Briefly:
The National Rail Safety Regulator said there are still safety checks to be completed for Sydney Metro.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the opening of the rail line was on track and the regulator was “only coming in at the bottom”.
What is expected next?
The major railway project is scheduled to start this Sunday.
Five days before the newest installment of Sydney’s subway line opens to the public, the national rail safety regulator says some critical safety checks have not yet been completed.
The long-awaited Chatswood to Sydenham line runs under Sydney Harbour, connecting north-west commuters directly to the CBD and is scheduled to open this Sunday.
NSW Premier Chris Minns insisted the opening was “on track” but admitted paperwork was not yet complete.
“It was going to be late in parts because it had to be,” Mr Minns said.
“The regulator only comes in at the end when the testing and all the applications are in place, but as of Monday morning we are on track.”
Metro has yet to be given approval by the safety regulator
Rehearsals and testing of the new line have been underway for several months, and the cordon around some of the new stations came down on Monday morning.
However, the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) said the metro has not yet been given approval.
“There are still some critical activities to be completed this week, such as emergency and evacuation drills with NSW Fire & Rescue, along with the provision of documentation to support the operational safety issue to enable the ONRSR to properly assess the application, ” a spokesperson. said in a statement.
“ONRSR will assess the application as soon as possible after all evidence has been received, noting that it requires sufficient time to undertake the analysis of the proposed operational security case.”
The regulator could not give an estimate of how long such applications would normally take to be approved.
Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said the evaluation part of his service was also “ongoing” and had no set timeline.
“It is a very complex and involved process, which is ultimately supervised by the national team [rail] safety regulator,” said Commissioner Fewtrell.
“We are going through a series of testing processes as part of the metro commissioning processes and are giving our feedback accordingly.
“This is a work in progress … we’re just continuing to work on it and get things done as quickly as possible.”
The ‘code red’ was lifted last week
Last week, the Fire Brigade Employees Union (FBEU) lifted a “code red” it had in place, banning members from taking part in any “familiarisation and training exercises”.[s]” regarding the Sydney Metro.
“FBEU has been working with FRNSW on four robust cross-agency exercises to be carried out on the metro lines,” said secretary of state Leighton Drury.
“Code Red has been lifted to allow these exercises to be undertaken.”
State Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said that while “safety always comes first”, any potential delay in the Metro rollout would be a “mess”.
“Sydney Metro would never have happened if it hadn’t been planned, designed and funded by the Liberals and Nationals,” Mr Speakman said.
“We were a government that delivered transformative infrastructure across NSW, there is nothing transformative in Chris Minns’ pipeline other than cutting the ribbons on our projects.”
The Chatswood to Sydenham tube line will be trialled by commuters on Monday and is expected to cut journey times for thousands of people.
The journey between Martin Place and Waterloo should take six minutes, Sydenham to Macquarie University should take 33 minutes, Central to Chatswood should take 15 minutes and Victoria Cross to North Sydney to Barangaroo is estimated to take three minutes.