2 young lives lost

[skyleon]

Train delay along NSL on Monday morning due to track improvement work

Published on 2018-02-19 by Martha Soezean


A train disruption occurred along the North South Line during peak hours this morning (19 Feb), this time with an official tweet posted by the Singapore Mass Rapid Transport (SMRT).

At 8:29am a tweet from SMRT announced a track improvement work, advising commuters to add 5 minutes train travel time from Ang Mo Kio to Raffles Place:

Leo Koh informed it took 20 minutes from Dholby Ghaut to Raffles Place, while asking the SMRT to announce the delay earlier next time:


A commuter informed that the trains stopped about 5 minutes at all stations between Yio Chu Kang to Jurong East:



continue reading here : https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/201...rovement-work/


So how come now state media never report ? How can we trust the state media ?

[skyleon]

Add 15 minutes to peak travel time if you're on NSL going towards Marina South Pier



Published 11 hours ago

Updated 9 hours ago



Melody Zaccheus

Heritage and Community Correspondent


SINGAPORE - To allow fresh concrete to "cure and reach full strength" as part of ongoing track improvement works, some trains will be running slower as temporary speed restrictions have been imposed on affected tracks on the North-South Line (NSL), said SMRT.

This resulted in delays and slower trains on Monday (Feb 19) morning which lasted over an hour and a half. On Twitter, SMRT had said track improvement work meant that commuters had to add 15 minutes of travelling time from Ang Mo Kio station to Raffles Place station on the NSL

In a statement on Monday evening, SMRT said that it has been carrying out track improvement works during non-operational hours in the NSL south-bound tunnel near Raffles Place MRT station.

These works near Raffles Place MRT station are slated to be completed by March 2018, and involve replacing parts of the existing concrete track bed that support the running rails.

On nights when fresh concrete is cast on the track bed, several hours are needed for the concrete to cure.

SMRT's vice-president for corporate communications Margaret Teo said: "As a result, some commuters travelling on the NSL towards Marina South Pier MRT station would have experienced slower moving trains over a 300-metre stretch between City Hall and Raffles Place MRT stations."

She added the speed restrictions can cause congestion during peak hours when trains, running at two-minute intervals towards the city, need to maintain a safe distance from one another.

"As such, some commuters may experience trains stopping between stations, or longer waiting times at station platforms," said Ms Teo.

SMRT will progressively lift these speed restrictions in the coming days.

In the meantime, Ms Teo said commuters should cater up to 15 minutes of additional travelling time on the NSL towards Marina South Pier station during peak hours.



continue reading here : http://www.straitstimes.com/singapor...s-marina-south


Such world class mrt transport system indeed and still charging commuters the full fare . I wonder if it is safe to travel on SMRT trains or not ?

[skyleon]

North-South trains to Marina South to run slower


Published 4 hours ago

Melody Zaccheus

Heritage and Community Correspondent

Fabian Koh





To allow fresh concrete to "cure and reach full strength" as part of ongoing track improvement works, some trains will be running slower than usual as temporary speed restrictions have been imposed on affected tracks on the North-South Line (NSL), said SMRT.

This resulted in slower trains and delays yesterday morning which lasted over 11/2 hours.

In a statement yesterday evening, SMRT said it has been carrying out track improvement works during non-operational hours in the NSL south-bound tunnel near Raffles Place MRT station.

These works are slated to be completed by next month, and involve replacing parts of the existing concrete track bed that support the running rails.

On nights when fresh concrete is cast on the track bed, several hours are needed for the concrete to cure.

SMRT's vice-president for corporate communications, Ms Margaret Teo, said: "As a result, some commuters travelling on the NSL towards Marina South Pier MRT station would have experienced slower-moving trains over a 300m stretch between City Hall and Raffles Place MRT stations."

She added that the speed restrictions can cause congestion during peak hours when trains, running at two-minute intervals towards the city, need to maintain a safe distance from one another.

"As such, some commuters may experience trains stopping between stations, or longer waiting times at station platforms," said Ms Teo.

SMRT will progressively lift these speed restrictions in the coming days.

Ms Teo said commuters should, in the meantime, cater up to 15 minutes of additional travelling time on the NSL towards Marina South Pier station during peak hours.

There was also a delay of four hours on the NSL last Wednesday morning for similar reasons and track maintenance works could not be completed before trains started operating.

