The first passenger survey from the newly-opened Sydney Metro North West line has shown more than nine in every ten passengers are satisfied with the service.
Transport for NSW’s May 2019 passenger survey, released on August 30, shows 95 per cent of surveyed Metro passengers were happy with the new, driverless metro line, which entered service on May 26.
That compared favourably to the overall train network, which scored 89 per cent satisfaction, up from 86 per cent in the survey taken six months earlier.
Light rail satisfaction was reported at 91 per cent, down just one percentage point from the prior tally.
Sydneysiders are happiest with their ferries, however, with 98 per cent satisfaction recorded for the third consecutive survey.
Transport minister Andrew Constance said he was “delighted” with the positive response to the new Metro, which has already handled more than 5.6 million trips.
“This is Australia’s first fully accessible railway so it is no surprise that customers are rating this service highly for its accessibility,” Constance noted. “They were also very happy with travel times, safety and security.”
Of the Sydney Trains improvement, he said customers were satisfied with how safe they felt on the train, and the ease of ticketing – but he said there was more work to be done.
“Improvements are already being delivered,” Constance said. “In the last 12 months we’ve commissioned 24 new Waratah trains, allowing us to retire the older, unreliable S-Sets. As a result the entire Sydney Trains fleet is now air conditioned.”
The customer satisfaction index surveyed more than 15,000 customers across public transport, point-to-point transport and amongst road users. The majority of the survey took place in May, with customers surveyed on the Metro in a two-week period in June.