One of the two new Circle Line trains undergoing testing at the Singapore Rail Test Centre on Nov 2. - ST
SINGAPORE: The construction of a high-speed MRT train test track at a facility in Tuas – the first of its kind in South-east Asia – has been completed.
The 3km track will open the way for trains to be tested at speeds of up to 100kmh as part of the first phase of the Singapore Rail Test Centre (SRTC).
Already, two new trains that will ply the upcoming Stage 6 of the Circle Line (CCL) are being put through their paces there ahead of their deployment in 2026, the Land Transport Authority said on Thursday (Nov 2).
Stage 6 of the CCL will close the loop for the line, connecting the HarbourFront and Marina Bay stations.
The SRTC, formerly known as the Integrated Train Testing Centre, is on track to be completed in 2025. Civil construction work on the centre is now about 85 per cent done.
Originally set for completion in 2024, the $640m project was delayed by a year owing to the pandemic.
The second phase of construction involves the building of two other test tracks as well as an operations control centre, an administration building, and maintenance and refurbishment workshops. The other test tracks are a 3km looped endurance track with an uphill gradient, and a 2.8km performance and integration track.
When fully operational, the facility will allow Singapore to carry out rail testing under conditions mirroring those of its MRT lines, Acting Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said at an event on Thursday to mark the completion of the facility’s first phase.
This comes as Singapore enters a time of “unprecedented network expansion till the early 2030s”, with works on the Thomson-East Coast, Jurong Region and Cross Island MRT lines, and the expansion and renewal of existing lines, he said.
The integration of new systems and testing are also becoming more complex, and it would not be feasible to rely on overseas testing centres.
Chee added: “An ageing network requires more maintenance, and that is where SRTC comes in.”
The SRTC will allow round-the-clock testing as it is far from residential areas.
It sits on a 50ha site that once housed Raffles Country Club. The land was acquired in 2018 for the now-terminated high-speed rail project between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Chee noted that Singapore has had to rely on overseas centres to test new rail assets such as trains and signalling systems.
For instance, the second fleet of trains for the North-South and East-West lines was tested in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, in the early 1990s.
But these overseas centres cannot fully replicate local conditions, and thus, more tests are still needed when the equipment arrives in Singapore, he said. Similarly, existing systems that are being upgraded must be tested locally too.
Tests on MRT tracks can be done only between 1am and 4am, when trains are not in service.
Passengers have to bear with the inconvenience of early closures and late openings of MRT stations if there are not enough engineering hours to get the job done.
Said Chee: “Time used for testing (on the tracks at night) is time that we could have used to maintain and service our tracks and other rail systems.”
With the SRTC, more engineering hours can be freed for maintenance.
Chee said the centre would serve all MRT lines here. This is unlike most overseas testing facilities, which private train manufacturers operate for their own equipment.
The hope is that the SRTC will also help deepen the capabilities of Singapore rail workers, and test new technologies and systems, he added.
The facility also has the potential to become a regional testing centre serving the expanding rail systems in neighbouring countries, he said.
Announced in 2019, the centre was moulded after similar testing centres in countries such as Germany, South Korea and Japan.
South Korean company GS Engineering clinched a $639.5 million contract in 2020 to design and build the centre, with civil work starting in 2021. - The Straits Times/ANN
