Residents of Sydney’s West, your commute is about to get a whole lot easier. After closing its gates back in October 2024, Bankstown Station is almost ready to re-open—this time, as a super-speedy metro line. The Bankstown to Sydenham train line conversion was initially estimated to take just over twelve months, with the opening date slated for late 2025. After what Transport for NSW described as a “complex and difficult project” (with industrial action impacting the timeline), it was confirmed that the Sydenham to Bankstown metro extension won’t be open until 2026. Now, we’ve got good news – with the NSW Government today announcing that Bankstown Metro Station (which will become the first major metro-train interchange in South West Sydney) has entered “the final straight to completion.”
According to the NSW Government, work on Bankstown Station is now 80 per cent complete – with new metro platforms lined by 36 safety screen doors installed, and the station on track (pardon the pun) to open in 2026. The work has involved rebuilding the 115-year-old former train station to create an interchange connecting the metro and train networks, with installation of a huge paved concourse and 170 metres of metro platforms. Work on the 90-metre plaza (complete with shops and cafés) that will provide a pedestrian connection between the north and south sides of Bankstown is due to begin soon. Once operational, metro services will run from Bankstown every four minutes at peak times, connecting Sydneysiders to the CBD in less than 30 minutes.
Though times have been tough for commuters in Sydney’s West and Inner West over the past few months (literally nobody likes a rail replacement bus, even if they’re free), the metro will be a major improvement on the previous train services. Previously, peak times saw only eight trains per hour, but once the metro line opens, 15 metro services will run every hour during peak times. The journey into the city will also become a whole lot quicker, zipping passengers from Bankstown to Central in 28 minutes (saving six minutes), from Bankstown to Gadigal in 30 minutes (saving 15 minutes), and from Bankstown to Chatswood in 43 minutes (saving 25 minutes).
While the station is 80 per cent complete, there’s still a lot of work to be done, with a whole lot of testing still to be completed along the line.
You can learn more and keep up to date on the project here.
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