The Western Sydney Airport Metro Problem 

EDIT: One thing I neglected to suggest and that has appeared a lot in the comments is that they just extend the SWRL as a heavy rail line to the airport, rather than convert it to a metro. This would be cheaper and easier, and would maintain the extra capacity the SWRL gives to the Sydney Trains network. It also leaves open the possibility of linking both airports via the T8, and would allow the metro to be extended straight to Macarthur from Aerotropolis rather than having a branch to Glenfield. We’ll have to wait and see what the government chooses to do. Hey! Be sure to purchase a Building Beautifully Calendar here: building-beautifully-merchandise.myshopify.com/products/building-beautifully-calendar. First 30 buyers will go in a draw to win a free hoodie. If you win, I'll let you know in exactly one week from the video's release! (At that point, you'll get to let me know your preferred size.) Lots of links in the description, be sure to check those out. Hope you all enjoyed this one :)) Was I too critical? Was I not critical enough? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below. I don't usually have the time to reply, but I do read most of them!

the fact that the new metro is incompatible with the existing metro which is in itself incompatible with heavy rail is just a symptom of the ineptness of government

People forget that the rail links are just as much about getting workers to the airport and nearby businesses as it is for moving passengers. And that a major portion of throughput for the airport won’t be just people, but freight. Having a large, new airport with no curfew is going to be hugely popular with freight carriers.

Finally a RU-vidr who comes out with new ideas instead of an ordinary train vlogger who just accepts the current system.

I feel like Extending the SouthWest rail link is the better option than converting it to metro. Since the T2 and T5 would then have to run to Campbelltown/Macarthur, it would add to the rail traffic south of Glenfield. Then when the airport metro is fully extended it wouldn't have to alternate between terminating at Macarthur and Glenfield. With the added bonus of having more stations having direct services to the new airport.

A rail link from Glenfield will be a bonus for us travelling from outside of the Sydney Basin too. Intercity trains from Goulburn, Canberra, etc could stop there, and allow direct connection to both Sydney and Western Sydney airports.

Despite Australia being so large, I think we’re rapidly approaching a point where we realise we might be running out of room. To catch up on infrastructure whilst still increasing the base city population is going to continue to cause significant future issues. This is a great video mate. I like it when someone can discuss things simply like you.

All the references to the metro line connecting to the new airport in Sydney (also thanks to Dongchen Yue for making the captions so nice! "🎵synth🎵") 0:03 Western Sydney Airport Metro 0:08 Metro Western Sydney Airport 0:12 Sydney Metro West Airport Line 0:22 Sydney Metro Western Sydney Airport (current name) 3:04 Western Sydney Metro Airport Line 6:45 Western Metro Sydney Airport Rail Link 7:01 Sydney Western Airport Metro 11:19 Sydney Western Sydney Metro Sydney Airport 12:12 Western Sydney Airport West Metro 13:14 Sydney Metro Metro Western Sydney Metro Airport (Metro Stations) 15:57 Western Sydney Airport Sydney Western Sydney Metro Railway Metro Airport geez Sharath, I'm more amazed how you spoke the names without giggling. gj mate!

I ride the Norwest Metro many times a week and it is briliant. I can see the absolute need to continue the line from Tallawong to St Marys being mandatorty to enable the residents of Northern Side of the Harbour to quickly travel to the new airport.

One main reason for federation was to standardise the rail gauge between qld, vic and nsw. Now we have multiple incompatible networks in nsw alone.

The true question is: WHY NOT JUST DO BOTH???

13:12 & 15:56 had me dying 🤣 I'm honestly unhappy with the way the Sydney Metro Metro Airport Western Sydney Airport Metro Line has been laid out, I believe that one of the best options could have been linking the Metro Sydney Western Airport Nancy Bird Walton Aerotropolis Metro Line to the Sydney Metro West line. They definitely could have done better with the planning of the line, but at the end of the day, at least a train line is actually being built! Anyways, great video Sharath! I look forward to your future coverage on the building of the Sydney Western Sydney Airport Nancy Bird Walton Sydney Metro Airport Western Sydney Line!

By the way the t8 runs to Leppington via airport sometimes when track work is on so it’s not impossible to scrap the Sydenham branch and have trains go to MacArthur, revesby, and the new airport **

Turns out you've been adding subtitles for the last few videos. Thank you so much for this!

