Designing the Ideal End-to-End Metro Experience
Sydney Metro came to us with a clear ambition: to truly understand its future customers and design a door-to-door transport experience that would feel effortless, connected, and confidently reliable. While product development was already well underway, our role was to shift the focus, from infrastructure to a comprehensive customer experience strategy, ensuring the new Metro wouldn’t just function well, but feel intuitive and human.
We helped Sydney Metro see their future service through the eyes of everyday commuters, uncovering deep customer insights and surfacing the real barriers to ease, comfort, and trust across the full journey.
Australia’s Largest Public Transport Project Meets Customer-Centric Design
Sydney Metro is the country’s largest public transport project and the first fully automated metro rail system in Australia. With 8 new railway stations, 4,000 commuter parking spaces, and a network built to support Sydney’s growing population, it was clear the infrastructure was impressive. But infrastructure alone isn’t enough.
To make the system work for everyone—from hesitant new users to long-time public transport avoiders—Sydney Metro needed to understand what people really wanted from a modern transport experience and how to embed “easy” into every stage. That meant embracing a customer experience design mindset at scale.
Customer Experience at Metro Scale: Asking the Right Questions
Our work began by reframing the core challenge through an outside-in lens:
Who are the future customers of Sydney Metro?
What do they need to feel confident, comfortable and in control?
How can Sydney Metro deliver on that promise across every touchpoint?
By grounding the strategy in real customer insight, we helped Sydney Metro shift from assumptions to evidence—ensuring they could build not just a transport network, but a trusted mobility experience guided by smart CX strategy and design.
Massive Customer Research, Rich Insights
Over a 6-month period, we engaged 142,251 participants, reviewed over 131,500 customer complaints, and ran:
208 in-depth customer interviews
10,530 NPS surveys
13 key stakeholder interviews
From deep-dive JTBD workshops to seven-day travel diaries exploring emotional needs, we mapped what truly matters across the journey.
The insight was clear: the transport experience doesn’t start at the platform. It starts at home, during planning and continues long after arrival. That’s why we approached this not just as a rail project, but as an opportunity to build a customer service strategy that supports the whole journey.
Chief among these was the inescapable fact that the journey experience for Sydney Metro customers was part of a broader transport ecosystem that would need to be considered and incorporated as a fundamental part of the delivery of the ideal customer experience.
Redefining What ‘Easy’ Actually Means
Rather than assume what convenience looks like, we worked with customers to define it, stage by stage, moment by moment.
We built a 20-touchpoint customer journey map that visualised what great looks like, and turned it into a practical toolkit to guide design decisions, experience prioritisation, and service delivery across the Metro system.
This wasn’t hypothetical. It was grounded in what people said they needed to feel understood, in control, and confident in their commute.
From our research, we surfaced six core customer needs that shaped the entire strategy:
Understand Me – Know what I need and why
Give Me Confidence – Show me it’ll work, every time
Inform Me – Keep me updated, simply and clearly
Guide Me – Help me navigate problems with ease
Value Me – Respect my time and wellbeing
Connect Me – Make me feel part of something bigger
Each need was paired with service requirements, emotional outcomes, and delivery principles to ensure Metro’s CX strategy was holistic and actionable.
Building the Blueprint for a Truly Seamless Journey
We didn’t just help Sydney Metro identify pain points—we gave them the tools to design a seamless journey that reflects the realities of modern city life. From the moment someone considers leaving home to the moment they return, every interaction is considered.
By turning over 140,000 voices into a focused, human-centred customer experience strategy, we enabled Metro to deliver on its promise: a network that doesn’t just move people, but moves with them.
Outcomes
32% reduction in door-to-door commuter travel time
45% increase in projected customer satisfaction
A unified, 20-point Metro customer experience framework
A strategy to turn Metro into the default choice, not just a new option