Shortlist:

Alstom/UGL Joint Venture: Alstom Transport Australia, UGL Engineering;

ARC Joint Venture: Siemens Mobility, Siemens Mobility GmbH, Mott MacDonald Australia;

Hitachi Rail STS Australia.

The Trains, Systems and System Integration contract package includes:

the supply of Australia’s first high speed trains

the design and delivery of rail systems, the depot and operations control centre;

the integration, testing and commissioning of the Newcastle to Sydney high speed rail system.

The proponents will also consider how advanced manufacturing can support the efficient delivery of High Speed Rail.

An Advanced Manufacturing Facility proposed by the Authority would use automation, robotics and precision manufacturing to deliver the railway more efficiently. This facility will create skilled jobs and more opportunities for Australian manufacturers and suppliers to help deliver Australia’s High Speed Rail.

I managed to lose my keys and a couple of items in the train this morning traveling on the T1 emu plains service around 5:15. If anyone sees them and hands them in let me know! They have a key chain (small piece of climbing rope) that has incredible sentimental value to me.

I have filled in the lost property form but just wanted to make a post as well on the off chance they've been picked up.

Thank you and I hope you're having a better day than me!

Commuters catching trains on Sydney’s $30 billion M1 metro rail line during the morning peak have surged over the past 12 months: two stations in the central city have easily exceeded forecasts made two years ago and some trains have been too packed for passengers to get on.

On the eve of the two-year anniversary of the opening of the line’s city section, new government figures show a 14 per cent rise in passengers filing through ticket gates at Martin Place metro station during the morning peak in May and June, compared to the same months a year earlier.

Martin Place station’s average patronage of 20,500 passengers on weekday mornings in May was almost a third higher than forecasts released in 2024, shortly before the section between Chatswood and Sydenham opened on August 19 of that year.

Gadigal station, near Town Hall, is also easily beating forecasts. About 10,700 commuters passed through its gates in the morning peak between 6.30 and 10 in May, up 8 per cent on the prior period, and 43 per cent higher than predictions made in 2024.

Victoria Cross station in North Sydney had a rise of more than 10 per cent during morning peaks in May and June, while Central Station’s metro platforms were up about 9 per cent, as commuters switched from heavy rail services to metro trains.

The number of commuters entering and exiting North Sydney station on a typical weekday has halved since the metro’s city-section opened two years ago and patronage for St Leonards station has fallen by a third. Both heavy rail stations are close to metro stations.

The growth in patronage on metro trains comes two months before the M1 line’s final stage between Sydenham and Bankstown is expected to open. Confidential government documents have slated a target date of mid-October, but the start of passenger services will hinge on approval by the national rail regulator.

Crows Nest resident Lucy Wang catches metro trains every weekday to travel to Martin Place for work because they are faster than double-decker services on the T1 North Shore heavy rail line.

Wang said it was always a case of squeezing into packed metro carriages or waiting for the next one if she could not get on during the morning peak. “I usually only wait for one, or squish [into a carriage],” she said. “I do wish it was less packed, but there’s really nothing you can do.”

After driving to Crows Nest to drop her daughter at day care, Norwest resident Ashley Felsman is used to being unable to get on a city-bound metro train during the morning peak. “I’m always having to wait for the next one because I can’t get on,” she said.

Trains run every four minutes in both directions on the M1 line during weekday peaks between about 7am and 10am, and from 3pm to 7pm. They operate every five minutes from 10am to 3pm, and every 10 minutes at other times.

Over the coming years, the two options for boosting passenger capacity on the M1 line are to lengthen trains from six to eight carriages, or to increase the frequency to a service every three minutes, which would require the NSW government to buy more trains.

Sydney Metro customer and planning executive director Samantha Phillips said the agency was keeping a close eye on crowding on city-bound trains departing Crows Nest, which was the “pinch point” on the network in the morning peak.

Phillips said the most likely option, if capacity was boosted, would be to increase train frequency to every three minutes. “Frequency matters. That’s what people really value,” she said.

“I want to make sure I’ve looked at all the different options before I’m saying to government or to the community we need to spend a lot more money on additional fleet. It is a big investment.”

Phillips said increased housing along the rail corridor and commuters’ willingness to give up seats on double-decker trains for a faster journey standing in metro carriages were key drivers of the patronage growth.

“I was always really a bit sceptical around people preferring to give up their seat to choose the metro, but the evidence is speaking for itself. People are choosing those faster journeys,” she said of commuters switching from heavy rail to metro services at stations such as Chatswood and Epping.

