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Yes, possibly.

Thanks Marina, glad you enjoyed it.

I think there might be space for one or two outlets, but I'm not quite sure.

@@TransportVlog There used to be a great kebab place on the ground floor. And a couple of okay boozers.

I'm not sure! They are pretty long though.

Thanks for these figures Ethan

You're very welcome Rick. Glad you enjoyed it, and always good to hear from European viewers

The official line continues to be "the middle of this year", with an exact date to be announced about 6 weeks before. There are rumours of it opening in July, but these are only rumours!

My understanding is that it comes from the large number of red brick buildings in this area, and that may well include the old post office too.

Yes sad to see the Hunter food court go. Yes that sounded like a fun job!

Yes they will. Probably via a pedestrian bridge that will go over the road. Plans are still at an early stage, but the idea is to make this interchange as good as possible, bearing in mind the different levels.

Thanks Ethan, well done on remember the opening date of the ESL. Yes it would be nice to have a few more subscribers!

Thanks! Hope you enjoyed the metro open day.

Hi Peter, 29 metres is the depth of the box, the platforms will probably be around 25 metres deep. The tunnels have to go below the foundations of existing buildings, and that's why its quite deep in Parramatta CBD. There is always a balance to be had between what is possible in terms of construction and getting the quickest and shortest interchange. Westmead will be the recommended interchange between Trains and Metro, so the main interchanges in Parramatta will be with light rail and buses. There are definitely cafes retail and plaza areas incorporated into the design.

No-one ever seems to acknowledge or comment on just how far it is to walk from Railway Square to the suburban platforms at Central Station ! It would seem like no distance at all, but the reality is another story, especially when you are exhausted !

@@murraykitson1436 I get that the walk will be long if the station is big, but gnash my teeth when the walk is just stupid design. Green Square and Bondi Junction are classic "How Not To..." What is wrong with Central is the Southern Concourse is only accessible from the far Eastern end and the Centre Concourse does not cross under the Country platforms. You can spend 10-15 min just getting out of Central or switching to another platform. The worst of the suburban platforms are the deep Airport line, hard to find, hard to get in and out, hard to make sense of.

Hi Peter, That would be a great question to ask. I'm fairly confident it goes below, but I'll try and find out.

Yes it certainly is, and it's really improved the look and feel of Redfern Station. The Redfern area has improved alot in recent years too, especially on the west side.

The original Metro proposal involved the demolition of a number of commercial and residential buildings. Macquarie's Proposal involved the demolition of an additional office block, and I think this office block was owned by Macquarie, so no homes were affected by their proposal.

They don't appear when watching on TVs and certain other devices, but they are always listed in the description. Scroll to the bottom and you'll see them under the Chapters heading.

I tend to call them Awnings on the old heritage buildings and Canopies on the new ones. Sydney Metro also call them Canopies.

I usually call them Awnings on the older heritage buildings and Canopies on the new ones. Also Sydney Metro refer to them as Canopies in their documentation.

@@TransportVlog Ok, thanks for reply. Gpd bless

Yes it should do Ethan, by giving people a faster alternative to driving.

Yes absolutely! Good long term planning for sure!

You're very welcome. Yes me too!

I had a quick look on the map, and serving Lane Cove would have required a significant de-tour and some reasonably sharp curves, especially after Lane Cove, to get back to the alignment for Crows Nest. I do agree that Lane Cove would benefit immensely from a metro or train station though.

@@TransportVlog fair enough, thanks for the answer! Probably difficult to see Lane Cove ever getting rail now

Hi Nicolas, Yes, I'd thought about that too. They may be plans to widen the tunnel, but these are not in the public domain, so we'll have to see what happens. It's a question I will ask when I next see Dan or one of this colleagues.

Yes I'd love to see a station there, especially as a box is being excavated anyway for emergency egress and tunnel ventilation.

No date on the light rail (at least officially). Assuming testing goes smoothly, around late August has been mentioned in the media. Not sure if that is an educated guess, or if someone knows something.

Yes I've heard late August too, but I can't remember who I heard that from - probably the media too.

Thanks Peter, glad you enjoyed it! Dan did most of the work on this one!

Apparently incompatible also. Wider trains on airport link

Hi Paul, Yes the Airport Metro is also 25KV AC. When you look at metros around the world, you'll find that trains are dedicated to a particular line. That's normal practice. I think future metro's will also be 25KV, unless they involve the conversion of existing train lines, but even then, the voltage could be upgraded to 25 KV AC on any lines that are converted.

Hi Peter, it's to allow testing to take place on the new section and also for software upgrades. Getting the existing NW line to integrate seamlessly with the new section to Sydenham is one of the more tricky parts of the project. When it opens, the late evening service will be restored, along with weekends (maybe the occasional shutdown), but nothing like the last few months.

@TransportVlog yes understand with the newline, but it has been happening after covid . It is not that great later in the evening. Maybe you can ask who ever, I have tried with no luck .

Great to hear that this video bought back some memories, and thanks for sharing them! I bet lunch cost much less back then!

Yep! - It's probably also a hygiene thing too, as the hard hats are shared.

I think Metro NW came in under budget, so it does happen sometimes!