Great video! Despite the lack of an extension of the Leppington line at the moment, it is promising to hear the governments plan to release the business case for a Leppington line extension and Metro conversion in the near future to connect South-Western Sydney residents to their local airport- hopefully this will be opened not too long after the Western Sydney Airport becomes operational and that it goes ahead! The alignment at the moment going North-South opens up many opportunities for a further urban sprawl in the Outer West of Sydney especially in Orchard Hills, Austral, Bringelly and Luddenham- let's hope the state govt makes rezoning areas to residential zones more efficient in years to come to mitigate the housing shortages we're facing at the moment and cope with demands from a forecasted boom in Sydney's population in both the short- and long-term. In addition to Bradfield, the rest of the rail alignment within close proximity to the Metro stations (

The simplest and most elegant solution is to extend the Leppington line to the new airport. This kills two birds with one stone: it's the least distance to an existing train line, and it allows passengers to transfer from one airport to another. Furthermore, if a High Speed Rail line was to ever be built, it would go via Western Sydney Airport, and so again allow connections directly to the both international airports, direct from the regions.

The best part about the new airport is that The Northern Road has been upgraded and now you can go motorway speeds between Penrith and Campbelltown without having to pay the M7 toll because they haven't built most of the intersections yet

It's great to see Sydney finally moving to a metro network. Their fully entanglad heavy rail network is insane for a city of over 6 million people. In big cities, everyone knows that passengers transferring is much better than crippling the network with 100s of different running patterns.

your presentation / videos just get better and better, keep up the good work 😀

11:06 it will not benefit more people. What about all the people who live in Fairfield, Cabramatta, Greenvalley, Edensor Park, Austral, Smithfield, Cecil Hills, Mount Vernon, Hoxton Park, Macquarie Fields, Ingleburn, Kemps Creek, Bonnyrigg, Casula, Heckenberg, Ashcroft, Sadlier, Moorebank, Warwick Farm, Liverpool, Chipping Norton, Hammondville, Holsworthy, Horningsea Park, Canley Heights, Elizabeth Hills, Prestons, Edmonson Park, Carnes Hill, Busby, Miller, Abbotsbury, Greenfield Park, St John’s Park, Prairie Wood and Wakeley? There are MORE than 1 million people that live within a 15-25 minute drive of the new airport, yet it will take them well over an hour to get there by public transport. So now they’re going to have to build a 15-lane highway to allow everybody to drive there instead?

This video has actually given me more hope, thanks for the different perspective. I'd argue extending the metro from tallawong to Schofield's with an across platform link to airport metro extended from St Mary's would be a better option than extending from St Mary's to tallawong. This would enable a better transfer and with an extension from aerotropolis to Glenfield it would be great. I wonder if a full conversion of T8 would make sense... probably not, just a thought bubble.

G'day I'm seriously frustrated and disappointed. We have one of the largest infrastructure investments in the new airport which falls within Liverpool municipality, it's been years in the planning and all the transport connections won't be completed when it opens. I recall the opening of Leppington and Edmondson Park stations in February of 2015, and it was exciting to know that Leppington would connect to the new airport. It makes no sense that this new airport won't have a rail line connecting to Leppington and also not connecting to Liverpool where people could also then travel Sydney CBD. The incompetence of the former state government is astounding and the current state government has inherited a mess with so many budget blowouts in multiple areas. I'm still scratching my head wondering why there will be a new rail line linking St.Marys and not Liverpool, it's like we're moving in the opposite direction to the most desired locations for travellers and workers. There, I've had my rant, this issue has been frustrating me for years.

The St Mary-WSA line will be a white elephant in the first few years. Except St Mary there are no station with substantial residential population. Remaining population would have to change "at least once", i.e. from Penrith and Blacktown. The first line should have been Leppington-WSA. There are already trains from Blacktown and Parramatta to Leppington which should have been extended to WSA. The Sydney Metro WSA -St. Mary line unless extended to Tallawong would not see huge patronage.

I really think that the concept of converting the SWRL to metro is a bad idea. The Metro should take the other proposed route to campbelltown and extend the SWRL to provide the inter-airport service. I remember hearing they at least futureproofed by adding a tunnel under the runway parallel to the metro, to provide future railway services a right-of-way without digging under an active runway. Also, until a hypothetical bankstown-airport line, the SWRL would be the only direct line from central to the new airport! Changing trains with luggage sounds like a hassle...

Hey Sharath, just out of curiosity do you live in western Sydney? I live near Edmondson Park and I've always hated travelling to Kingsford Smith airport, so when news of the new airport first came I was quite pleased to finally have a closer alternative. I just hope we do get those much needed rail extensions like you mentioned for the surrounding suburbs.

The route that was chosen has so much empty land so probably makes sense for the longer route and empty land to boost the amount of tax that would come into government hands when all them new house pop up

A few years ago the northern rd from Narellan to Penrith was upgraded to make it three lanes each way. But one of these lanes is marked as a bus lane. After Oran Park you don’t see any busses in it. Is this not the rapid link to the airport? Or is is supposed to be uninterrupted?

Hi Sharath! I was wondering if you could do a video exploring why the Fairford Rd interchange is such a choke point on the M5 and what (if anything) could be done to improve traffic flow.

