More commuters than expected ride Sydney's new metro line in first test of peak-hour services
The integration of a $7.3 billion new metro line into Sydney's broader rail network passed its first test on Monday despite a greater number of commuters than expected riding on the driverless trains.
A day after about 140,000 people hopped on board for the first time, attention turned to how the system would handle high commuter volumes during the morning peak, especially at pinch points such as Chatswood and Epping stations.
About 21,000 people travelled on the Metro Northwest line between 4.45am and 10am on Monday, which was higher than government expectations of up to 17,000 passengers.
Half of the commuters using the 36-kilometre line from Rouse Hill to Chatswood on Monday morning travelled to destinations along the north-west corridor, instead of switching to other services to get into central Sydney.
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Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the 21,000 people who had travelled on the metro trains on Monday morning had exceeded her expectations.
"People have confidence in the system and are using it," she said.
Figures show Chatswood had the highest number of people (9425) using their Opal cards to tap off between 4.45am and 10am, followed by Macquarie University (5875) and Epping (2368).
Platform crowding was greatest at Epping during the morning peak, partly because an escalator funnels passengers to the centre of a platform.
Some commuters have been startled by metro trains slightly overshooting station platforms, and then reversing to line up carriage doors with the and glass-screen platform doors.
But Transport Minister Andrew Constance said the trains were "doing exactly" what they should. "The train is designed to make sure the doors align," he said. "It's a matter of seconds [to line up the doors]. That is the same with every system around the world."
With an initial frequency of a train every five minutes during peak periods, the metro line can carry about 17,000 passengers an hour. The frequency during the morning and evening peaks will rise to four-minute intervals in about six weeks.
While each driverless metro train will initially have at least one staff member on board, Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary Alex Claassens said he was concerned that the workers would be removed in the "very near future".
"We’ve long held real concerns about the Sydney Metro system," he said.
But Transport for NSW secretary Rodd Staples said the automated trains were built to operate successfully without a customer service attendant on board each train.
"While we bed the system down, we will have a customer attendant on board until we are comfortable," he said.
Asked when that was likely to be, he said: "We will wait and see."
Mr Staples said one of the lessons from the opening of the line on Sunday was that it took too long to remove a train from service after it suffered a door fault at Macquarie Park.
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"But once [the line] started moving, the power of the system became obvious because we added more trains quickly. When we had that fault with the doors at Macquarie Park, we had 12 trains on the system. We inserted another three to four trains to clear the waiting customers," he said.
Epping resident Julia Hood gave the thumbs up to the new metro services on her first ride on Monday morning, saying the driverless train she rode on to get to Chatswood was smooth, quick and easy. "Once it goes all the way to the city it will be better," she said.
Other commuters were equally impressed. Paul Nijjar caught a metro train for the first time from Bella Vista on Monday morning. "It was awesome. It’s up there with Japan now," he said.
Mr Nijjar said it used to take about an hour and 20 minutes to get to work at Rhodes, but the new line meant it should be less than an hour. "It’s a huge difference," he said.
Sydney Trains chief executive Howard Collins said Chatswood and Epping stations were busy during the morning peak but passengers switched between metro and Sydney Trains services relatively smoothly.
"We are really pleased with the service and the loadings on the trains," he said.