COVER STORY
THOMSON EAST COAST LINE STAGE 2 ALMOST COMPLETE The 43 km Thomson-East Coast Line will open in five stages star ng from this year to becoming completely opera onal in 2024.
TEL2
TEL2 comprises six sta ons from Springleaf to Caldeco , with two interchange sta ons at Bright Hill and Caldeco . The 43 km Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) is Singapore’s sixth MRT line, adding 32 new sta ons to the exis ng rail network, with eight interchange sta ons in total.
The second stage of the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL2) is about 90% complete, and on track to open in the later part of 2020. TEL2 comprises six sta ons from Springleaf to Caldeco , with two interchange sta ons at Bright Hill and Caldeco . Bright Hill sta on will link to the future Cross Island Line, while Caldeco sta on will link to the existing Circle Line (CCL). The 43 km Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) is Singapore’s sixth MRT line, adding 32 new sta ons to the exis ng rail network, with eight interchange sta ons in total. The line will open in five stages star ng from this year to 2024. The first stage of TEL (TEL1), made up of Woodlands North, Woodlands, and Woodlands South MRT sta ons, will begin passenger service on 31 January 2020. About 100,000 households will benefit from TEL1 and
TEL2, as they will be within a 10-minute walk from one of the nine sta ons. These residents will be able to experience travel me savings of up to 50%. For example, a Sin Ming resident travelling to Republic Polytechnic will have the journey me halved, from 50 minutes to 25 minutes. When fully opera onal in 2024 (except for Founders’ Memorial Sta on which will open in tandem with the memorial), the TEL is expected to serve approximately 500,000 commuters daily in the ini al years, rising to about 1,000,000 commuters in the longer term. Besides enhancing connec vity between the northern, central, and eastern parts of Singapore, the TEL will strengthen the resilience of the rail network by providing alterna ve travel routes for commuters on other lines. As the TEL runs parallel to the North-South Line (NSL), it will also help to reduce reliance and crowding on the NSL. THE SINGAPORE ENGINEER January 2020
11
