While most of the city is sleeping, something big is moving below. At 40 meters underwater, a new train has traveled under Sydney Harbor for the first time.
The single-deck metro train departed from Tallawong in the city’s north-west at 2am on Friday, passing through Chatswood and North Sydney before heading into the famous waterway. It continues to make stops throughout the CBD: Barangaroo, Martin Place, Pitt Street, Central.
First train adds luster to $20.5 billion Metro City and Southwest Linean extension of the Northwest Metro, was being tested by transit officials and engineers until about 7 a.m.
It’s a historic marker in the decades-long journey of citywide subway service, taking place nearly 100 years after the first locomotive train passed the harbor on the bridge.
When the project nears completion, there will be more than 100 kilometers of new metro lines by 2030 – funded by the privatization of electricity services over the past decade.
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At a staggering $63 billion, Sydney’s nascent metro network is one of the world’s largest suburban rail projects, rivaling the €35 billion ($55 billion) expansion of Paris’ rapid transit system.
It is the largest rail line to be built beneath central Sydney since the Circle Metro was built in the 1950s.