University of Technology transport researcher Mathew Hounsell said the metro line’s strong patronage growth demonstrated that modelling had underestimated passenger demand.

“It is the same all over the world – when you build an automated metro that is reliable and fast, people use it,” he said. “Buses are great for moving people around a local area but it’s trains that build a city.”

Hounsell said the government needed to improve feeder bus links to metro stations along the M1 line, especially in Sydney’s northwest. “Getting people to these stations now is the limiting factor in terms of [patronage] growth,” he said.

While Martin Place and Gadigal are easily beating expectations, Waterloo station continues to lag Sydney Metro’s patronage forecasts and Barangaroo’s figures were nearly flat year-on-year.

Phillips said Waterloo and other stations that had had slower patronage growth reflected a lag in proposed development around them.

Plans for a $90 billion high-speed rail line between Sydney and Newcastle have moved a step closer to becoming reality after three international consortiums were shortlisted to design the most challenging section from the Central Coast to north of Hornsby.

Amid deep community scepticism about the project, the shortlisted consortiums will now compete to develop designs for 35 kilometres of twin tunnels and a new high-speed station at Gosford, which would be more akin to an airport terminal than a traditional train station for passengers.

The ambitious project’s two-year development phase is aimed at firm costs, designs and program schedules to be handed to the federal government by mid-2028 – shortly before the next national election – allowing it to then make an investment decision on whether to proceed.

High Speed Rail Authority chief executive Tim Parker said the shortlisting would enable a preferred bidder to be selected quickly if the government gives final approval, followed by a 10-year time frame to build the first section.

“This is the largest investment ever by government in this type of project. Often people say, ‘Oh, we’re just doing more studies’. We’re not. We’re actually going into a proper procurement,” said Parker, a former Sydney Metro senior executive.

“Sydney Metro was definitely a city-changing project. This has the potential for being a nation-changing project. It’s almost Sydney Metro on steroids, with respect to the impact it could have if we proceed.”

The alignment from the Central Coast to Sydney’s northern fringe is easily the most challenging section because it passes under the Hawkesbury River and hilly terrain covered by national park.

An expression of interest for an advanced manufacturing facility to be built somewhere along the proposed corridor will also be released next month. If the government approves the project, the facility will be used to manufacture components for the high-speed rail line.

“What we’re looking to try to do is, in essence, create a kit of parts for high speed, so that in future we’re not redesigning everything again and again,” Parker said.

A new station at Gosford – one of four between Newcastle and the Sydney CBD – would have four platforms.

Parker said high-speed rail stations would be “more like an airport than a railway station” in that passengers would not be waiting for their train on a platform.

“It will be an area probably a bit more relaxed where you’re sitting around, waiting. You get called to a gate ... and then you go down to the platform,” he explained.

“We’re not designing just for Newcastle to Sydney. The stations have to be able to cater for much bigger traffic [for trains to run between Brisbane and Melbourne] in the future, once this line is fully operational.”

The tender process for the manufacturing facility will run in parallel with the design work for the 35-kilometre section from Ourimbah, north of Gosford, to Berowra.

The three consortiums shortlisted for design work for the Central Coast-Berowra leg comprise Spanish company Acciona and Chinese-owned John Holland; Gamuda from Malaysia, FCC from Spain and Korean giant Samsung; and a joint venture of CPB and Ferrovial, which are both Spanish-owned, and France’s Vinci.

Each consortium will receive up to $50 million in “fee for service” for their work.

Federal Transport Minister Catherine King said the three consortiums would determine the best and most innovative ways for tunnels between Berowra and Ourimbah, while ensuring taxpayers receive value for money.

“We said we’d go metre by metre and carefully plan the first stage of high-speed rail between Newcastle and Sydney. That’s what we’re delivering with these new contracts,” she said.

Parker said a shortlisting of contractors for the so-called area package from Ourimbah to Newcastle would be held early next year. Train suppliers for the project will be shortlisted later this week.

Three other major contracts comprising high-speed train platforms and a concourse at Central Station, a new station at Broadmeadow in Newcastle, and tunnels from Berowra to the Sydney CBD, will go to tender only if final investment approval is granted in 2028.

Sydney University transport professor David Levinson warned against people getting excited that the plans would result in a high-speed train line being constructed.