Hey! Great video as always, curious what that train map is behind you. It seems like its what your dream sydney train map would be like. Where can I find that to have a look? Huge fan of your train videos. Thanks

There's an important reason the Southwest rail link should be extended to the airport soonest. The new airport will, at least in its early years, be largely a FREIGHT airport (no curfew makes it far more attractive for this than Mascot). But it has no link to NSW's extensive freight rail network (the best in the country by some margin). In particular, it has no freight rail links to any seaports. The M5 and M7 are going to see an awful lot of extra B-doubles on them ...

What does Transurban have to say about an inefficient rail link ?

Great video, as always! I loved the outro music 👍

The different Metro power standards is land war in Asia level of idiocy. Having the change at Schofield's rather than a one line connection between Aeropolis and Chatswood. It is as if the Metro was chosen so it was not tied into Sydney Trains for union bashing and privatisation reasons

One thing I want to know is how frequent are trains to St Marys and is that being upgraded in any way shape or form?

Quick high capacity public transport between Kingsford Smith and the Western Sydney Airport in a necessity on days of high wind. The day before this video was released was one such day, and Kingsford Smith Airport was confined to its single east-west runway, cutting the landing and takeoff capacity by one third. Many flights were delayed or cancelled throughout Australia, so it's not just a Sydney problem. If airlines could quickly reroute their flights to Western Sydney Airport this would be preferable to completely cancelling flights. However, to make this work the surface transport system needs to capacity to move large numbers of passengers quickly at short notice between the airports. Buses would need prior planning to ensure vehicles and drivers are available, whereas the proposed rail link would enable this capacity.

Kingsford Smith airport was located out in the middle of nowhere when aircraft first started using it

Awesome video, big fan of your work, well done mate

The Business Case for WSI to Glenfield should be out some time this year. As I see it, It has four main options, each with advantages and disadvantages. (1) - Extend the Sydney Trains SWL to WSI airport - expensive (big tunnels and station boxes)- a noticeably slower acceleration/speed and less frequent options than the metro - probably only 4 trains per hour so it doesn't overload paths for the other Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink services running through Glenfield - probably not 24 hour operation.. (2) Extend the 3/4 car, 25 Kv WSI metro to Glenfield - Option (a) construct the metro station on the western side of the existing station (St Marys U/G or Sydenham surface style) - no cross platform exchange, but leaves all current platforms at Glenfield intact - easy to extend metro further north if desired. Option (b) is a cross platform exchange (Chatswood style) with the metro using the inner tracks - leaves only two platforms for Sydney Trains services. Option (c) is an upper level terminus for the metro line above the inner tracks, south of the concourse - messy to construct and harder to extend the metro further north. (3) Extend the 3/4 car, 25 KV WSI metro to Leppington (underground to just west of Leppington, surfacing to the inner platforms, with a Chatswood style interchange - cheapest option as Leppington already has 4 platforms - doesn't currently provide T8 services - but could add 4 TPH T8 services to the existing City via Granville and Cumberland line services - keeps four platforms for ST and NSWTL (country) services at Glenfield - may require two train changes for some passengers. A possibility is doing (3) first, as it is the cheapest connection; then converting it to (2) later. (4) Construct a transit centre either in Bradfield (there's a 60 metre wide transport corridor through Bradfield running beside the WSI Metro), or south of Bradfield (around Bringelly) that inter-connects the WSI airport metro (and subsequently the Westmead metro) with the SWL and to Narellan/Macarthur, (I'll leave which one goes to where and where it connects with the SWL unspecified) Note that the Westmead metro (decades away) may use 6/8 car sets if it is an extension of the Sydney West Metro. Additional comments: (a) WSI is not 'in the middle of nowhere' - its in the middle of the western three quarters of the Cumberland Plain - a relatively flat area enabling easier needed development - a much bigger area than Harbour Sydney even counting out as far as Parramatta/Bankstown. Neither is it a place where 'people have to commute a long way into the"the city" for jobs - hmmm, no they mostly don't; most both live and work in the West. (b) It's not "Sydney's Second Airport", it's Western Sydney's Airport - Western Sydney is larger and already more populous area than the rest of Sydney combined, or the whole of Brisbane- Think of it as a separate city competing with places like Brisbane, Newcastle, Adelaide and even Melbourne as a good place of employment and for growing families. (c) Comparatively few people will want to transfer between flights at WSI and KSA (Sydney) airport. Most will either connect at WSI or fly to Sydney KSA and connect there. The exception might be for regional flights - we may end up having QantasLink operating from one and REX and/or Bonza operating from the other. (flights will undoubtedly be cheaper at WSI). (d) The WSI Metro is the centre transport core for the western part of the Cumberland Plain. It will facilitate development in the space between St Marys/Penrith and Campbelltown/Camden. (e) I suspect Liverpool will use a western branch/extension of the Liverpool/Parramatta T-Way from (just west of) the Banks Rd and Horton Park Road intersection to Bradfield and WSI - Most people in Liverpool already live west of the city centre, served by that T-Way. There are some reports of Liverpool Council advocating electric buses, like the Brisbane "Metro". (f) Won't tourists prefer to go to Sydney KSA? - Probably, until they discover fares and accommodation are much cheaper (and they can easily get a train to visit the harbour if they want) - But the west doesn't look as pretty!!!, you say - Try telling that to tourists who can now see what looks like 'the Grand Canyon with forest' and vast wilderness off to one side as they approach and depart.

