Commuter Alexis Salerno is no stranger to waiting in snaking lines and crowds of hundreds that transport marshals shepherd onto pink train replacement buses. It’s been the norm for her for more than a year.

Now she faces the prospect of another year of pain after the Herald revealed on Monday that the final stage of the M1 metro line was set to open as late as September next year, two years after a section of track in the city’s south-west had been closed to complete the mega-project.

Premier Chris Minns refused to be drawn on the reasons for the year-long delay and whether the cost had blown out because the time to convert the line had doubled.

Salerno – an Earlwood resident who takes a bus to Canterbury, a replacement bus to Sydenham, then the metro to Victoria Cross station for w

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