Marketing strategy consultant Clement Law, 26, was travelling from Admiralty station to Newton station at about 8.30am to get to work when he got caught in the delay.


continue reading here : http://www.straitstimes.com/singapor...-to-run-slower

[skyleon]

Government force commuters to go cashless by March


February 19, 2018




Effecting next month in March, the Singapore government will be removing all cash top-up services at the passenger service centres of every train station. State media Straits Times describe the move similar to drug addiction, calling it “the first step by authorities to wean commuters off cash to pay for public transport.” Passengers who need to top up their EZlink cards with cash will have to use self-help ticketing machines, which is available only until 2020.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong first introduced the cashless initiative during last year’s National Day Rally, where he said he wants to emulate China on eliminating cash transactions. The Transport Ministry soon said that they will remove all cash transactions by 2020.

The casualties of the shortsighted government policy are the elderly, poor and students who usually do not have a bank account or a bank card. The move however will boost the profits of Singapore banks and neighbourhood supermarkets like NTUC, which are all Temasek Holdings-owned corporations. The PM’s wife, Ho Ching, is the CEO of Temasek Holdings, and desperately need additional income domestically to fill her overseas investment losses.

The Singapore government has also set up new coffeeshops which charges an extra 10% for local residents who insist on using cash. At KK Hospital, if one wishes to pay cash for medical services, they will have to walk over a hundred metres to a designated cashier for payment.


continue reading here : http://statestimesreview.com/2018/02...less-by-march/

[skyleon]

Singapore Budget 2018: Govt puts more money where its mouth is when it comes to buses and trains


Christopher Tan

Senior Transport Correspondent


Published
Feb 19, 2018, 7:29 pm SGT

UpdatedFeb 19, 2018, 9:19 pm


SINGAPORE - Transport expenditure for the financial year 2018 is expected to swell by more than 50 per cent to hit a record $13.7 billion - ranking just behind the $14.8 billion earmarked for defence.

Much of the spending will go towards rail projects such as the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail link and the MRT extension to Johor Baru.

Even if Singapore's ambition to almost double its MRT network to 360km by 2030 is expected to figure prominently in any Budget, it is still startling to see transport expenditure ranking above health and education, and trailing just a shade behind defence.

It is the first time transport has ranked so high and so near the top-line item.

As recently as FY2013, transport's expenditure was $6 billion - around half the individual amounts for defence and education, which ranked first and second respectively. And if you went a little farther back, say, FY2000, transport's share of the budget was not even among the top three.

At $13.7 billion, FY2018's transport spending had more than doubled in five years.



continue reading here : http://www.straitstimes.com/singapor...s-to-buses-and


With so much tax payer money being poured into the transport system why then is there still service disruption ?

[sionglim]

last time din pour money,now pour.
Lastime issue shares, pte company.

[SiaSuay]

With so much money being poured into the rail network under the new framework one would expect the services to improve dramatically but there are still lapses in service deliveries . So the question would be how the taxpayer money was used and who will benefit the most . Definitely not us the commuters .

[DrPussy]

Originally Posted by SiaSuay

With so much money being poured into the rail network under the new framework one would expect the services to improve dramatically but there are still lapses in service deliveries . So the question would be how the taxpayer money was used and who will benefit the most . Definitely not us the commuters .

bro return +10, thanks

[skyleon]

Service disruption along DTL due to train fault on Friday morning

Published on 2018-02-23 by Martha Soezean


This morning (23 Feb), service disruption occurred along the Downtown Line (DTL). The transport operator, SBS Transit said the cause was due to a train fault.

Commuters started to post tweets about the train delay before 8am; some of them still thought that the DTL is operated by the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT):

At 7:48am Mohammad Taufik informed that announcement was made at Bedok North DTL Station, trains have not moved for 10 minutes in both directions:

Yun said her train was delayed for more than 20 minutes and she was late for school:


continue reading here : https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/201...riday-morning/


I wonder why the state media did not report this incident . Even new line also got problem . There is something seriously wrong with Singapore's mrt network . So how Mr Khaw ?

[skyleon]

East Coast 4-in-1 bus and rail depot saved taxpayers $2 billion: Khaw Boon Wan


Published 1 hour ago


Zhaki Abdullah


SINGAPORE - The East Coast Integrated Depot, incorporating three MRT depots as well as one for buses, helped saved $2 billion in taxpayer dollars, said Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan on Friday (Feb 23).

