The first passenger train on Sydney's new Southwest Metro will leave Bankstown Station early on Friday morning, ending more than two years of replacement buses along the corridor, according to ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The conversion of the 130-year-old heavy rail T3 Bankstown line covers ten stops between Marrickville and Bankstown, where automatic platform doors have been fitted and tracks and corridors upgraded. The project ran more than a year past its original forecast, the broadcaster reports.
Why it matters
For commuters, the opening means the pink-trimmed replacement buses that have shuttled them since 2024 are finally gone. For the small businesses lining the route, it is a test of whether customers come back after a construction period that many say pushed them to the brink.
ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that traders along the line are hoping for relief after two years of weak foot traffic, with some describing the reopening as a form of salvation.
A Marrickville vintage shop that nearly closed
Talia Gill, who owns the vintage store Casablanca near Marrickville station, has spent months deciding whether to shut the business for good. When the station closed in 2024, people heading to the area's well-known food strip were diverted through Sydenham, and passing trade on Illawarra Road fell sharply, according to ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Ms Gill told the broadcaster that her supporters offered to keep working without pay to keep the shop alive, but it became clear to her that this would not be enough. She described the situation as sad, noting how new the business was and how close she had become to the people around it.
The disruption was originally expected to last about 12 months. Instead, the timeline roughly doubled, which ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation attributes to a mix of industrial action and the difficulty of fitting modern metro systems into curved platforms built 130 years ago.
Ms Gill said she has kept Casablanca going for reasons that are not strictly financial, and that anyone applying ordinary business logic would have called the decision foolish. She is now hoping the station's reopening will rescue the venture.
Her neighbour Nora Lee, of Vanessa's Hair Design, has also felt the downturn. She told the broadcaster she is wishing, dreaming and eager to see what her customers look like on the first day of service.
Ms Gill said the opening brings mixed feelings, with excitement tempered by a degree of fear after such a long wait.
Whatever happens commercially in the months ahead, she said she values the closeness that grew among business owners on Illawarra Road during the closure. Traders began dropping in on one another to ask how things were going and whether trade had gone quiet, a bond she said would not have formed otherwise and would last.
Commuters count the minutes saved
Passengers in Sydney's inner and south-west suburbs have also welcomed the change. University student Afifa told ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation that she will miss the pink trim on the buses but not the delays, saying her trip to university currently takes about 70 minutes and should fall to roughly 24 minutes on the metro.
Transport Minister John Graham and the Member for Canterbury, Sophie Cotsis, thanked business owners and their staff for their patience, according to the broadcaster. The Member for Summer Hill, Jo Haylen, joined residents in bidding farewell to the replacement buses.
The NSW government said new and improved public spaces along the corridor were designed to create more welcoming links between stations. A shared path called MetroWay is also planned: a 13.8-kilometre route for walking, running and cycling that would run alongside the metro line. It is currently in the procurement stage, ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
What to watch: whether Friday's first services bring the surge in customers that Illawarra Road traders are counting on, and when work on the MetroWay path moves past procurement.