Puneet Varma (Editor)

Kawasaki Heavy Industries and CSR Qingdao Sifang CT251

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In service
  
2019

Entered service
  
2019

Constructed
  
2015–2020

Manufacturer
  
Kawasaki Heavy Industries CSR Sifang

Built at
  
Qingdao, Shandong, China

Number under construction
  
364 vehicles (91 trainsets)

The train manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries & CSR Sifang under contract turnkey CT251 is the upcoming rolling stock to be used on the future TEL and RTS Link.

Contents

91 trainset of 4-cars were purchased by LTA and will be delivered from 2018 onwards. Train livery of the train is Khaki and brown stripes running around the train cars, similar to C951 trains (which uses teal and dark blues).

Tender

The tender for trains under the contract turnkey 251 was closed on 15 Nov 2013 with 6 bids. The Land Transport Authority has shortlisted all of them and the tender results was published on 28 May 2014.

Manufacturing process

Kawasaki will be responsible for the overall project management, design, manufacturing of bogies and procurement of major components. CSR Sifang will be in charge of manufacturing, final fitting and assembly of complete MRT trains and factory testing. Kawasaki (Singapore) will be responsible for the delivery of complete MRT trains to the depot, on-site testing and commissioning.

Features

The CT251 trains may include several features unique to this rolling stock.

Features include:

  • Tip-up seats which can be lifted up to create more standing space for commuters;
  • Different shaded reserved seats, which allows for clearer distinction between normal and reserved seats;
  • Perch seats which are located at the ends of each train car;
  • hand grips utilising joints instead of straps, providing commuters a steadier grip;

    • Train formation

    The configuration of a CT251 in revenue service is DM1-M-T-DM2

    Doubts about the consortium

    When the defects from the relatively new C151A trains constructed by same consortium made public on 5 July 2016, the discussion of this incident has turned into a political issue in Singapore after Gerald Giam from the Workers Party had made a Facebook post about why the same consortium are awarded the subsequent contracts (Specifically both C151C and CT251 trains were awarded to the same consortium again in 2015, while the C151B was also awarded to the same consortium in 2012 instead) after the Land Transport Authority and SMRT officially knew the C151A crack defects as early as 2013.

    The C151A trains that have surfaced issues, along with newer C151B and C151C trains are to be deployed in the East West Line and North South Line.

    References

    Kawasaki Heavy Industries & CSR Qingdao Sifang CT251 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA