SMRT to spend $900m to renew and maintain rail system

SMRT said it will spend $900 million in planned renewal and preventive maintenance to provide safe and reliable system.

Tan Ek Kia, Executive Director and Interim Chief Executive Officer, said that, in addition to the ongoing maintenance regime for the tracks and trains, SMRT has a detailed plan to address the needs of the ageing MRT system through renewal, upgrading and preventive maintenance.

“Looking ahead, we identified several areas for long-term renewal and upgrading, as part of our commitment to ensuring a safe and reliable rail system for Singapore. SMRT is backing this with the right resources: both financial and people. The renewal and upgrading measures we are announcing today are expected to cost about $900 million in total. Some of the measures are already on-going and will be accelerated, while others are new. We are discussing with LTA on the cost-sharing arrangements,” said Tan.

SMRT said the first of these is the re-signalling of the North-South and East-West Lines. The existing signalling system is ageing and reaching obsolescence. As demand increases, we need to increase train frequencies: this means we need to adopt more modern technology that will help us to reduce train headway while maintaining a safe and reliable train system. This is a major project requiring heavy investment and will take some years to roll out. This project is under implementation.

Another major renewal project is the change-out of wooden sleepers along the ballasted tracks on the North-South and East-West Lines. This is a natural consequence of a system that is ageing. The re-sleepering project will be a major exercise which will be done in a planned and coordinated manner to minimise inconvenience to commuters.