The NSW government has announced the Sydney Northwest rail project is $500 million under budget, with track laying to be completed in the first half of 2019.
Over 105 kilometres of steel rail has been installed over 22 months, with 60,498 sleepers installed, 35,000 tonnes of ballast and 237,000 tonnes of concrete used in the track laying process. An average of 300m of track was laid underground a week. 
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said this is a huge step forward in delivering new metro rail to Sydney next year and will revolutionise how Sydney residents get around.
“The major contracts for Sydney Metro Northwest were awarded in 2013 and 2014 and the project budget was set at $8.3 billion,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“Project costs are constantly refined during the construction process and, through good management, we’ve been able to realise significant savings – which will be used to deliver the $20 billion-plus Sydney Metro expansion.”
NSW Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said Sydney’s new metro trains will be running up and down the new tracks every four minutes during peak times.
“From here, fast metro rail will be extended into the Sydney CBD and beyond to Bankstown in 2024 – all up, 31 metro stations,” said Mr Constance.
Sydney Metro Northwest services will start in the first half of 2019.
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- Final breakthrough on Sydney Metro Northwest