Crows Nest and Victoria Cross Metro stations will NOT open on August 4 as planned.

By ANNA USHER

Stand down, people! The much-anticipated opening of the $21.6 billion Sydney Metro this weekend has been shelved.

Thousands of lower north shore locals were expected to visit Crows Nest and North Sydney stations on Sunday until the National Rail Safety Regulator applied the brakes today.

The government will not nominate a new opening date until all approvals are received, which may take several weeks. However, all bus route changes designed to align with the new metro line will come into effect on Sunday as planned.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the Metro was “very close, but not quite there”.

Industrial action has been blamed for the eleventh-hour delay, Minister Haylen said, with four essential safety drills still required before the regulator could sign-off on the new line opening for passengers.

“It will be worth it when passengers can jump on board, but we will need a little longer to work through our processes,” she told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.

“We have worked through over 11,000 hours of testing between Chatswood and Sydney. More than 200 exercises have been completed for trial running of the Metro, our full fleet of 45 trains has been tested, our bus timetables and changes are ready, and our transport team is ready.

“But we do need a little more time for … the final tick of approval. I’ve always said that safety and reliability come first. And I’m not in the business of putting additional pressure on the national safety regulator.”

The Minister denied the delay was a backflip or embarrassing.

“All I’d say is this is disappointing … We appreciate that and lots of people were really excited to get on board this railway.”

The new metro line will take passengers from Central to the new Victoria Cross station in North Sydney in nine minutes, North Ryde to Martin Place in 18 minutes, and Waterloo to the Gadigal station beneath Pitt and Castlereagh streets in four minutes.

Driverless trains will run every four minutes in both directions on the line for three hours in the morning and four hours in the evening peaks, and initially every seven minutes in the inter-peak.

In both directions, the inter-peak frequency will eventually improve to every five minutes between 10 am and 3 pm.