The first journey of Australia’s first driverless metro train was completed along the entire length of Sydney’s new A$ 8.3 billion Metro Northwest railway line.
According to a recent press release, the train travelled 36kms from the new Tallawong Station in Sydney’s northwest and arrived at Chatswood Station’s Metro platforms as part of the project’s intensive testing process.
The NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was in Chatswood to welcome the significant milestone.
When this line opens, there will be turn-up-and-go services every four minutes, which will massively improve the experience for residents throughout Sydney’s northwest.
Metro Northwest is just months from opening and under budget. This was made possible through the strong economic management of the NSW Liberals & Nationals Government.
Efforts are being done to finish stations as well as car parks, and testing trains in order to get the Northwest rail line open as quickly as possible, on time and at least A$ 500 million under budget.
It is an exciting time for Sydney as the project is almost ready.
Major upgrade work, over the past three months, has been ongoing inside the existing railway tunnels between Epping and Chatswood to allow this major Metro milestone to occur.
Platform screen doors have now been installed at all Sydney Metro platforms, including between Epping and Chatswood.
These platform screen doors are significant as they are a major customer safety feature of all Sydney Metro stations.
Benefits of these platform screen doors include keeping people and objects like prams away from the tracks.
Moreover, they create a physical barrier at the edge of the platform which also allows trains to get in and out of stations much faster.
The platform doors are being touted as a tech feature since they only open and close at the same time as the train doors.
They serve as a key safety and technology feature of the Sydney Metro.
The testing of the new trains and systems is well underway at the new stations and is now being started between Epping and Chatswood.
About 19,000kms of train testing has taken place so far on the Sydney Metro system, with 17 out of the 22 fleet of trains delivered.
Several aspects of the project are still scheduled for testing.
On-board train systems will be tested over the coming months as well as signalling, braking and acceleration at different speeds in the tunnel.
Metro rail is currently being extended from Chatswood to Bankstown, with services expected to start in 2024.
By then, Sydney will have 31 metro stations and a 66km standalone metro railway with trains running every four minutes, during peak hours, in each direction.
