Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) awarded three contracts with a total value of USD 433 million to upgrade and renew the power supply and track circuit systems on the North-South and East-West mass transit lines (NSEWL).
Meiden Singapore was awarded two USD 378 million contracts to upgrade and renew the NSEWL power supply system.
The third USD 55 million contract was awarded to a consortium comprising Siemens Pte Ltd and ENGIE Services Singapore to replace the NSEWL track circuit system.
The design and on-site works will commence in 2018 and are targeted for completion by the early 2020s.
“We are deeply committed to improving the reliability of the NSEWL, our oldest and most heavily-utilised rail lines. We expect the new power supply and track circuit systems to significantly reduce the number of power and track circuit related faults,” Chua Chong Kheng, LTA’s Deputy Chief Executive for Infrastructure and Development said.
The NSEWL’s new power supply system will be equipped with features that significantly reduce the number of power-related faults. For example, the system will be able to automatically switch the power supply source during a power outage. The system is also equipped with a Voltage Limiting Device-Fault Identification System, which will isolate power faults to specific stretches and speed up service recovery.
The new system will allow for real-time monitoring and better fault prediction, detection and identification. Through the power Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, the engineers will be able to monitor the power supply system in real-time, identify potential faults and rectify them before they can occur.
LTA will also be increasing the capacity of the traction substations and intake power substations at Yasin, Bishan and Stamford. This will increase the NSEWL’s power capacity and allow us to safely support more trains running on the line. It will also improve the overall resilience of the power supply network.
Alongside the new Communications-Based Train Control signalling system, the new track circuit system can detect the location of trains on the line and facilitate speedier recovery from a signalling system failure. It can also detect the presence of broken rails that require repair, as well as use its built-in condition monitoring system to pre-emptively address possible track circuit failures before they occur.
In addition to the power supply and track circuit systems, LTA will also be awarding a tender to replace 66 first-generation NSEWL trains in the coming months.
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