SYDNEY—Hours before sunrise last Aug. 19, a crowd of nearly a thousand people was reported to have gathered at the 1880s railway station in Sydenham, a suburb 8 kilometers south of this city’s central business district. 

Trainspotters mingled with regular commuters at the new concourse to get on the 5 a.m. inaugural service of the second line of the futuristic Sydney Metro, billed as Australia’s most technologically advanced transport system.

Among the early birds was a young local who was quoted as saying that the excitement was like being at Taylor Swift’s concert. Another was a disabled man who was only too pleased with the wheelchair accessibility, with no step or gap between the platform and the train car.   

Fully automated high-speed driverless trains will soon be zooming up and down the 15-5-kilometer track between Sydenham and Chatswood in northern Sydney, crossing the CBD—underground and under the Sydney Harbor. 

The Metro is the latest addition to Greater Sydney’s public transport system that includes trains, buses, light rail/trams, and ferries. It vastly improves passenger capacity and the general ease of commuting with more trips and connections.

Shorter, safer commute 

Trains running at 100 km per hour arrive every four or five minutes during weekday peak hours, and can carry up to 40,000 passengers per hour, according to the Metro website.   

Surveys show that among residents of capital cities, Sydneysiders log the longest commute times to work, averaging up to 71 minutes. Those in Darwin have the shortest: 36 minutes. The statistics may have become just a fact of life, but the pandemic work-from-home arrangement drove home the reality of the tiring, time-consuming daily commute.    

No wonder that the Metro was reported to be a resounding success in its first week. Travel from Sydenham to Sydney CBD, for example, takes nine minutes, or four minutes faster than by train.

The Metro opened in 2019, with the first 36-km line running between the northwest and northern suburbs. It introduced the look and feel of space-age commuting with the design of train stations and platform safety facilities, among other features. 

For example, glass safety screens are installed along the station platforms to prevent wheelchairs, walkers, baby strollers, even passengers from accidentally falling onto the tracks. The screens have sliding doors located at the exact spots where train carriages come to a full stop. Screen and carriage doors automatically open and close simultaneously.      

Underground stations

The recently opened second Metro line presents other marvels, some of which my daughter Giselle and I explored recently when we went trainspotting, literally down under. 

Because the new Metro line winds around the city center under the Sydney Harbor, it has underground stations. One is at Crows Nest in the northern Sydney suburban area where Giselle lives.   

According to Metro info, the station is 25 meters below ground. It has five elevators and nine escalators, one of which we use to descend to the platform. 

While waiting for the next train, we note that the platform screen doors are numbered. This makes passengers easier to find if someone is meeting them at the station, Giselle says. 

On board, passengers can track their journey in real time on a digital chart above the doors. That’s in addition to the automated announcements of the next stop (also on regular trains) and which side the doors will open. Each Metro carriage has three doors on each side.   

Four kilometers on, we are in the CBD in just five minutes. We get off at Barangaroo, the newest harborside business, leisure, and residential hub.

Exiting the underground stations is like coming up for air. Barangaroo adds another refreshing touch: From the top of the escalator, your first sight is not an urban jungle but a cove. The locality was developed on reclaimed land.

Beach in the city 

Merging with the curving paved walkway are large slabs of sandstone arranged like stairs descending to the water. Kids and their pet dog are splashing about as two women, one in a hat, watched from the steps. Farther out, someone is swimming. 

The Marrinawi Cove is dubbed Sydney’s beach in the city. It shares the natural environment with restaurants, boutique shops, venues for sports and art events, as well as Sydney’s tallest skyscraper, the Crown Towers hotel and casino, and two ferry wharves.

Barangaroo station is also 25 meters deep, with two levels of escalators. Getting back down is like a deep dive (just like the stations in Europe, says a well-travelled friend). I have never been there, so I am a bit faint-hearted. I hold on to the handrail and try to look straight ahead to calm the nerves.   

The next station, Gadigal, has a different draw—huge murals made of bright-colored tiles. They perk up what would otherwise be ordinary functional spaces, according to the Metro project team. 

As one journalist puts it, it is hoped that “the gleaming new stations, dotted with large architectural-scale artworks, will have commuters looking twice—and taking a moment to pause and reflect.” 

And, if I may add, momentarily snap out of the robotic drudgery of daily commute. 

Food trail

Emerging from Gadigal station, however, what catch our attention are two protest rallies near the Town Hall. One group is holding up placards denouncing Vladimir Putin in two languages; the other is chanting the pro-Palestine slogan. Sydney is said to be Australia’s most culturally diverse city.   

After a couple of hours around the CBD for lunch and coffee, we walk to Martin Place station for the Metro back to northern Sydney. We stop at Chatswood, where the Metro shares the station with the regular trains and buses. The trip takes 11 minutes, or 6 minutes faster than by train, and 12 by bus.   

The entire 15.5-km new Metro line from Sydenham to Chatswood takes 22 minutes. 

By the end of 2025, the Metro will be running a 30-km service from Sydenham to Bankstown in the southwest.   

In the meantime, something else about the Metro is on the to-do list of my friend Dipsy, a longtime Sydneysider who lived on the waterfront before relocating to the famed Blue Mountains region two hours away.  

“I want to follow the food trail,” Dipsy exclaims, citing a review of the Metro featuring the cafes, bars, and restaurants located near the stations.

One of the shops mentioned is Crescent Croissanterie, a fairly new pastry store in Crows Nest that’s drawing crowds. It is designed mainly for takeaway customers, with a few sidewalk seats by the entrance. 

The shop is a five-minute walk from the station—not a bad way to spend the minutes you save taking the Metro.   

‘Happy surprise’

It wasn’t all smooth going for the Metro. Problems such as mechanical failure dogged the early days of the first line, causing delays. A strike by the train and bus drivers’ union delayed the opening of the second line. 

Except for occasional news reports such as the digging of the tunnels last year, not much was known to the public about how things were moving along over the seven years that the second line was under construction.  

At the official opening last August, the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, remarked that the new Metro turned out to be “a happy surprise.” He said Sydneysiders were not able to monitor its progress, “it was all happening underground.”

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