THE MAKING OF
THE METRO SYDNEY METRO IS THE LARGEST PUBLIC TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT IN AUSTRALIA. IT INCLUDES FOUR SEPARATE TRAIN LINES, TUNNELS UNDER SYDNEY HARBOUR AND, BY 2024, 31 STATIONS. WE CATCH UP WITH SYDNEY METRO CEO JON LAMONTE TO SEE WHERE THE PROJECT IS AT AND WHAT IS STILL TO COME.
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SW Government population projections suggest Greater Sydney’s population will grow to approximately 6.6 million in 2036, which is more people than the current population of Singapore. With 5.7 million people, Singapore is hailed as one of the best cities for public transport in the world. The Mass Rapid Transit system buses and subways make it simple for people to move around the city. The same cannot be said about Sydney. In 2012 the NSW Government announced Sydney Rail’s Future: Modernising Sydney’s Trains, which included plans for a North West Rail Link and a possible second harbour crossing. This became a reality in 2014 when the State Government announced the second harbour crossing to join the Bankstown line. On June 4, 2015 former NSW Premier Mike Baird and Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance 14
ROADS SEPTEMBER 2020
announced the 66 kilometre high capacity rail line that would become the Sydney Metro Project. The plan was to build the Sydney Metro Northwest, comprising of 36 kilometres of rail and the Sydney Metro City & Southwest with 30 kilometres of metro line, passing under Sydney Harbour. Fast forward to 2019 and Sydney Metro’s first line, Metro North West was opened on May 26, with 13 metro stations and trains every four minutes in the peak. For 2020, major works are focused on the second line, Sydney Metro City & Southwest, due to open in 2024. This line will have seven new metro stations and 11 upgraded stations. To expand what is Australia’s largest public transport project even further, 2020 has seen the progression of a new Sydney Metro West line and the Western Sydney Airport line. At the helm of this breadth of infrastructure works is Dr. Jon Lamonte,
CEO of Sydney Metro. Roads & Infrastructure sat down with him to get an update on project works and his hopes for how the rail will transform Greater Sydney. CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS With the Metro North West completed eyes are now on the City & Southwest line for completion in four years’ time. Jon Lamonte says with tunnelling now finished for the City & Southwest line, crews have been busy laying an invert slab as the concrete base for the rail track. “The next big section of course is to lay the new tracks. It aids the logistics of getting things in and out of site and is the next stage to making us a real railway,” Lamonte says. He says alongside this there will be work undertaken to create the power supplies, substations, high voltage and low voltage cables and other related infrastructure. Systems Connect, a partnership between CPB Contractors and UGL will deliver these line-wide works.
