Sydney Metro update: Stage 1 receives first shipment of autonomous trains

French train manufacturer Alstom has delivered the first of 22 autonomous six-carriage trains to Sydney’s Metro Northwest project, Stage 1 of the wider Sydney Metro which is Australia’s largest ever public transport initiative.

Sydney is the first city in Australia to implement a fully-automated metro system, which will begin operating in early 2019.

Costing $8.3bn, Sydney Metro Northwest will provide a train every four minutes in the peak in each direction. Services will extend into the city in 2024 and will have an ultimate capacity of a metro train every two minutes in each direction under the city.

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Mark Coxon, Managing Director for Alstom in Australia and New Zealand, said: “We are extremely proud to be able to deliver another first for Sydney with our latest and most innovative automated metro technology.

“This train and associated technologies will transform Sydney and provide a step change in the city’s public transport capability and reliability.”

Once complete, Sydney Metro will deliver 31 new stations and 66km of track.

It plans to operate at a capacity of 40,000 customers per hour, a big increase on the current capacity of Sydney’s suburban transit system, which is around 24,000 per hour.