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The space-age like Victoria Cross metro station in North Sydney.Credit:Rhett Wyman

By the time of the next New Year’s Eve celebrations,transport officials will be resting much easier. They will have a major new asset in their armoury.

The planned mid-year opening of a mega train line under Sydney Harbour and the CBD will reshape the way Sydneysiders traverse the city. If there is one thing trains excel in,it is moving large numbers of people quickly.

New inner-city stops on the$21.6 billion Metro City and Southwest line at Barangaroo,Martin Place,Gadigal station near Town Hall and Victoria Cross station at North Sydney will relieve pressure on the existing Sydney Trains network,helping to avoid potential crushes during large events.

The man steering the project,Hugh Lawson,said the mega rail line beneath the city was the “next level in terms of capacity to move people but also the speed of the journey and the ease of use”.

“Once it comes through the CBD,it really is a game changer,” he said.

A bank of escalators to the train platforms at Victoria Cross station in North Sydney.Credit:Rhett Wyman

It is a term too easily dished out but one that can be more fairly applied to a project that has been largely hidden from view,unlike the tortuousconstruction of a light rail line along one of Sydney’s main streets late last decade.

For commuters,a trip on the new metro line fromGadigal station near Town Hall to Chatswood will take 13 minutes. In comparison,a Sydney Trains double-decker service from Town Hall station to Chatswood is 23 minutes.

Yet,it is too early to pop the champagne corks. Critical testing of train and station systems needs to be completed over the next few months before the main section of the line under the harbour and CBD can be approved for opening to commuters.

“It’s like a marathon. You can see the stadium,but you know you still have to do a lap,” the project’s delivery director for trains,systems,operations and maintenance Melvyn Bolus said.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen,right,tours the new Waterloo metro station.Credit:Rhett Wyman

This is,after all,a driverless train line.

Undoubtedly,one of the greatest challenges awaits the Minns government completing the final stage of the project between Sydenham and Bankstown. Converting a century-old rail into one capable of carrying driverless trains has long been the project’s problem child.

And it is ayear-long closure of the Bankstown line through Sydney’s south-west from as early as July to enable the conversion that is creating headaches among senior transport officials as they work out how they can find enough drivers for replacement bus services amid a chronic labour shortage.

The disruption to commuters will be long and severe. The residents of Sydney’s south-west will pay the greatest price over the next year for a project that will be critical to moving a fast-growing city and convincing more to give up the car for the train.

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