The south-west metro extension will open on Friday 30 October, more than two years after the former T3 heavy rail line closed

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A long-awaited extension to Sydney’s metro line will open next week, bringing an end to more than two years of replacement buses for residents in the city’s south-west.

In a video shared on Instagram on Thursday morning, the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, announced that the south-west metro extension would open on Friday 30 October. In a statement, the government said the first service would commence at 4.31am.

Bill to authorise production expansion at Mount Pleasant coalmine, subject to a landmark high court decision, criticised as ‘legislative overreach’

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The Minns government says it will introduce special legislation to allow a mine in the New South Wales Hunter Valley that was the subject of high court proceedings to increase its coal production by 32% per year.

The premier, Chris Minns, said the bill would authorise MACH Energy to increase the annual coal output at its Mount Pleasant coalmine by 4m tonnes to 16.5MT per year until 2032. He claimed it was necessary to save 400 jobs at the site before Christmas.