Four new MRT stations for Tuas West extension

Four new MRT stations for Tuas West extension
By Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid | Posted: 11 January 2011 1819 hrs

SINGAPORE: Four new MRT stations will be built in Tuas in the next five years, offering greater convenience to commuters.

They are part of the S$3.5b Tuas West Extension project first announced under the Land Transport Masterplan in 2008.

Transport Minister Raymond Lim, who visited the Bedok MRT station on Tuesday, also revealed that the Circle Line will be fully open by the fourth quarter of this year.

The Tuas West Extension will be 7.5km long and it will begin after Joo Koon Station. The four new stations are at Tuas along Tuas Road; Tuas Crescent along Pioneer Road; Tuas West near Tuas Avenue 12 and Tuas Link located just outside Raffles Marina Country Club.

Mr Lim said: "When completed, it will improve accessibility and connectivity for people who work in the Jurong and Tuas industrial areas. The Tuas West Extension will help commuters save more than half their current travelling time when they commute to these areas.

"For instance, it takes about 35 minutes to travel by bus from Boon Lay Bus Interchange to Tuas West today. This will take only 15 minutes via MRT when the line is opened."

The project will also see a first in Singapore - the construction of a road viaduct along Pioneer Road that is integrated with the rail extension.

The 4-kilometre long and 3-lane viaduct will run along Pioneer Road to join Tuas South Avenue 3 with a 2.4-kilometre stretch of the road integrated within the rail viaduct. It aims to reduce congestion in the surrounding Tuas West area.

LTA's group director for engineering, Paul Fok, said: "There is going to be a lot of development in the Tuas West industrial area, so there is a need to increase the road capacity going towards the west. This viaduct is actually unique because we are stacking the rail viaduct on top of the road viaduct. That means we are saving quite a lot of land."

But some 49 plots and nine properties will have to make way for the project. The areas affected are along the Pan Island Expressway, Joo Koon Circle, Tuas Road, Pioneer Road, Tuas West Road, Tuas South Avenue 3 and Tuas West Drive.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) had previous planned for the Tuas West Extension to have only three stations. But after studies were concluded, it decided to include an additional station so that more commuters will be directly served by the MRT system.

The LTA will also be building another much larger MRT depot to cater to more trains that will ply the North-South and East-West lines. Spanning some 26 hectares, the depot will be able to house some 60 trains.

Thirteen more trains will be added for the extension.

There's also good news about the Circle Line. The last stretch of 12 stations from Marymount to HarbourFront - which includes Holland Village and Caldecott stations - will open this year.

Sixteen more trains will also be added to meet an increase in ridership. This will increase the total fleet of Circle Line trains by 40%.

The trains are scheduled to arrive around 2015.

On the safety aspect, LTA says that to date it has completed the installation of half-height platform screen doors on 11 elevated MRT stations.

Two stations - Bedok and Paya Lebar - began operations of the screen doors on Tuesday morning.

LTA says it is on track to complete the installation of the screen doors on the East-West Line by the third quarter of the year and for the North-South Line, by 2012.

- CNA/ir

- wong chee tat :)