On Sunday the 26th of May 2019 the Sydney Metro was officially opened by the NSW premier and the NSW Minister for Transport, and free rides for the public were provided all that day. Commercial operation commenced the following day.
The Sydney Metro features 6 carriage driverless trains which operate on dual tracks each covering 36km in distance with 13 stations between (and including) Chatswood and Tallawong (near Rouse Hill). The tunnels, tracks and stations at and between Epping and Chatswood were originally part of the less than successful underground suburban route opened in 2008. In 2018 this section of suburban track was closed and refurbished to become part of an otherwise completely new Sydney Metro.
The trains were built by Alstrom and known as their Metropolis model and were built at Alstrom’s manufacturing plant located in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, India. 22 of these 6 carriage sets have been purchased. The trains are powered through 1.5KV overhead catenary wiring or fixed bar and have a top speed of 110KPH. The system providing ‘driverless’ automatic control of all the trains is Alstrom’s Urbalis 400 which, in addition to controlling the train operations, also provides door control, obstacle detection and covers emergency situations.
The 6 car sets have a capacity of 378 seated and 722 standing (total 1100). The Metro stations have been built to allow these trains to be made up into 8 car sets if and when demand requires, lifting total capacity to 1,539. The current schedule calls for trains to run at 4 minute intervals in the peak times moving out to 11 minutes in off peak periods. The trains are operated by Metro Trains Sydney, a joint venture between MTR Corporation, John Holland Group and UGL Rail who will operate and maintain the network under a 15 year contract.
Approximate run time: 105 minutes.