Great clip. I'll take your 'playing devil's advocate' a bit further. Bradfield expected his Sydney city train system to do the job until about the 1950s. It's served us well for far longer than that, in spite of some of it never being built. It has been helped by bits being added now and then, and double decking (originally just a cost saving way of increasing capacity, albeit with slower schedules than in the single deck days). It's been so good that rail fans have sometimes seem to have had their thinking frozen in the 1950s. For example, I'm just old enough to remember the end of the era when, if you wanted to go serious shopping or see a movie, it necessarily meant going into central Sydney. It hasn't been like that for many decades. Even serious partying is easier these days in Parra or Penrith than at the Cross. So let me suggest an alternative way of looking at things: Sydney is not one city but several. I'll refer to the main two as "Cliched Sydney" (you know, the touristy bits - Opera House, the Bridge, Manly Ferry, Bondi Beach, Taronga Park .....). Then there's "Real Sydney", where the real people, who do the real work, live; and have Red Rooster for dinner. I know this will come as a shock to those north-east of the RR line, but it means that: - For most, Real Sydney no longer really needs old Cliched Sydney. Real Sydney is a city in its own right - the third biggest in population in the country in fact. - Real Sydney is a real centre for a real transport system in its own right; not just something that primarily must connect to the old Cliched city with its old airport. - Real Sydney is about to take off into a new tech industry era. Its surface transport system should do likewise - AC not DC - 25Kv not 1500v - AI driven not hand driven. - It's Cliched Sydney that will need to catch up with Real Sydney, not Real Sydney that needs to conform with old transport cliches. I'd suggest the current situation looks quite promising. For example: - Take a drive along (say) Mamre Rd. Marvel at the employment and industry already under construction or moving in to take advantage of Real Sydney's development, long before the metro and airport is running. - Note how far the BRT system already extends west from Liverpool, before chucking a right to head to Parramatta. - Note how Glenfield station is amenable to cross-platform exchange between an extended Airport Metro and current Sydney Trains - Note the available capacity of Liverpool to use their turn back for faster City via Regents Park services, once the Bankstown Metro is running. - Note how Glenfield could also be used to turn back services currently going to/from Leppington (southern halves of current platforms 2 and 3 used for 3-4 car Metros on 25Kv - separated off and extended Northern ends of current platforms 2 and 3 used as turn backs on 1500 DC) - and that's just one possible arrangement.

Its so great to dream but all I know is i'll be dead and buried before anything significant gets built.

Building/extending a north-south rail link has even more benefits to residents of north-west, west, and south-west Sydney outside of the airport existing, too. As it currently stands, a resident of Richmond that wishes to transit to, say, Camden, is faced with a 3+ hour journey if they were to use the existing public transit system. And that's just to effectively stay in the same city! Alternatively, they could drive, and it'd take just about an hour. This applies for residents of Penrith, albeit their journey is about 50 minutes shorter by transit, and 25 minutes shorter by car. Additionally, south-west and north-west Sydney have seen the largest population growth in the metropolitan area, and as you mentioned in the video, they are more than likely going to be the ones making use of the new airport. Couple the north-south transit with an extention to the Leppington line, and we'll have a fantastic rail system in place and ready for the new airport. It'd be a disaster if we're stuck here playing catch-up after the airport opens. We are effectively three years away now, and the current plans under construction do not provide adequate connections in my humblest opinion. Great video as usual, dude!

Extending the Metro and converting the southwest rail link to metro would create to many headaches for the rest of the train network. Firstly everyone from the airport would have to transfer and secondly it would create a lot of reverse branches between the T2,T5,T8 + any intercity services with another potential from trains running via Sefton to be extended.

