SOME relief for train commuters is in sight.
Next Friday, a new platform will open at the busy Jurong East MRT interchange.
The platform will allow five new trains to be deployed on the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL) that use the station.
Passenger load on the two lines during morning peak hours will increase by 8 per cent to 21 per cent, depending on which direction a train is heading, and crowding at the station will be reduced.
By December, an additional 17 new trains will join the five, bringing the total number of trains on the NSEWL to 128.
Once those 17 trains are added, the number of passengers that can be carried on the two lines will increase by 15 per cent during peak periods.
Waiting time for commuters will also be cut. During peak hours, they need wait two to three minutes for a train compared to the current 2.5 to four minutes.
The new platform and trains are part of the $800 million Jurong East Modification Project announced in 2008 to ease crowding and increase capacity of the NSEWL.
About 260,000 commuters take the trains serving the two lines during the morning peak period.
The extra platform will also ease the bottleneck at the interchange.
Currently, a train approaching the above-ground Jurong East station has to wait for the preceeding train to leave before it can pull in, limiting the capacity to run more frequent train trips.
With the completion of the new platform, as well as a 2.5km track, trains will have an additional track to turn around, and more trains can be put through the station at shorter intervals.
For a start, the new Jurong platform will be used only during the weekday morning peak period - between 7am and 9am - when the station is most crowded. By December, when the 17 new trains are running, it will be open during the evening peak period from 5.30pm to 7.30pm too.
At a media briefing yesterday, Mr Chew Hock Yong, chief executive of the Land Transport Authority (LTA), said the project was a key part of LTA's plan to significantly enhance Singapore's rail network over the next 10 years.
"With the new platform and new trains, we will be able to reduce waiting time for commuters and hopefully, more commuters will have a pleasant journey and will enjoy their trip," he said.
Overcrowding at MRT trains was one of the hot topics of the recent general election.
Transport experts said the infrastructure changes at Jurong will significantly ease the bottleneck there and the additional trips will also make a difference for commuters.
Associate Professor Lee Der Horng of the National University of Singapore's department of civil engineering said: "More people will be able to get on the trains during peak periods, so it's definitely good news."
Associate Professor Michael Li, a transport economist at the Nanyang Business School, said that as more lines are added to the network and ridership increases, similar modifications may also be needed at other interchanges down the road.
LTA yesterday also announced other improvements that have been made to the Jurong East station.
These include an additional entrance, a new passenger drop-off point for commuters working at the International Business Park, as well as a pedestrian overhead bridge linking a new private bus pick-up point to the station.
About 150 new bicycle racks have also been added at the station for commuters who cycle there.
Commuters hope the trains will become less crowded in the future.
Teacher Nilanjan Ray, 40, who takes the train every morning from Yishun to Queenstown where he works, hopes he will be able to cut his travelling time.
He spends up to 20 minutes waiting for his connecting train at Jurong East during peak hours. They are usually too packed to board, he said.
Another commuter, supermarket manager Lee Boon Guan, 43, usually waits for a second or third train before boarding at Jurong East station, where he makes a connection to his workplace at Clementi.
"It will definitely be better with more train services. I will just be happy if I can board."
(Taken from The Straits Times, Tuesday, May 17 2011, Page A1 & A4)
actually i don;t care faster or not now. not anymore. i just want the foreign trashes out. need so many meh? so conjested in asmall island. stinks like hell.
*uses battle gundam to kill everyone