More New Trains for Singapore
September 30, 2014 in Electric Vehicles, EV News, Light Rail, Streetcar, Subway
Image courtesy of Singapore MRT
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and rail operator SMRT Corporation (SMRT) will be adding another 29 new trains to further boost the capacity of the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL) and to meet higher ridership demand. Together with the procurement of 41 trains earlier announced by LTA and SMRT in March 2013, these 29 new trains will bring the NSEWL fleet to 198, or a 40% increase from the current fleet[1], by 2019.
These new trains are expected to arrive progressively between 2016 and 2019. Apart from easing crowding along the more heavily-utilised stretches of the NSEWL, the bigger train fleet will also allow more trains to undergo critical maintenance works and older trains to be upgraded as part of the ongoing programme to upgrade the NSEWL’s signalling system.
The additional 70 trains in total will also meet the higher ridership needs of an expanded MRT network, when the Tuas West Extension on the East-West Line and the Canberra station on the North-South Line open.
[1] The current NSEWL fleet is 141 trains. 13 new trains arrived this year and the remaining 28 trains will arrive from 2016 to 2017.
About MRT and LRT
All aboard! With a network of 142 stations across the island and more to come, the MRT and LRT system is one of the most popular modes of transport in Singapore with a ridership of well over 2 million passengers a day. Projects like the fully opened Circle Line, the upcoming Downtown Line as well as the future Thomson and Eastern Region Lines will expand our coverage further.
Map courtesy of Land Transport Authority
Our target for 2030 – to double the rail network from 178km today to about 360km. By then, eight in 10 households will live within 10 minutes of a train station. Commuters can expect two new rail lines – the Cross Island Line (CRL) and the Jurong Region Line (JRL), as well as extensions to the Circle Line (CCL), North East Line (NEL) and the Downtown Line (DTL). We are also studying the possibility of adding a station on the North-South Line between Sembawang and Yishun. With 360km of rail network, Singapore will have a total rail length that is higher than major cities such as Tokyo or Hong Kong today, and comparable to New York City.
This article is an EV News Report repost, credit: Singapore Land Transport Authority.
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