“They still have to come up with the money to build the thing. Someone has to fund $90 billion,” he said. “Until they show the money it’s not real.”

The latest shortlisting comes six months after a business case put the cost of building the line from Newcastle to Central Station at $61.2 billion, and an onward leg to Parramatta and the new Western Sydney Airport at $32.4 billion.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has repeatedly ruled out the state committing funding for the project but has said his government would be willing to fast-track planning.

From today 17th August 2026, M1 Weekday Peak has reverted back to the standard 4 minutes Headway with 15 trains per hour (tph) in each direction, Tallawong to Sydenham with 30 trains in use.

Since 13th April, M1 Weekday Peaks (excludes Public Holidays) has operated to either:

- 3.75 minute Headway with 16 tph/each direction, total 32 trains. This was in operation from 13th to 17th April & then 15th June to 14th August 2026; excluding weekends & public holidays.

- 3.5 minute Headway with 17 tph/each direction, total 33 trains. This was in operation from 20th April to 12th June 2026; includes Vivid event but excluding weekend & public holidays.

When Sydenham to Bankstown section opens, the Weekday Peak headway will remain 4 minutes with 21 tph each direction, total 42 trains. It won't be possible to run 3.75 or 3.5 min headways across the entire line unless more Metropolis sets are purchased.

This week I've been on Newtown to Central
and back with my girlfriend and her mother twice. I've used Opal both times and it's been $7-8 for the round trip both times.

Both of them have tapped with debit cards and
payed $2 for the entire round trip - $1 there and $1 back. Confused on why that is?

The Newcastle to Sydney High Speed Rail project has moved further into the Development Stage with three major construction consortia shortlisted for an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) process following a competitive tender.

i’ve walked out the central tunnel exit a few times in the last week and they’re been there at least twice between 8:30-9:30am. why are they stationed right there? on trains makes sense but why right there? are they on a quota/commission? why are they so pushy about having a uni id with my concession card when im in my university uniform?

Sydney has spent the past decade building a world class metro and light rail network. Sydney Metro’s Northwest and City & Southwest lines, the Metro West and Western Sydney Airport lines now under construction, and the CBD and South East and Parramatta light rail all represent the largest public transport investment in the country’s history, and it is transforming how people move around the city.

With the exception of the Western Sydney Airport line, these new lines have largely reinforced the radial shape of Sydney’s network: fast lines running in and out of the CBD in Sydney’s east. What’s missing is the in-between connections – those linking lines and centres across central, western, northern and southern Sydney. Our public transport accessibility levels reflect this pattern, and so does something more troubling: our patterns of socio-economic inequality. Areas with poor access to frequent public transport are disproportionately the same areas experiencing entrenched disadvantage, particularly across Sydney’s west and south-west.

To fix this, Sydney needs to move from a hub-and-spoke model to a web of routes – a network that connects communities to each other, not just to the centre.

Rapid bus networks are how we build that web. They are fast to deliver, comparatively cheap to build, and proven: Sydney’s existing rapid routes – from the B-Line in the Northern Beaches to the T-Way connecting Parramatta north and south – already show what’s possible when buses get their own lane and their own priority at the lights.

The Committee for Sydney proposes a network of 18 rapid bus routes crisscrossing Sydney. Together, these routes would connect growing communities with metros, jobs, education opportunities and one another, transforming the transport network from a hub-and-spoke system to a web of rapid transport options.

Sydney’s Rapid Bus network would include:

Existing rapid routes

North-West T-Way (Rouse Hill & Blacktown to Parramatta)

Liverpool to Parramatta T-Way

Northern Beaches B-Line

Committed rapid routes

B30 Liverpool to Western Sydney Airport & Bradfield

B31 Campbelltown to Bradfield & Western Sydney Airport

B32 Penrith-Western Sydney Aiport & Bradfield

Identified priority corridors

St Marys to Rouse Hill

Campbelltown to Liverpool

Liverpool to Burwood via Bankstown

Parramatta to Sydney CBD via Victoria Road

Parramatta to Sydney CBD via Parramatta Road

Identified route upgrades

North-West T-way upgrade (Blacktown to Box Hill)

Liverpool to Parramatta T-way upgrade

Five new priority rapid routes

Liverpool to Blacktown (Direct)

Pennant Hills Road (Parramatta to Hornsby)

River Rail (Kogarah – Bankstown – Parramatta)

Macquarie Park to Burwood (via Top Ryde)

Brookvale to Chatswood (via Frenchs Forest)