Sydney Metro West tunnels reach end of the line

This landmark breakthrough brings major tunnelling for the project that will link Westmead to the Sydney CBD with a fast, 22-minute metro ride, to 93 per cent completion.   

TBM Betty has spent 24-months, working around-the-clock, to construct a tunnel from Sydney Olympic Park, via the future Parramatta metro station. During its dig, the machine chewed through 790,000 tonnes of earth - enough to fill 130 Olympic swimming pools – and installed 30,000 concrete segments along the way to line the new tunnel walls.  

Fittingly named after Olympic sprint champion Betty Cuthbert, TBM Betty is the first to finish its tunnel at both ends of the line. There is now just 3.5-kilometres of tunnel left to build to bring a marathon 30-month tunnelling program by six TBMs across the finish line.  

The remaining sections of tunnel are being worked on by three TBMs:  TBM Dorothy is 1059 metres from its final breakthrough at Westmead, where it is due to arrive in the coming weeks. At the opposite end of the alignment, TBMs Ruby and Jessie are making their way under Sydney Harbour to reach the Hunter Street terminus in the Sydney CBD by the end of the year.   

New metro rail at Westmead will support the movement of millions of visitors and workers who travel to the busy Sydney destination each day to access its four major hospitals, five world-leading medical research institutes and two university campuses. 

The new metro station will be withing walking distance of the health and education facilities and integrate seamlessly with existing nearby transport options including T1 and T5 line trains at nearby Westmead Station, Parramatta Light Rail, the T-way and local buses. Moving trips underground will also ease road congestion and clear the way for emergency vehicles.   

Sydney Metro West is targeting a 2032 opening and once operational will slash travel times, offering passengers fast metro trips from: 

• Westmead to Parramatta in 2 minutes 
• Westmead to Five Dock 14 minutes 
• Westmead to Pyrmont in 20 minutes 
• Westmead to Hunter Street in 22 minutes  

With Betty’s mission complete, crews will now dismantle the TBM before it is lifted out of the station box piece by piece over the next seven weeks.  A crew of up to 150 workers at a time have spent three years constructing the 500-metre underground structures at Westmead. 

Along with having the deepest station on the Metro West line, at up to 39 metres below ground, the Westmead site is made up of a crossover cavern for future trains to switch tracks if required, a station cavern and turnback tunnels to allow trains to turnaround to head back towards the Sydney CBD.  

Sydney Metro West will double rail capacity between Greater Parramatta and the Sydney CBD, delivering faster, more reliable journeys and supporting jobs, housing and new communities across Western Sydney.