Australia: New driverless metro line opens in Sydney
SYDNEY, Aug 19: Sydney’s new multi-billion dollar driverless metro line officially opened to passengers on Monday.
The first passenger service on the Sydney Metro City Line departed from Sydenham station in Sydney’s inner western suburbs at 4:54am local time on Monday, passing through the central business district and a 15.5-km tunnel under Sydney Harbour, arriving at Chatswood on the city’s north shore at 5:16am, reports Xinhua news agency.
Crowds queued up as early as 1am local time on Monday to board the first service on an extension of the existing driverless metro line, which was initially scheduled to open on Aug 4 but was postponed due to safety regulatory approvals.
Trains on the line will run every four minutes during morning and evening peak hours, every five minutes on weekdays and every 10 minutes at night and on weekends.
The New South Wales (NSW) state government estimates the service will carry 250,000 passengers on a typical weekday and save commuters 27 minutes travelling from Sydenham to Barangaroo in central Sydney.
Construction on the project began in 2017 and cost 21.6 billion Australian dollars ($14.4 billion), making it the largest public transport project in Australian history.
NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the opening of the line was a historic moment in the city’s history.
Five new stations were built as part of the project and new platforms and entrances were added to the existing Central and Martin Place stations.
The current section of the driverless metro line, opened in 2019, stretches 36km from Tallawong to Chatswood in northwestern Sydney.
The line will extend from Sydenham to Bankstown in the city’s south-west after the final section is completed in 2025.
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