Factors Influencing Success/Failure: Sydney Metro Project Essay

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the Sydney Metro Project, a major infrastructure undertaking in Sydney, Australia. It begins with an introduction to the project, detailing its scope, components (Sydney Northwest Metro and Sydney Metro City and Southwest), and objectives. The essay then delves into the project's proposal, tracing its origins and the evolution of its plans, including budget considerations and scheduling. It explores the project's objectives, which include improving transport quality, providing automated services, and supporting urban development. The essay also examines the project's success and failures, highlighting both its achievements in reducing congestion and the challenges it faced, such as mechanical issues and delays. The analysis considers factors like budget allocation, project timelines, and the impact of various issues on commuters. The conclusion synthesizes these findings, offering an overall assessment of the project's trajectory and impact, emphasizing the importance of careful planning and execution in such large-scale infrastructure projects.

Running head: SYDNEY METRO PROJECT
Sydney Metro Project
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1SYDNEY METRO PROJECT
Sydney Metro Project
Introduction
The Sydney metro is one of the mass rapid transit fully automated metro railways of
Sydney, New South Wales in Australia. The total span of the metro line is 36 km or 22.4 miles,
consisting of 13 stations. It was opened for the public in the year 2019 itself. It is a single lined
metro which is controlled by the Sydney Metro Agency. The Sydney Metro Agency works under
the government of the New South Wales’ transport authority (Brockhoff, 2019). By 2024,
Sydney is planning to have thirty one metro station in and the 66 km of metro path. There are
two core components of the Sydney metro, they are Sydney Northwest Metro and Sydney Metro
City and Southwest (South, D.W.P.S., 2018).
Project description
Sydney Northwest Metro which was previously known as the North West Rail link was
an $ 8.3 billion project. This was open for the people in May 2019. A metro was at service within
an interval of four minutes during the busy hours. The second component that is the South west
Metro and the Sydney Metro City which is a new extension of the metro railway line from the
northwest metro at the Chatswood and continues till Bankstown through CBD (new Central
Business District). The railway runs under the Sydney harbour to meet the destination. The
construction commenced in the year of 2017 with tunnel boring machine in use for the first time
(Crommelin et. al., 2017). The Sydney metro city is currently under construction and is
expected to open by the end of 2024.
Several features can be seen in the Sydney metro. They are stated as follows:

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 Metro services at an interval of for minutes in the busy hours of the day
 Fully air-conditioned metro services with highly accessible stations including lifts and
escalators.
 Security enhanced with the advanced security cameras stationed at every metro railway
station
 Improved facilities for station interchange
 New entries for the station and upgraded concourses
 All the trains to stop at all local stations so that no one has to wait for the arrival of the
correct train to reach any particular station
 High frequency services- less time wastage
 Safe and efficient journey
 Fast services directly to places like Barangaroo, Martin Place, North of Sydney,
Macquarie Park and Chatswood.
 Interchangeable services for availing Sydenham Martin Place and Central.
Project proposal
The project of the Sydney Metro was first proposed by the mass rapid transit
railway networks present in Sydney, Australia. The plan of the Sydney Metro Project was
first proposed in 2008 which was known as ‘Metro Link’. Later that year the plan was
renamed and after an expenditure of half billion dollar on the plan programming, the
proposal was cancelled in the year of 2010. The chief engineer who was responsible for
planning the electrification in the railway system of Sydney, was highly inspired by the
New York City subway. He wanted to create City Underground and referred to his plans
as ‘rapid transit’. The first rapid transit was developed in the year of 1968 by Sydney

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Region Outline Plan. Many other cities like Toronto, Montreal, Lisbon, Sao Paulo, Hong
Kong, Santiago, Washington DC, and Seoul were also planning on developing standalone
metro railway services (Cunningham, and Strong, 2017).
The importance of the standalone metro railway services firstly occurred to the
authorities when they gave a thought to the matter that the suburban trains shared tracks with the
long distance railways. This constrained the reliability of the services. Implementation of the
double-deck railway carriage systems boosted up the capacity of the railway services
significantly. But this increased the time taken for dwelling. Thus the capacity benefits were no
longer felt. Introduction of the rapid transit would have increased the size of Sydney’s busiest
railway tracks (Jehan, Honan, and Prados-Valerio, 2016). Though the idea propose by the
Sydney Region Outline Plan predicted the increment in population in the near 20 years, but the
planned railway line was never built.
According to the transport act of 1988, an authority was set up which is known as the
Sydney Metro Authority which commenced a few operations in the year 2009 on 27th of January.
This was done under the chairmanship of Simone Lane who was former head of the Road and
Traffic Authority. “Preferred Metro Scheme” was developed by the authority which consisted of
three lines. The first line is Westmead-Rouse Hill; the second line is Malabar-Dee Why; and the
third line is Macquarie Park-Hurst Ville. Three of the lines are to be built following nine stages
and the expected completion time of the ninth phase is 2036. Though this proposal was cancelled
in the year 2010 as Premier Keneally abandoned the rapid transit concept so that a metro network
can be developed based on the existing heavy railway. Keneally proposed relief line in the CDB
known as the CDB Relief Line. That too was not implemented and Keneally lost office within a
year as no relief lines were built to reduce congestion.