In a Facebook post, he said the cost of construction of the depot is about $3.2 billion, 40 per cent less than what it would have cost had the four depots been built separately.

He also noted that building the depots separately would have used up an additional 44ha of land, twice the land size of Changi Airport's Terminal 4.

The depot, scheduled to be completed in 2024, will include depots for the East-West and Downtown MRT lines, as well as the upcoming Thomson-East Coast Line.

The train depot complex will comprise three levels, with the Downtown Line depot located underground, the Thomson-East Coast Line depot at ground level, and the depot for the East-West Line above that.

The three train depots have been designed to operate independently of one another, said a spokesman for the Land Transport Authority (LTA).



continue reading here : http://www.straitstimes.com/singapor...-khaw-boon-wan


Oops somebody open his mouth . Then why transportation still have the 2nd highest budget expenditure ?

[skyleon]

Minister Khaw Boon Wan issues fake news: Singaporeans saved S$2 billion!


February 23, 2018



After spending S$3.2 billion on a centralised railway depot, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan openly lied that he helped Singaporeans to save S$2 billion by choosing to integrate the four depots into one. The PAP Minister wrote on his Facebook page, plucking the S$2 billion figure from thin air:

“By 2024, this 4-in-1 integrated facility will house three rail depots (Thomson-East Coast Line, Downtown Line, East-West Line) and a bus depot. The construction will cost about $3.2 billion. But if we were to build the four depots as separate depots, we would have to incur an additional $2 billion! So this 4-in-1 solution saves taxpayers a huge sum of money. Besides cost savings, this design also frees up 44 hectares of land – the size of two Changi T4s! A truly excellent example of maximising land use through creative thinking.”

It appears either the Transport Minister’s poor grasp of English resulted in the fake news, or that the minister is deliberately misleading the country when this is an obvious case of “S$3.2 billion spent”, and not “S$2 billion saved”.

The centralised railway depot simply made up of 3 levels, each serving a dedicated train line – East-West, Thomson-East and Downtown Line. Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan however hailed the 3-storey infrastructure as “out-of-the-box creative solution”:

“In 2009, LTA rail engineer Adrian Teo and his project team were given the huge responsibility of building train depots for the Thomson-East Coast Line and Downtown Line. Their brief was to think of out-of the-box creative solutions that are future-proof, safe and also cost effective. And succeed they did! The #EastCoastIntegratedDepot was the team’s innovative answer to our growing infrastructure needs in land-scarce #Singapore.”


continue reading here : http://statestimesreview.com/2018/02...ed-s2-billion/

[skyleon]

$2b in cost savings’ with integrated rail, bus depot

Khaw says $3.2b complex in east, which pulls together four depots, also saves on land usage

February 24, 2018






By Zhaki Abdullah

The East Coast Integrated Depot, incorporating three MRT depots as well as one for buses, will save $2 billion in taxpayer money, said Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan.

In a Facebook post yesterday, he said the cost of construction of the depot is about $3.2 billion, 40 per cent less than what it would have cost had the four depots been built separately.

He also noted that building the depots separately would have used up an additional 44ha of land, twice the land size of Changi Airport’s Terminal 4.

The new depot complex, scheduled to be completed in 2024, will replace the existing Changi depot for the East-West Line. It will include depots for the East-West and Downtown MRT lines, as well as the upcoming Thomson-East Coast Line.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) first revealed plans for the depot – said to be the first such facility of its kind – in 2013.

In 2016, South Korean firm GS Engineering & Construction won a $1.99 billion contract to build the East Coast Integrated Depot. Other contracts, such as those for electrical and mechanical works, make up the rest of the $3.2 billion cost.

GS Engineering & Construction was also involved in the building of the Gali Batu Depot in Woodlands Road, as well as the Fort Canning and Tampines East stations, all on the Downtown Line.



continue reading here : http://www.theindependent.sg/2b-in-c...ail-bus-depot/

[SiaSuay]

Really Ah Khaw saved on the 2 billion ? Then why are the train services still so bad ?

[sionglim]

Yes cost saving can cause many thing to be bad.
Logical.

[sionglim]

garmen intro more new train woh..
Foldable seat, easy configure for more stand space.
But from sames vendor kawasaki sifang china