I live in St Marys I amazed how people have no idea of how bad thing are going to be when this airport opens

Okay, as someone who works in Transport and has engineering experience, I have to call you out on a couple of things you said. 1. The Airport Metro isn’t just a different voltage, it’s also wider than than the other two. That means it isn’t compatible with either. This would mean an interchange would have to be built instead of just joining them together. 2. The T2 Leppington line is already configured to run on the T8 Airport Line, as the do run the occasional service from Leppington via the Airport during the week and during track work on weekends. 3. Converting the T2 Leppington Line to metro will actually cause more problems than it solves. The T2 Leppington line also carries the T5 services to Parramatta and Blacktown. Switching this would reduce T8 services to the Airport when the plan is to increase the number after the Bankstown line is shut down for the metro, which would free up the space for an increase in T8 services, either from Campbelltown or Leppington. The T5 and T2 services would suffer from the congestion this would cause, as there are few other locations to terminate services. 4. The regular suburban trains already have luggage racks. The former Interurban Tangara’s (G sets) have them and so do the OSCARS, which will be turned over to suburban running when the new intercity trains enter service (NIF’s). Installation of luggage racks on other sets would be relatively straightforward. As for possible solutions, these would be my suggestions, 1. The simplest quick solution is to complete the Metro Airport line to the same standard as the Metro West line and connect the two. This would connect Parramatta directly to the Airport, allow many new suburbs access to public transport as well as a link to the city directly, instead of changing to heavy rail on the most congested line in the Sydney Rail Network. 2. Extend the existing SWRL (Leppington) Line to the airport, having both metro and heavy rail parallel to each other, with the heavy rail line either looping back to Macarthur (which would allow trains to do a continuous loop instead of terminating at Leppington or Macarthur) and /or run it towards Penrith joining the line around Western Sydney University (this would give the university a rail station and duplication of the existing rail line to Penrith would reduce congestion at Penrith with suburban, intercity and freight rail traffic) 3. When the existing rolling stock for the Northwest and Bankstown metro is nearing the end of its life, change the voltage of the overhead to the same voltage as the other metro lines, standardised all rolling stock to the same standard and then connect the Airport metro line with the northwest via Schofields. I’m speaking to much logic, so this will never happen.

10:18 what the hell? The current existing double-deck trains that go to Kingsford Smith Airport do not have luggage storage facilities. And even during peak times going to both the international and domestic airports from Central are perfectly fine.

Completly agree with this (ive been thinking the same thing for a while now). Especially agree with a direct train link from city to kingsford smith to nancy bird walton. Im worried that Sydneys ability to build a well designed train network is being buggered up by the politics of metro vs traditional rail, and this may be a reason why the SWRL hasnt been extended yet.

Another great video! Time will tell, but I believe the new airport will be predominantly only used for freight, small and budget airlines. Until there is an adequate and fast rail service linking the city and other major centres major airlines (and passengers) will not use Western Sydney Airport.

Thanks for a nice video that analysed the options and issues well. To go slightly off the topic of Metros/HR/buses, etc, describing Western Sydney Airport's location as "nowhere" is a bit misleading. There are already plenty of people there in Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and THEIR health relative to the WSA noise and pollution will be important, ESPECIALLY as the airport is meant to be encouraging development of residential areas nearby. Having no curfew is NOT a good idea. The flight paths may need adjustment too. Ask someone from (say) Marrickville, what they would think of lifting curfews for KSA!

Maybe Sydney metro should get the option to be converted to double decker usage as it does also provide a useful link with 2 normal double decker lines so it only makes sense if regular trains can use it plus it would be more comfortable for passenger usage. Heck not to mention it could also open up extra western only regions. Such as a direct link between Macarthur and the Blue Mountains via western Sydney airport which when you think about it does make far more sense than just 1 silly little metro line.

As someone who's seen Glenfield go from a 3 platform terminus for the Bankstown line, when there wasn't a flyover for the T8, to what it is now; a rail link would be incredibly easier as you'd simply have T2/T5 continue to Macarthur on Platform 3 (up on 2) where they already stop at Glenfield, and have the T8 use the Leppington flyover for Aerotropolis/Terminal from platform 4 (1 on up) not to mention no confusion on calling it the airport line, as it serves both of them. A metro to Glenfield would require a complete redesign of the station and tracks and would honestly result in a complete shutdown of the station worse than Bankstown is copping currently, which would cripple dare I say the entire train network. PS I also like the idea of connecting places like Narellen and Mt Annan to metro/rail, it'd help people get to Macarthur/Campbelltown

Hey Sharath, Do you think the trackless tram system being introduced in WA, would work well for Penrith to Campbelltown via Western Airport and Oran Park? I feel I will pushing up daisies before these extreamly slow NSW Governments actually build the rail or metro. Would love to see you do a video on places it could work. Great Video again. Cheers Mate.

thats because the block of land behind the terminus at Leppington only just got sold about 2 years ago. (I knew the owner) back before the land price boom, it was expensive, today it's a bargain considering the price you would get for the corridor for the rail line.

