COVID-19 lockdowns help speed up Sydney Metro delivery

The 30-kilometre line from Chatswood to Bankstown is expected to cost close to $17 billion, after the Herald revealed last year a multibillion-dollar blowout on the project.

While visiting the Metro tunnel on Monday deep below Chatswood to mark the first tracks being laid on the project, Mr Constance refused to confirm a final cost.

“A project of this scale, built over quite literally seven to eight years, is going to go through various stages, both in terms of the market,” he said.

“This project, over that sort of time period, is always going to be exposed to any escalations that might happen in a marketplace.”

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Asked whether the government would consider opening sections of the metro earlier than 2024, Mr Constance said: “Anything that can be done to advance the project we’re going to look at.”

He added that trains for the metro would likely be commissioned in 2023.

The City and Southwest line connects to the existing Metro Northwest at Chatswood and burrows deep below Sydney Harbour, and through the CBD before emerging at Sydenham, where it will continue on to Bankstown.

Rather than tunnelling from Sydenham to Bankstown, the government will instead convert the existing rail line, with contracts for that work awarded last month. Upgrades to Marrickville, Canterbury and Lakemba stations are slated to begin in the first half of 2021.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the $100-plus billion infrastructure pipeline was “roaring ahead,” despite the pandemic.

“While our state is dealing with the challenges of the COVID pandemic, that it’s not stopping our infrastructure pipeline, in fact pleasingly this project is slightly ahead of schedule,” she said.

“Metro forms a key part of the government’s record $107 billion infrastructure pipeline, which will be a major jobs creator during our COVID-19 recovery.”

With 120 trains moving into the CBD during peak hour, Mr Constance said the Metro would increase it to 200.

“This project is going to shock everybody in terms of its impact,” he said. “It’s the biggest public transport project in the nation’s history.”

New stations will be built at Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Martin Place, Pitt Street and Waterloo, along with new underground platforms at Central Station.