Yes, the artefacts and history is fascinating! Glad you enjoyed this video.

They basically work out how many trains are required for a 4 minute headway, and then add some spares for maintenance. The train order for Sydney Metro West hasn't happened yet, so it may be slightly more or less than 20 trains.

@@TransportVlog thanks very much!

This is quite a recent thing. Basically, written into the contracts for Sydney Metro West (and Airport metro) is a requirement to have regular open days. It's a great idea and a win win for everyone. I'm sure Cross River Rail will have open days when the stations are almost complete (similar to what we've been having on the City & Southwest section). Also, in case you didn't know, the new Exhibition Station will be open for the Ekka show in August.

And I'll be in my 60s!

Thanks Jim, and thanks again for all your footage. Yes I was surprised that Crows Nest got so many visitors, but being on the 5th anniversary of the opening of the Metro NW line might have had something to do with that! Now I wonder if they'll do Gadigal Station before it all opens!

Cheers Paul. Yes indeed. I was recognised at my usual Cafe by someone who watches your videos. The cafe owner mentioned it. Lol

That's one of the things that happens when you improve public transport!

Glad you enjoyed it Rick

at the site of the Cherrybrook station there was a house got renovated as a childcare centre, fully completed and probably functioning, only to be demolished completely for the station box. Hope the owner was compensated well for the ordeal. I got to talk to a senior engineer on the project from the beginning, he often says they are about 6 months ahead of the schedule. The wonders of private enterprise. I also know a lady who works in the airport metro project now, over the years she was working on the Barangaroo site among others.

Hi @hermangouw, I actually started taking photos of the Metro NW stations back in 2018, and also in 2019, and yes I wish I'd started Transport Vlog then. I was on one of the first trains on opening day, and got off at Cherrybrook to go bush walking! Yes, its going to be so exciting to see metro NW connected to the CBD.

Hi @Woodland26, thanks for sharing what was there before! Great to hear that you've chatted with some of the engineers.

Hi Rob, glad you enjoyed it. He He! No Dinosaur bones yet! Yes Westmead station will also be underground.

Interesting to note that from the city via Metro, Westmead is after Parramatta, where it is before Parramatta with Sydney trains.

There is absolutely no advantage of commonality between the lines. The lines rolling stock will never run on another line so waste of time and money to do so. The lines are completely separate and are designed based on the need. For example Northwest and City and Southwest uses 1500v DC voltage because it's converted from Sydney Trains back when it was electrified almost a century ago it was the best they can do. The modern standard is 25kv AC and has many advantages e.g. the higher voltage means you don't need to build as many substations. Sydney metro WSA have wider bodies for luggage and is 3-4 car sets which is more than enough capacity (and the business case days so) for a long time. You would never join them together anyway. The last thing you would want is like Sydney trains when the entire network and all the lines go down because of a malfunction at a single station.

Agreed - also puzzled - perhaps some missing info. I also wonder about the inability to provide express services from, for example, Tallawong to the city. Imagine if every train commuter in Penrith could only catch an all-stations train into the city. As the area around Marsden Park and Schofields develops further, and the demand on the Metro grows, there will need to be a parallel express track introduced. 🤷‍♂

@@TomHommus But what about the extra costs? 3 different systems (including signaling) mean 3 different management organisations for the lines. 3 organisations with all the usual levels of top of management, middle management, engineering, support services, etc. 3 inventories of differing spare parts, 3 different skill and experience sets to up-keep in your human resources. Keep in mind this will be critical infrastructure, requiring extra redundancy, and those 'support' services will be expensive - i.e. defending against cyber threats, etc. Those management and maintenance increased overheads will add up to billions over the years. Billions that may not have to have been spent. Also the loss of future flexibility and expansion options. If you wanted a single station to be the terminus of 2 incompatible lines, that is will make that station much more expensive. Just thoughts. I hope the planners carefully looked at and costed all the options. It would be nice for those planning decisions to be more transparent and public.

@@FlightEagle what extra costs? Sydney metro has way lower opex costs than trains. Sydney trains has multiple train sets, they have multiple depots and multiple parts they need to maintain. Drivers for example have to be qualified for specific sets if I'm not mistaken. So it's no different to trains. It's just under one banner. NSW government owns everything anyway throughout the entire public transport network (Airport line stations excluded) it's just contracted out to specific companies to maintain. For example if you were to have a compatible network then the new lines would have to be 1500v DC which means more substations and maintenance for no reason as the sets will only run on their respective lines. Are we going to use the wide body siemens trains for the entire network? Or maintain 8 car sets for the WSA when the business case says it's not needed (especially when it will be quaded in the future) to maintain compatibility that we will never use? We're not the only ones doing it. Look at Victoria their suburban rail loop will be standard gauge (vs broad gauge) and will be 25kv AC similar to us.

@@rickneill6924 why would you need an express service? It's 20 mins to Parramatta for all the stops which is faster than the current 25-27 mins "express" train stopping only at Redfern and Strathfield. Express trains causes lopsided development because noone wants to live in a smaller station. All stations means everyone gets the next metro that comes along. At 20 mins it's already an express service.