Singapore still testing 20km automatic metro

International Railway Journal, May, 2003 by Mike Knutton

Singapore has been involved in world-class metro operation since its first line opened in the late 1980s. Now it has become the most innovative by building the North East Line, the longest and highest-capacity fully automatic heavy rail metro in the world.

THE North East Line (NEL), which is due to open at the end of this month or next month, forms part of a long-term strategy in the cramped island state of four million people to integrate transport and land use planning. Today, there are about 89km of metro lines and 8km of LRT lines. This will grow to a total of 170km by 2010 and more than 500km of radial and orbital lines by 2045.

The hi-tech line was originally planned to open in mid-December 2002 but three months before that date Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) decided that more testing was needed and moved the opening date to April 2003. What has been described as "a glitch in the signalling system" has now caused a further delay.

LTA had handed the line over to the operator, SBS Transit, in December but took back the signalling part for a few weeks because of the glitch. SBS Transit is seeking a contribution from the Singapore government for the extra costs the hold-up has incurred.

NEL serves the developing northeast area of the island, running 20km entirely underground from Harbour Front in the central business district in the south to the new town of Punggol. It has 16 stations with platform screen doors and connects in the northeast with two fully automatic, rubber-tyred LRT systems, one of which opened in January, serving residential areas adjacent to the metro.

SBS Transit, the island's biggest bus operator, has formed a rail division to operate and maintain NEL under a 30-year concession. It is SBS Transit's first venture into rail operation. It will have to generate sufficient revenue to cover direct costs, finance renewal of rolling stock and infrastructure, and make a profit.

LTA was formed in 1995 to improve public transport, integrate transport with other developments, expand the road network and maximise its capacity, and manage demand. Singapore has a road network of 3100km plus 150km of expressways, which are used by 700,000 vehicles, including 400,000 cars, 3300 buses, and 18,000 taxis.

The total number of daily trips is just short of 8 million of which 3 million are handled by buses, 1 million by the metro (MRT) and 900,000 by taxis. This means, says LTA's senior manager, planning, Mr Mohinder Singh, that 65% of all motorised journeys are by public transport. "We want to get this up to 75%," he told me in Singapore. Private transport demand is managed (restricted) through electronic road pricing in the central area and an auction system for the distribution of a finite number of permits for the right to drive called certificates of entitlement.

There has been massive economic growth in Singapore during the past two decades on the back of which the provision of an expanding transport infrastructure has been and remains crucial. Singapore currently operates the 32km north-south line, the 51km east-west line with the 6km Changi Airport extension, and the 8km Bukit Panjang LRT, which connects with the north-south line at Choa Chu Kang.

LTA received approval to start construction of NEL in early 1996. It chose an automatic system because it believed it would lead to operating savings, greater efficiency and reliability, and--because of the removal of the human element in control--safety. LTA had studied other automatic systems in cities such as Vancouver and Paris (Meteor) and says that the existing metro in Singapore, the MRT, may be converted to automatic operation at some time in the future.

LTA received a government grant of $S 3.76 billion ($US 2.12 billion)--$S 2.8 billion for civil works and $S 0.96 billion for E&M works-to build and equip NEL.

The main E&M contracts covering 25, six-car trains and signalling/ATC went to Aistom in conjunction with Singapore Technologies Electronics. Singaporeans are renowned for their low threshold of acceptance of bad service and Alstom engineers came to the conclusion that the best way to meet the challenge of carrying more people more often, in comfort, safety, and reliability, and with greater flexibility for the operator, was to offer a fully automatic system.

Availability and reliability targets are met by high levels of redundancy throughout the system from signalling to traction and air-conditioning.

NEL involved a dozen civil contracts including boring 11.5km of tunnel and 8.5km of cut-and-cover construction, 16 E&M contracts, seven consultancy contracts, one system-wide trackwork contract, and more than 50 minor contracts, some of which involved commissioning artists to provide appropriate works of art at stations.

Key elements of NEL are the trains and the signalling and control system. Leading edge technology to be found throughout the line includes:

* moving block ATC with fewer track circuits than traditional signalling

* computer-based interlocking