The thing is...How much will it cost to travel by Train? Its a rip-off already on the Airport Line they have now. Will we be paying the same prices or hopefully way cheaper than what we have to pay now.

My input: Change the line to be compatible with the rest of the Metro Lines then create a line from Tallawong to Glenfield via Schofields, Marsden Park, Melonba (being developed), Shanes Park (potential development), Ropes Crossing, St Marys, Orchard Hills, Luddenham, Airport Business Park, Airport Terminal then Aerotropolis. Following this, an extension of the South West Rail Link would be needed too. The South West Rail Link Extension would run from Glenfield to Airport Business Park alongside the metro line from Aerotropolis to Airport Business Park. (The mixed part would look like the Chatswood Platforms.) The extended South West Rail Link part would act as the T8 and this would improve circumferential route options. After that, the Inner West + Cumberland Lines would run to Macarthur with a possible duplication of the line from Glenfield to Macarthur to deal with train traffic. A branch of the metro line could be built to Macarthur allowing transfers via Bringelly, Oran Park, Camden, (possibly Camden Park) and Macarthur. Cost outweighs benefits to be honest. If they were willing to build the airport, they should have the budget for rapid transit.

With the capability of the new airport to expand terminals and add a 2nd run way, and with the rail line not connecting both airports directly..... what is the likelihood the state government will sell off Kingsford Smith ???

The current plans as shown shows what a complete mess we have at the moment. The north west Metro if extended to St Mary's cannot be extended to the new airport as the overhead line voltage is different. It is also possible presently to run the heavy rail from Leppington to Sydney Airport via Glenfield connection to the east hills line built years ago, as this was part of the new outer western Sydney rail network plan from the 1980's. It seems ludicrous to build a Metro from St Mary's to the new airport & make it not compatible with existing Metro equipment, or is there some sinister plan afoot to extend it to Leppington then use this concept to slowly convert all the existing heavy rail corridor to a Metro through out Sydney over the next twenty to thirty years, as the former government had already started with the Chatswood to Epping & Bankstown line, two former Liberal ministers for Transport were hell bent on it, from what I use to see on the nighty news over the last ten years as part of their so called PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP (PRIVATISATION)

Good listen. Sensible and informative.

They should have built a loop-type Metro like many citys around the world have. But like most construction in Australia between the Unions and government regulations things are just far too slow to build and far too expensive to build.

mannn these videos just get better and better

It should just be called the Bradfield Line.

Great to see u 2 working together…

my issue with Western Sydney airport metro is that it would of been fine as a BRT line between Campbelltown to Schofields via Airport and St Marys, there is not that many people along the corridor. an extension from SWRL to the airport would of been the most prudent rail access plan, if you actually people believe people will transfer to St Marys to access the wider network over buses than its just as plausible people will do the same with Glenfield and Liverpool except this plan is shorter and the supportive infrastructure for rail like power, stabling and maintenance already exists. Even then the next priority that demands a dedicated rail link is Airport to Parramatta via Wetherill Park and Bonnyrigg (western metro extension). This corridor has far more catchment that already has the T-Way corridors that could lower the cost of land acquisition, also has empty land to develop, industrial land that could be developed, and has existing developed community centres like Bonnyrigg shops and Wetherill Park shops that could be infilled. Its going to be years before there is enough transit oriented population on the northwest and Western Sydney to justify a rail service in the area, a BRT link to Sydney trains is fine for the next 30 years. If there is going to be a north south rail corridor in Western Sydney via the airport, it should be part of a bigger 2nd Hawkesbury crossing that will allow Melbourne-Brisbane freight rail and Central Tablelands freight rail to bypass the choked areas of the Sydney suburban network like Parramatta, Granville, Homebush, and North Strathfield, as the Inland Rail Project is not expected to finish on time or at all.

There is a bigger population to the north of the airport site, this is where most of the patronage for the airport is going to come from initially. I suggest a SWRL extension will occur when the T5 is converted to Metro, creating a metro line from Bradfield to Parramatta then onto either Epping or somewhere else on the NW metro line. The airport metro line, being shorter trains, should be set to operate between Schofields and Macarthur Extending the WSA metro to Glenfield is a bad idea, it temps them never to extend the line south to Macarthur. Also the business case for WSA metro to go to glenfield is to utilise new platforms next to glenfield station which would be an awful transfer. Better to convert the T5 and run it to Bradfield. There you could transfer to the WSA line.

Should have asked you this in your Q+A, but do you think that International and Domestic stations will have to be renamed?

There really needs to be a Parramatta next stop Airport connection for folk in the city, east and northern beaches. KL has a fast train from the airport direct to Sentral

It sure would have made the most sense but I suspect the metro will find it's way to Liverpool eventually from the airport.

There are some Bus Routes that go to Western Sydney Airport which is the 789 that runs from Penrith to Western Sydney Airport Between the Airport And Luddenham Public School.

