Sydney’s new M1 metro line achieves strong opening week performance

Credit: Sydney Metro

Sydney Metro has announced that its newest metro line, the M1 Northwest & Bankstown Line, has been operational for one week as of 26 August 2024, showing impressive early results. Since its launch on 19 August 2024, the line has recorded 1.4 million trips, reflecting a strong initial uptake from the city’s commuters.

The line, which stretches 51.5km from Chatswood to Sydenham with 21 stations along the way, saw a particularly bustling opening weekend. Over 300,000 trips had been made on the first two days, with Saturday alone accounting for more than 170,000 journeys.

The first five weekdays also demonstrated high usage, culminating in a peak day on Thursday with nearly 220,000 trips. Average weekday ridership stands at approximately 210,000 trips, with the morning peak (08:00 – 09:00) on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday being the busiest, averaging 28,900 trips per hour.

Key statistics from the opening week include:

• On-time performance: 98.8% of services ran on schedule
• Peak usage: Weekday morning peak average was 62,000 trips, while the evening peak saw 74,000 trips
• Station traffic: Central station emerged as the busiest, with 19,500 trips, followed by Martin Place with 18,900 trips.

In terms of infrastructure, the new metro service has introduced 2,852 new services, including 1,980 additional weekday trips. There were also approximately 259,000 interchanges from Sydney Trains to the metro and about 83,000 from buses to the metro in the first week.

Despite the strong start, passengers will encounter ongoing construction at some stations. Work is being carried out to enhance roads, footpaths, and traffic intersections around the stations but is not expected to disrupt passenger journeys. The new buildings at Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Gadigal and Waterloo stations are still under construction and will open as they are completed.

To support passengers, staff are stationed at each metro station, on trains and at help points, ready to assist with any questions. Service frequencies are set at every four minutes during peak times, seven minutes during the interpeak, and every ten minutes off-peak and on weekends.