{"id":936067,"date":"2026-10-21T20:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936067\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T20:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T20:22:17","slug":"metro-opening-date-for-m1-sydnenham-to-bankstown-line-set-for-october-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936067\/","title":{"rendered":"Metro opening date for M1 Sydnenham to Bankstown line set for October 30"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Matt<\/p>\n

Updated October 22, 2026 \u2014 7:15am,first published 6:20am<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

No gift articles left<\/p>\n

You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n

Close<\/p>\n

AAA<\/p>\n

The final section of Sydney\u2019s $30 billion M1 metro rail line will open to passengers on Friday, October 30, ending more than two years of major disruptions for commuters who have been forced to catch replacement buses in the south-west.<\/p>\n

The NSW government confirmed on Thursday the date for the opening of the 13-kilometre stretch of the metro rail line between Sydenham and Bankstown. The first passenger services will start running along the south-west line at 4.31am on Friday next week.<\/p>\n

\"DulwichDulwich Hill station, pictured, is one of 10 on the M1 line\u2019s south-west section.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n

The long-awaited opening had hinged on final safety approval for passenger services by the national rail regulator, which was received by the government on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Premier Chris Minns said the opening would be a \u201chuge moment\u201d for south-west Sydney, and he thanked the thousands of commuters, families and local businesses for their patience during the project to convert the line to metro train standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about giving people in south-west Sydney the same fast, reliable public transport connections that other parts of our city enjoy. It\u2019s an investment that will make a real difference to these communities for generations to come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Like the rest of the M1 line, trains will run every four minutes during weekday peak hours, every five minutes between 10am and 3pm, and every 10 minutes in the evenings and on weekends.<\/p>\n

\"PremierPremier Chris Minns (right) and other ministers on a metro train in July at Bankstown station.Steven Siewert<\/p>\n

However, services will be boosted to one every seven minutes on the first weekend of the south-west section\u2019s operation \u2013 October 31-November 1 \u2013 to accommodate increased interest from passengers.<\/p>\n

A trip from Canterbury to Chatswood will take 31 minutes, a time saving of 23 minutes compared to the previous heavy rail commutes, while Lakemba to Victoria Cross in North Sydney will take 37 minutes, saving passengers 24 minutes.<\/p>\n

While insisting that the final stage was ready to open to passengers, the government conceded there \u201cmay be some minor teething issues as services get under way\u201d. Extra metro staff will be rostered on for the new services.<\/p>\n

The ribbon cutting for the metro line on October 30 will come just over two weeks before a new rail timetable<\/a> for the Sydney Trains network is introduced. This will have the greatest impact to services on the T4 Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra line.<\/p>\n

\"BankstownBankstown metro station is finally set to welcome commuters.Sitthixay Ditthavong<\/p>\n

As part of the timetable changes on November 15, all T4 trains will stop at Sydenham station to enable passengers to switch to driverless trains on the M1 metro line.<\/a><\/p>\n

To assure safety regulators, the government will keep a tiny fraction of the 360 platform screen doors closed when the south-west section opens. Three screen doors will remain closed at Dulwich Hill station, and one each at Canterbury, Campsie and Marrickville to reduce the risk of \u201ceven minor safety issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

Curved platforms have required 170 mechanical gap fillers<\/a> to be installed at eight stations. The small hydraulic platforms extend to the metro carriages before screen doors open, ensuring that commuters can safely step on and off.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The opening of the M1 line\u2019s south-west section is about two weeks later than a target date of \u201cmid-October\u201d<\/a>, which was detailed in confidential Sydney Metro documents earlier this year.<\/p>\n

However, it will finally put an end to pink-coloured replacement buses<\/a>, which have significantly lengthened commuters\u2019 trips along the corridor and cost taxpayers about $200 million.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of commuters have had to catch the replacement buses each day between Sydenham and Bankstown since September 2024,<\/a> when the T3 heavy rail line was shut to complete the final 13-kilometre section of the M1 line.<\/p>\n

In mid-2018, the former Coalition government told commuters that the line would need to be closed for three to six months. Even before it closed in September 2024<\/a>, the Minns government said the shutdown might last longer than its earlier estimates of 12 months.<\/p>\n

The total cost of the city and south-west sections of the 66-kilometre M1 line is forecast to cost as much as $23 billion, up from $21.6 billion previously.<\/p>\n

The government has not broken out the cost of each section. However, the increase of almost $1.5 billion in the forecast last December<\/a> is mostly due to the final stage between Sydenham and Bankstown given the city section opened<\/a> in August 2024.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Save<\/p>\n

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n

Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n

No gift articles left<\/p>\n

You’ve used all of your gift articles. 3 more will become available on the 1st of every month.<\/p>\n

Close\"MattMatt O’Sullivan<\/a> is transport and infrastructure editor at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated October 22, 2026 \u2014 7:15am,first published 6:20am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-936067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}