Construction of the Sydney Metro

The Sydney Metro City & SouthWest project is ongoing with delivery split into two stages, city (opened in 2024) and southwest (due to open in 2026).

Rail Confidence’s Bill Pyke worked as a project engineer within MTR’s construction team on the Sydney Metro City and Southwest (SMCSW) project, a 15.5km metro rail line extending from Chatswood to Sydenham.

The project successfully delivered a ‘turn up and go’ service, with trains running every 4 minutes during peak hours. Bill supported the installation and pre-commissioning of network communication, radio, and signaling systems for the twin tunnels, two service buildings, and a train facility.

Overview

The role required constant integration and coordination of MTR’s works with the Sydney Metro civil, mechanical, and electrical tunnels and stations packages.

Bill managed the installation and pre-commissioning of critical communications and signalling equipment in a brownfield rail environment, linking the operational Northwest metro line with the new SMCSW project.

Throughout the project, he was responsible for coordinating and scoping multiple impact responses for client and project-driven engineering changes. This involved extensive stakeholder engagement through workshops, ensuring effective communication and collaboration across all parties to support the successful delivery of project milestones.

Bill was required to optioneer solutions for the replacement of damaged assets and provide potential solutions and impacts of an additional crossover on the mainline.

Specific competencies:

Project management and integration
Subcontractor and client management
Risk assessments
Optioneering signalling
Radio & communications systems architecture

What we did & how we did it:

Site readiness inspections – the team provided inspection reports for all scope areas in increasing increments as site access dates approached. These reports detailed any outstanding scope and items on the critical path to the TSOM package installation commencing.
Integration of installation and commissioning activities in the tunnels – with the Linewide contractor, this was critical to on-time delivery. Given the limited access through each end of an 15km tunnel, works had to be integrated from the order of vehicles entering the site, down to the order of cable installation to ensure later crossovers did not occur. This was managed via creation and implementation of an ‘integrated tunnel construction sequence’ for each tunnel section, detailed integrated programs and ongoing daily coordination meetings with subcontractors and the Linewide contractor.
Managing access – coordination for all contractors to critical project rooms during the commissioning period. We worked with key stakeholders to setup permit systems that enabled access for finalisation of works without interrupting key train testing activities.

The outcome

Systems Integration & Delivery – Successfully managed the installation and pre-commissioning of network communication, radio, and signalling systems across tunnels, service buildings, and train facilities.
Brownfield Rail Experience – Led critical works connecting the operational Northwest Metro with the new SMCSW line, ensuring seamless integration.
Change Management – Experience with the Change Control Board (CCB) processes of Metro Trains Sydney and Sydney Trains.
Stakeholder Coordination – Effectively engaged and collaborated with multiple stakeholders through workshops to resolve engineering challenges and deliver project milestones.