now stands at $30.4 billion.
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