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Budget consideration
An amount of $ 1.376 billion was sanctioned by the government of the New South Wales
in the year 2018. This was done to deliver a world class metro railway services to the Sydney
Metro along with the expansion of Sydney’s metro system into the Central Business District and
further to the Bankstown (Thorin, Och, and Rannard, 2017). The infrastructure and transport
minister of NSW, Mr. Andrew Constance supported this major investment in the field of the
Sydney metro project. Tunnel is being dug between the Chatswood and Sydenham. The contract
signed is expected to turn these tunnels into working railway stations. By 2024, Sydney is
expecting a 66km standalone Metro railway system which will be indeed a huge achievement.
A line wide contract of $ 1.376 billion is awarded to the System connect. This are jointly
ventured between UGL and CPB. The contract includes the following:
 In the twin metro tunnel of Chatswood to Sydenham, 31 km of railway track are
to laid;
 11 newly made substations has to be created such that the metro can be provided
with power supply from Chatswood to Bankstown along with 31 km overhead
equipment for power supply;
 Tunnel service cabling of high and low voltage is installed which is over 350 km.
 Establishing connections between the Sydney metro with the new tracks into the
city;
 Accommodation of 37 new metros for the Sydney Metro City and Southwest by
expanding the Sydney Metro railway facility at Rouse Hill.
 Sydney Metro railway facility for at Marrickville (south).

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 Emergency evacuation system, drainage, ventilation, monitoring equipment along
with high voltage and fit out of the tunnel ventilation has to be installed in the
new under-ground stations.
The budget range for the Sydney Metro City and the Southwest is set to $ 11.5 billion to
$ 12.5 billion. Though this may vary due to fine tuning and optimization of the system by
consulting as many as 14 big contracts.
Project scheduling
The timeline assigned for the project can be seen in the diagram below:
Fig 1: Indicative timeline (McPherson, 2019)
In the year 2015, awareness was raised regarding the need for the Sydney metro City and
Southwest. An industry engagement process along with the marketing process was structured
and commenced. Station Excavation works and tunnel boring process was focused for the

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marketing (Mottee, and Howitt, 2018). The outcome was, refinement of the delivery strategy of
the Sydney Metro City and southwest was achieved. Marketing was continued in the year 2016
with main focus lying on the Central Main Station Works (Dimitriou, et al., 2014). The project
was scheduled to begin in the year 2017 when the refinements were confirmed along with the
delivery packages for the Sydney Metro process. In May 2019, half of the planning which was
completed was opened for the public. The work is scheduled to be completed within the year
2024.
Duration:

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Fig 2: Sydney Metro City & Southwest Industry briefing - March 2017
The duration of the project is approximately from the year 2017 to the year 2024. For
creating an entire metro railway system across the country, there has to be adequate amount of
time provided to the system. The process of creating an underground tunneling system itself
takes a lot of mechanical work and time (Fraszczyk, and Mulley, 2017). The planning started as
early as 2015 and yet to be completed. The completion date is due to 2024.
Project objectives:
The Sydney Metro project has been developed so that the New South Wales and
Australia’s planning and policy goals can be met. They have also underpinned some of their
objectives for the future development of the metro railways (Gharehbaghi, and Sagoo, 2016).
The project objectives are stated below:
 Improvement of the quality of transport experienced by the customers.
 Delivering a completely automated driverless metro service.
 Providing a mode of conveyance which is not only satisfying for the customers as
well as long term sustainable (Saunsbury, Fernandes and Och, 2017).
 To enhance growth of the patronage of the public transport and mode share.
 To support the production in the Global Economic Corridor (ECC).
 To stimulate and serve the development of the urban areas.
 To improvise the flexibility of the network of transport.
 To improve the cost effectiveness and efficiency of the public transport which are
mostly availed by the people.

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 Implementation of achievable solution for the recognizing the risk in delivery,
impacts and the constraints of travelling in public transport.
Project Success or failure
It can be said that the Sydney metro is enhancing a Global City. A world class transport
system is expected within 2024 by the emergence of the Sydney Metro city and Southwest (Och,
Thorin, Pan, Kuras, Cox, and Bateman, 2017). It has been successful in reducing the congestion
but there are some issues that are yet to be resolved.
The metro service was disrupted for some mechanical issues that occurred in the system.
This let the commuters sitting idly for half an hour (Price, 2019). This happened in between the
Hill Show station, delaying the metro services for fifteen minutes. The commuters were not at all
satisfied by the happenings as they were taken to join the following metro after a wait of half an
hour. Claims arose of poor maintenance by the mechanical team (Locke, 2019). The first day
opening of the Northwest metro services was hindered by the delay in the door opening. There
are a whole lot of a mechanical issues that is needed to be fixated.
The main reason of constructing a cross city tunnel in Sydney was to bottle neck the
congestion in the city. This was all good until the roads become hazardous due to the
construction of the tunnel system. This also made the project a failure. The commuters were
unsatisfied with road conditions and the mechanical issues of the metro railways (McWilliam,
and Cutcliffe, 2018). More over difference in opinion of the governments delayed the project
which caused more issues in the system.

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With the passage of every day, there is an increment in population at an exponential rate.
The more delay in the operation to be completed causes more complication in this domain. Thus
the Sydney Metro Project was indeed a good way to start but is ultimately a failure (Spiteri,
2017).
Conclusion:
Hence, it can be said that the Sydney Metro Project was initially a huge success as it
provides the commuters with a lot of facilities. There is a plan setting up a completely automated
metro railway by the end of project, but with the arising issues in the metro railways, especially
in the mechanical sector is causing delay in services. Hence a train running fully in automation
technology without a driver can purge the commuter to a grave danger. Thus the authorities has
to be very careful while constructing these system.

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