SINGAPORE: The first of six additional Metropolis trainsets supplied by Alstom entered service from July 28 on Singapore’s North East Line.
The six-car trains will increase the North East Line fleet from 43 to 49; all six are due to be in traffic by the end of September. They were ordered to boost capacity ahead of the opening next year of a 1·6 km one-station northeastern extension being built from Punggol to Punggol Coast.
Alstom is supplying the trains under a contract signed in April 2018; they were manufactured at Alstom’s factory in Barcelona and arrived in Singapore in April 2021. Alstom is also building 23 three-car trains of the same type for the Circle Line.
The trainsets are equipped with condition monitoring systems to support a predictive maintenance regime. Two of the trains are being fitted with an automated track inspection system, the first such installation on the North East Line. Cameras and sensors are to be installed on the underframe of the two trains to improve the detection of track defects such as rail cracks, rail corrugation and missing rail fastenings.
- Land Transport Authority has announced that mid-life overhauls have been completed on four of the original batch of 25 North East Line trainsets which were manufactured by Alstom in 2000-01. The refresh is being undertaken by CRRC Nanjing Puzhen and includes installation of air-conditioning and condition-monitoring equipment. The remaining 21 trains are to be refurbished by 2026.
