Sydney Metro West Tunnelling Reaches New Record Depth

Sydney Metro West marks a new tunnelling milestone as TBMs Jessie and Ruby pass the deepest section under Darling Harbour and move closer to Hunter Street station.

This is reported by the railway transport news portal Railway Supply.

Sydney Metro West Tunnelling Beneath the Harbour

Jessie and Ruby began tunnelling for Sydney Metro West from The Bays in 2024, as reported by Railway-News. They now make a second dive beneath Darling Harbour, passing the deepest point of their journey around 35 metres below water. Their 250 metre long tunnels extend from the Australian Maritime Museum on the western shore toward King Street Wharf on the east.

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From Darling Harbour, the machines will continue under Sydney’s busiest streets, including York, George and Pitt streets, toward the CBD. Along this inner city stretch, they will pass closely underneath Wynyard Station as they advance toward the cavern at Hunter Street, a key stage that has also been highlighted by Railway Supply. They have under 700 metres of tunnel left before they reach the future Hunter Street station in the heart of Sydney’s CBD.

Sydney Metro West Progress Toward Completion

Jessie and Ruby have together excavated around 286,692 tonnes of earth so far as they advance toward their breakthrough at Hunter Street. There are still roughly 7,000 precast tunnel segments to install before the tunnelling drive finishes and the machines reach Hunter Street. Each tunnel boring machine moves at around 90 metres per week and operates continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Their design slows progress in wetter ground and geology, but they remain on track to reach Hunter Street by year end.

Tunnelling for Sydney Metro West began in 2023 and has now reached about 97 percent completion along the project’s 24 kilometre alignment, which the official Sydney Metro West project overview also describes. The line aims to connect Westmead to the Sydney CBD, so the project focuses on strengthening travel between those two urban centres. As tunnelling nears completion, stakeholders can shift attention from construction milestones toward the broader outcomes this new corridor is expected to deliver.

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