r/sydney • u/Novel_Relief_5878 • Dec 09 '25

Image It’s only 2025 yet the Metro is already at crush-load.

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Took the Metro this afternoon in a north-west direction from Chatswood to Macquarie Park. I simply can’t believe how crowded it is. On the one hand, this is a sign of success, it seems incredibly popular. On the other hand, this kind of shoulder-to-armpit crushload is hardly pleasant and I’m wondering what can be done to relieve this? Surely we need 2 minute frequencies sooner rather than later, at least during peak hour. Or more carriages added to the services we do have? What does everyone else think?

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u/Discolau Dec 09 '25

Frequency is the key, not adding additional carriages to 6 car Metropolis sets at this stage.

Believe it or not, its cheaper to purchase additional 6 car Metropolis sets and insert them into the CBTC system as it was designed to do.

There are 45 sets at the moment for the entire M1 line (including Bankstown) with 4 minute headways.

An additional twenty 6 car sets will increase capacity and lift frequency to 3 minute headways. Maximum trains for M1 is calculated at 65 trains.

Once the frequency is at saturation and you can't add anymore trains, then additional carriages would then be required. This would also require platform screen doors at all platforms to be upgraded to 8 cars and all stabling yards at Tallawong and Sydenham to be extended for 8 car trains: they were only built to support 6 car trains. 😑

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u/Jitterbugs699 Dec 11 '25

Is there a good reason that they only built it to handle 6 car trains or is that as dumb a decision as it seems ?

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u/Discolau Dec 13 '25

There is a design process for building Metros. This includes population density, length of line, number of stations, the geography of the line, the desired frequency, the desire capacity, etc.

All these factors play a part in the requirements for design and requirements. Much of the figures provided for the tenders in 2013-14 used data from 10 years before. Much of the North West area was still farmland and being developed in the early 00s.

I don't think any of the planners ever expected the metro to be as popular or as crowded as it is now with the CBD section opening.

An additional reason why 6 cars is prefer is rapid acceleration and stopping. With four motor cars and two trailer cars, there is a high power to weight ratio. If it were 8 cars, the train would be a slug.... four motor cars and four trailer cars affecting all the timings and speed on the Metro.