Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced a ‘good progress’ on the multi-year programme to renew the North-South and East-West Lines’ (NSEWL) six core systems.
By now, LTA has completed sleeper replacement, third rail replacement and re-signalling and this year intend to finalise the renewal of the power supply system, the replacement of the track circuits and the replacement of the NSEWL’s 66 first-generation trains.
The renewal of the power system includes the replacement of 1,300km of power cables, 250km of fibre optic cables, 206 power transformers, 172 switchboards and equipment in 171 substations.
Works to replace the NSEWL’s track circuit system are also in progress. Currently, about a quarter of the works has been completed, with the stretch between the NSL’s Bukit Batok to Khatib stations fully replaced. The new track circuit system will be able to automatically detect broken rails that require repairs and speed up service recovery efforts following a track circuit fault. The replacement works are expected to be completed around 2022.
To renew the train fleet, Bombardier has commenced the manufacturing process of the new trains which will be delivered progressively from 2021.
The renewals that have been completed are already contributing to better rail reliability. From October 2018 to September 2019, the NSL’s MKBF increased to 1,434,000 train-km from 894,000 train-km in 2018. In the same period, the EWL’s reliability also rose to 1,045,000 train-km as compared to 408,000 train-km in 2018.
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