How are Sydney’s ‘brand-new, shiny’ metro stations holding up? Not so well
June 11, 2025 — 5.00am
At Epping metro station, drips fall from the ceiling. Inside a cordoned-off area, a yellow cleaning bucket, two smaller buckets and a plastic storage crate are working overtime. Nearby, buckets deal with additional leaks.
If you’re wondering how Sydney’s 2024 metro stations could look in a few years, Epping offers a clue. The underground station opened in 2009 before being upgraded for the North West Metro line, reopening in May 2019. Six years later, it has seen better days. Its glass escalator panels are scratched and grimy, its once-white canopy grey and stained.
A commuter walks past buckets collecting dripping water at Epping metro station.Credit:Kate Geraghty
No wonder:
higher-than-expected numbers are switching from double-deck trains to metro services at Epping. Since the city extension opened in August 2024, the metro has become wildly popular – more than 80 per cent full on average between 8am and 9am – raising concerns about the 19,000 extra rush hour passengers between Bankstown and Central expected when the extension opens. Metro passengers have not escaped delays
that have hampered the rail network.
Many have praised the new stations’ dazzling fitouts – NSW Premier Chris Minns has commended the former Coalition government’s investment in “brand-new, shiny, underground rapid transit”.
Ten months down the line, the sheen has started to come off. The
Herald visited eight stations over two days, finding maintenance issues at almost every one. Work is also under way to install digital advertising screens, the latest visual clutter since
plastic signage took over a rejuvenated Central Station before the metro opening.
Beyond the cracked and gum-marked tiles, grime-smeared walls and a sea of yellow plastic temporary dividers, out-of-order bathrooms were especially common.
In Central Station, all six metro bathrooms have been out of order for several months. The platform lift was also recently under maintenance.
Opal gates were also frequently out of order, including at Barangaroo, Victoria Cross and Crows Nest. On the platform at Martin Place, the glass-reinforced concrete walls from
Macquarie Group’s $378 million fitout are stained from use by travellers. At Waterloo, the new station with the lowest average patronage, there were no noticeable maintenance issues.
Reporter
On the more modest older section of the line, delivered under budget in 2019, leaks were a problem, with buckets catching drips at stations between Chatswood and Epping on a wet Sydney Monday.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Sydney Metro said maintenance was “a crucial part of keeping the M1 Line safe and running”, but the operator was investigating if further rectification work was required for bathrooms.
A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said that since the new metro stations opened, Opal gate failures had not exceeded “expected average faults”.
Asked about the use of buckets, Sydney Metro said there was a remedial works program to fix leaks as they are identified at older stations on the Epping to Chatswood line.