Type Rapid transit Services 1 | Status Under construction | |
 | ||
System Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore) Termini Woodlands North
Sungei Bedok Stations 31 (under construction) | ||
The Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) will be the sixth Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and the fourth fully automated and driverless system line in Singapore. The line was announced on 15 August 2014 by the Land Transport Authority as the merger of the Thomson Line (TSL) and the Eastern Region Line (ERL). The line is fully underground. The stretch from Woodlands North to Gardens by the Bay costs S$18 billion. The line will open in five stages from 2019 onwards, and interchanges with all existing lines. When the line fully opens, it is expected to serve about 500,000 commuters daily in the initial years, rising to one million commuters daily in the long term.
Contents
- Thomson stretch
- East Coast stretch
- Merger
- Opening in Stages
- Stage 1 2019
- Stage 2 2020
- Stage 3 2021
- Stage 4 2023
- Stage 5 2024
- Rolling stock
- Train Control
- References
The line, which is 43 km (27 mi) long and consists of 31 stations, will run through the north-south corridor, starting in the north at Woodlands town, then passing through the towns of Ang Mo Kio and Bishan, after that heading south to the residential estates of Thomson and Stevens, the shopping districts of Orchard Road and Marina Bay, then running eastwards along the east coast through Kallang, Marine Parade and Bedok South, before ending at Upper East Coast. Its depots are located at Mandai, south of Woodlands, and near the south-eastern terminus of the line at Tanah Merah. If built, the planned Singapore-Johor Bahru Rapid Transit System is also likely to offer interchange to the line's Woodlands North terminus.
Thomson stretch
The Thomson Line was first announced on 25 January 2008. Several architectural and engineering consultancy packages were released in 2010 which indicated an increase in the number of stations from 18 in the initial announcement to the current 22 and length of the line from 27 km to 30 km.
On 16 June 2011, the Land Transport Authority announced the location of the depot for the line, due to begin construction at the end of 2012. It also announced Woodlands as an interchange with the existing North South Line and an additional station located near to Republic Polytechnic. In addition, the northern terminus will also house the Johor Bahru RTS link.
On 29 August 2012, it was announced the Thomson Line will be ready from 2019 onwards instead of the indicative timeline of 2018 announced in the Land Transport Masterplan.
Construction of the Thomson Line began in January 2014.
On 27 June 2014, the groundbreaking ceremony took place at Woodlands. All the working station names were confirmed as the final names except for Sin Ming station which was changed to Bright Hill.
East Coast stretch
The line was first officially announced on 18 October 2001. In its preliminary plans, Eastern Region Line was to have been a 40 kilometre rectangular loop that would complement the existing East West Line and enhance inter- and intra-town travelling in the eastern region. It would have looped around the Jalan Besar and East Coast areas, intersecting the Circle Line and other lines along the way, benefiting residents in Tampines, Bedok, Marine Parade, MacPherson and Kaki Bukit. However, the northern part of the loop such as Jalan Besar, Tampines, MacPherson and Kaki Bukit is now part of the Stage 3 Downtown Line. The ERL is now planned to closely follow the southern stretch of the originally announced plan.
On 11 July 2012, a speech by Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Transport, at Downtown Line 3 (DTL3) Tunelling Works Ceremony, announced that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) are starting architectural and engineering consultancy studies for the Eastern Region Line, which will eventually connect to the Thomson Line.
On 29 May 2013, Land Transport Authority director of rail services, Melvyn Thong said at the Modern Railways conference, there are plans to extend ERL and link to the future Singapore Changi Airport's Terminal 4 which is set to be ready by 2017 but on 1 June 2013, LTA clarified that ERL will not provide an MRT link to the planned Terminal 4, but instead, on 30 August 2013, Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo unveiled plans that it will be linked to the future planned Singapore Changi Airport's Terminal 5, a mega terminal, which will be the largest terminal in Singapore upon completion around the mid 2020s.
Merger
On 15 August 2014, it was announced that the Eastern Region Line will be merged with the Thomson Line to form the Thomson-East Coast Line, extending the project to 5 stages, with 9 more stations. This is more than the number of stations originally planned on the line.
On 21 July 2016, the groundbreaking ceremony for the East Coast stretch took place at Marine Parade. All the working station names, including Xilin on the Downtown Line extension, were confirmed as the final names except for Amber station which was changed to Tanjong Katong. The authorities are also considering extending the TEL to all terminals at Changi Airport, including the upcoming Terminals 4 and 5, announced Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan.
On 20 January 2017, it was announced that studies are ongoing for the possibility of extending the TEL from Sungei Bedok to serve the future Changi Airport Terminal 5, further extending it to call at the existing Changi Airport MRT station and transiting the CGL to merge with the TEL from 2025, after the TEL is complete. This way, commuters in the future can enjoy a seamless ride on the TEL from the city centre to any of the terminals in Changi Airport without having to change lines.
Opening in Stages
The Thomson-East Coast Line will be opening in 5 Stages: Stage 1 in 2019, Stage 2 in 2020, Stage 3 in 2021, Stage 4 in 2023 and Stage 5 in 2024.
Stage 1 (2019)
Stage 1 consists of Woodlands North, Woodlands and Woodlands South. This phase will benefit passengers living in the Woodlands area, by enhancing accessibility and connectivity to the Central Business District and Downtown area.
Stage 2 (2020)
Stage 2 consists of Springleaf, Lentor, Mayflower, Bright Hill, Upper Thomson and Caldecott. Passengers living west of Ang Mo Kio will be able to experience savings in travel time when commuting. Caldecott will become an interchange station when it opens in 2020 and will connect commuters to the orbital Circle Line, offering inter-suburban connectivity.
Stage 3 (2021)
Stage 3 includes the next thirteen stations from Mount Pleasant to Gardens by the Bay. It will interchange with the North South Line at Orchard and Marina Bay stations, East West Line and North East Line at Outram Park station, Circle Line at Marina Bay station and Downtown Line at Stevens station.
Stage 4 (2023)
Stage 4 will include seven new stations plying along the east coast from Tanjong Rhu to Bayshore.
Stage 5 (2024)
Stage 5 will be the last phase of the Thomson-East Coast Line, consisting of Bedok South and Sungei Bedok, with a depot at Tanah Merah. The world's first four-in-one train and bus depot will also be built with the TEL. It will house buses and trains for the TEL, East West Line and Downtown Line. The 36ha depot at Changi can house about 220 trains and 550 buses and integrating the depot for both buses and trains will help to save close to 60 football fields of land space.
Rolling stock
The Thomson-East Coast Line's rolling stock will be a four-car system instead of the previous three-car system to enable additional capacity to cope with any increase in long-term demand.
On 28 May 2014, the LTA announced that it has awarded the Contract T251 (Kawasaki Heavy Industries & CSR Sifang T251), worth S$749 million to Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd/CSR Qingdao Sifang Co. Ltd/Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Consortium, for the design, manufacturing and delivering the new four-car trains. The new fully automated and driverless trains will be the first batch to be equipped with five doors per side per carriage, to facilitate fast and smooth boarding and alighting.
Train Control
The Thomson-East Coast Line is equipped with Alstom Urbalis 400 Communications-based train control (CBTC) moving block signalling system with Automatic train control (ATC) under Automatic train operation (ATO) GoA 4 (UTO). The subsystems consist of Automatic train protection (ATP) to govern train speed, Iconis Automatic Train Supervision (ATS) to track and schedule trains and Smartlock Computer-based interlocking (CBI) system that prevents incorrect signal and track points to be set.
Alstom will also be supplying Platform Screen Doors for the Thomson-East Coast Line.