I reckon the new airport will be more freight focused as well.

Why did they change the power standard of the new metro?

I Proposed 4 BRT Routes . 501X from Central to Western Sydney Airport Via Parrramatta on Parramatta Road, 880X from Campbelltown to Western Sydney Airport, 789X from Penrith to Western Sydney Airport, and 920X from Bankstown to Western Sydney Airport Via Liverpool and the M12 Motorway. If the BRT Not being Built. The A9, M7 Westlink, and M12 will get Congested Everyday.

I still don't get why they chose to go with 25kV considering the other metro lines and the entire electrified NSW rail network is 1500V. Yeah, 25kV is the better and more ubiquitous system, but it's introducing an incompatibility unless the metro stock is dual voltage. Regarding the rail links, I think there should be both a NSW state rail link _and_ a metro line. Multiple connections and multiple options to get there from different places.

Great Video! but I do think there should be more criticism of WSA and WSA Metro- considering that all of these transport options are not exactly very good; and the cost/benefit of the project seems way too low to be feasible in the medium term. The infrastructure spend is very important but it needs to show results and seems more like that governments of the past in NSW are more interested in vanity projects to these ‘blank canvas areas’ than actual investment into underdeveloped areas closer to sydney itself. Imagine how far $6bn could go in upgrading links to Bonnyrigg/Wetherill Park. All in all, the WSA and WSAM will show its success in the years to come, whether this was another suburban sprawl cop out or becoming that ‘second city’ people will want to live in.

I live In the upper Blue Mountains so the new rail line from St Mary's will certainly be convenient for people out west. I lived in Liverpool for many years therefore I believe the rail line ought to be extended from Leppington to the new airport. It just makes sense.

Being central coast based im looking forward to using the train to travel to a 24hr airport, express to epping then change onto metro

Idk y im now checking the channel every week to see if theres content

My opinion that macquarie ahould be sydneys second cbd, it has 2 metro stations 1 for the business area and 1 for the shopping and transit area, get buses anywhere close to epping also

The Problem is that at Saint Marys Station (Interchange). The Metro from Tallawong to Saint Marys Via Schofields will have Problems as The Metro Platforms at Saint Marys Is not North to South but east to West. So the Tracks might not fit. The Second Problem is the Conversion to Glenfield, Yes altough Leppington, Edmondson Park, And Glenfield have Striaght Platforms. At Leppington, It has 4 Platforms instead of 2. So whats the point of Leppington Station having 4 Platforms instead of 2 if Metro Converts the Southwest Rail Link to Glenfield.

There is a solution to that over the Southwest rail link get more D sets because they have the necessary luggage racks. Option 2 combined D and H sets run to the Nancy bird Walton Airport via the existing Kingsford Smith Airport due to Both trains having luggage racks. 11:40 that can be solved by ordering a new batch of Sydney Metro Alstom Metropolis Dual voltage 25kv 50hz 1.5kv DC

They need to join the dots to create an outer ring metro line and give it a catchy name like the “Sydney Superloop”. If only the same driverless trains could be used they could run continuously in both directions around the loop.

The heavy rail is logical and the land has been allocated. Labor friends said that they would build it, but nothing has happened since they got in. The Metro is also about selling the airspace above all their stations

So how do I get to the new Western Sydney airport from Sydney's Northshore by rail with a large suitcase,an oversized snowboard bag, a backpack and cabin wheelie bag without having to take a bus a train and another train and possibly another train ? So if you don't live north west or west of Sydney forget trying to get to the new airport? Sounds worse then Victoria's Tallamarine and Avalon Airport situation. I mean who goes to Avalon airport unless you are going to The Mornington Peninsula? No plans for a rail line between the 2 airports (hardly getting a rail line to Tallamarine aiport) only the skybus shuttle buses?! Buslinks ? From where?

“Future Transport Strategy 2056” page 115 shows a rail connection between Parramatta and Epping via Carlingford, a gestation period of 66 years. How is it that new Metro projects can be commenced all over Sydney almost overnight and yet this short project languishes? The conversion of the Sydney train system to Metro technology is happening with a speed, not seen in any other area of government administration, least of all providing public housing.

The NSW government is so clueless building an airport in the middle of no where then a rail to link to a random station people probably won't want to travel to and from. Extending the Leppington line or having a direct link to Parramatta would have been much better options in my opinion.. I feel like this all being built for people in the extreme outskirts of the city and for people who don't even exist yet for places that have not been developed. Honestly, I would not be surprised if the whole project goes way over budget now and the capacity ends up being like 10-20 of the existing airport..

The main problem is that West Airport is deadborn project. Melbourne tried the same with Avalon... failed, of course, Airservice even removed 24h tower service from there recently. So traffic to/from airport itself will be zero, at least for foreseeable future, and even after - who will travel to airport by trains, with changes, long waiting time and first of all coming to station with all bags? So station use will be worse than in Leppington, huge station between cow pastures and garbage dumps. 2nd - main lines are already overloaded (mostly near the city, but it affects other ends too, its impossible to increase traffic in Campbeltown without changes near City), so So the single resonable use of trains there is just local transit. All these hamsters nests like Oran Pk to StMarys where commerce and industry based, north-south. Exactly as long plan shows - Campbeltown-OranPk-Airport-StMarys-Schofield. And even in this case it takes many years to fill capacity, when all these nests and wheels for hamsters will be built along the line. Possible Leppington-Airport link is fine, of course, but will not do anything useful for 30 years at all. In fact first that should be done with Sydney Rail is to completely change the very idea, scrap 100 years old approach from steam era and adopt Sbahn technology. Central tunnel in Munich serves a train every 2 minutes for 50 years (and it allows 20 min intervals on periferal lines), 30 per hour each direction, and what we have here, with similar trains? oops.

Needs to link the 2 airports, use planes. Very quick and both have landing areas

living in the uk currently, it is confusing that most australian airports have a singular rail connection, i live near gatwick airport and the train station connected to it honestly acts like it's own hub station connecting to other parts of the country like brighton to london, kinda like another victoria or kings cross station but for south england, i say this because why only have 1 metro line connecting the airport? i feel the modern moving away from cars shows the value in not just doing the metro link but also having the leppington extension as well, instead of just waiting for demand to reach a point where they "might do it" as if you understand induced demand you know that the more rail links you add, the more people will actually utilise them similer to adding "one more line" to a motorway but waaay more efficient (but seriously adding one more lane will work this time i swear i swear it will, it'll work this time, just flatten the entire sydney cbd and make it a motorway i swear it'll work)

for driving its in a great spot, being a 24hr Airport and having access to less congested roads if you have to travel hours south (the northern road) or north (putty rd) it will be very easy rather then spending another day navigating through the city on public transport

With any luck, the None More West airport business park will have a construction workers' cafe that will be so much cheaper than anything in the terminal - Gateway Gardens in Frankfurt (Main) is the template \m/

5 billion dollars extra and a circuitous route to ensure the trains are driverless

maybe they could build it north to a new set of platforms at Tullawong, east along the Leppington line to Glenfield and South to Macarthur nd base it off the Jurong Region line in Singapore.

I Agree with all of this Sharath. But it doesn't go right but the Low Frequency Train Lines Like the T5 Cumberland Line That Runs Every 30 Minutes. But T2 Runs every 15 Minutes. The T5 Is My Most Hated Line in Sydney. My Favourite Line is the T1 Line Because it goes to Parramatta And It is the Most Frequent East Of Blacktown.

There is only one reason they want to have metro line. That is making it private so they don’t need to deal with unions. So linking the heavy rail is highly unlikely. This still doesn’t solve the issue of Richmond to Penrith where traffic is becoming a lot worse. 1 or 2 bus a day.

I think the fact it’s being built will attract developers there. And with Sydney’s growing population it’s only a matter of time

Most of your points in this video are fantastic except for the configuring of the T8 line to go from Glenfield to the new airport. Where does that leave trains going from Glenfield to Campbelltown/Macarthur? This area (including Camden) is a booming area of Sydney

Most incoming tourists want to get to the Sydney CBD not St Mary’s!

They need to link it to Metro Northwest at Tallawong via scholfields and to metro southwest via the Leppington line & Liverpool. There, now you have a greater Sydney circular metro line.

All that green land in the space between stations....oh boy! can't wait for more Marsden Park like housing!

Why would you terminate two lines just 1 stop away from another (Tallawong) rather than just extend both Metro NW and WSA to Schofields and terminate them there? Half the trains on the Richmond line terminate at Schofields anyway and there is a tonne of space right now to build a big interchange station there.

Personally i think that linking the wsa at St Marys was pointless as with currebt transit times, commuters would be waiting dor up to an hour and a quarter to get to the Harbour CBD. Rather the government should have built the link to Blacktown which recieves more services, granted however that the metro to Tallawong would not link to WSA. I also think that extebding the Metro West from Westmead to WSA would provide connection from Parra. Connecting the north western metro to Schofields is a must irrespective of anything else. I also think that in the far future, it should be considered extending the Bankatown metro to the airport, with stops at, Bass Hill, Georges Hall/Bankstown Airport and Liverpool then either heading to Glenfield or Leppington. Linking WSA to other parts of Western Sydney via BRT or light rail should also be considered.

Extend the SWRL to Warragamba with an interchange stop at Aerotropolis. Stuff duplication and one seat rides. Get the network effect going.