Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station

NS24  NE6  CC1  Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station 多美歌地铁站 டோபி காட் Stesen MRT Dhoby Ghaut Rapid transit
The Circle Line platform of Dhoby Ghaut Station
Station statistics
Address	11 Orchard Road 60 Orchard Road 13 Orchard Road Singapore 238826/ 238889/ 238893
Coordinates	1°17′57″N 103°50′45″E
Lines	North South Line   North East Line   Circle Line
Connections	Bus, Taxi
Structure	Underground
Levels	5
Platforms	Island
Tracks	6
Other information
Opened	12 December 1987 (North South Line) 20 June 2003 (North East Line) 17 April 2010 (Circle Line)
Accessible
Code	NS24 / NE6 / CC1
Services
Preceding station   Mass Rapid Transit   Following station Somerset towards Jurong East North South Line City Hall towards Marina Bay Clarke Quay towards HarbourFront North East Line Little India towards Punggol Terminus Circle Line Bras Basah towards HarbourFront
Location

The North South Line North-bound platform of Dhoby Ghaut Station

Dhoby Xchange

Busy North East Line platforms of the station

Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station (NS24/NE6/CC1) is a Mass Rapid Transit station in Singapore, located at the eastern end of Orchard Road. Originally it was only a station on the North South Line but after the opening of the North East Line on 20 June 2003, it became the interchange station for these two lines. On 17 April 2010, when the Circle Line wing of the station opened to public, it became the only MRT station in Singapore to be an interchange station for three lines and also the largest MRT station in Singapore. Due to its size, the MRT station is equipped with travellators, and is one of two MRT station in Singapore with travellators in the paid area, the other being at Serangoon MRT Station. The North South Line section of the station was upgraded in 2002 in the first phase of the station upgrading programme, which was completed in 2006. SMRT Corporation operates the North South Line and Circle Line section of the station, while SBS Transit operates the North East Line section. It is currently the largest and second deepest MRT station (after Bras Basah MRT Station) in Singapore. The deepest point is 28 metres in depth and it is one of the two stations to have five storeys below ground level. The section of tracks between this station and Somerset MRT Station is the shortest between any two interchanges in Singapore and also between any two MRT Stations on the North South Line, it takes 1 minute for a train to travel between these two stations.

Etymology

Dhoby Ghaut, literally "washerman's place", means washing place in Hindi.

Location

The Atrium @ Orchard is directly located above the station. It has 10 floors on one building and six on the other. Temasek Holdings, MTV Southeast Asia and HSBC occupy the building as its major tenants. Restaurants are located on the ground floor.

History

Before the construction of the North East Line, the Circle Line and the construction of The Atrium, an original underpass opened on 8 Dec 1990 helped ease congestion at the traffic light across Orchard Road.

Dhoby Ghaut was one of four stations which participated in Exercise Northstar V, a mock terrorist exercise held on Jan 8 2006. The station is also one of the 4 MRT stations to appear in the original Singapore edition of Monopoly.

Public art

The artwork Interchange by Milenko and Delia Prvacki can be found on the walls of the linkway between the North South Line and North East Line. Local artist Baet Yoke Kuan created a three dimensional relief work on the large columns that support the Circle Line sector of the station, inspired by the concept 'man and the environment'.

Station Layout

L1	Street Level	Plaza Singapura
B1		Dhoby Xchange, Stamford Canal
B2	NSL Concourse	Faregates, Ticketing Machines, Station Control, Transitlink Counter
	Transfer Linkway	Linkbridges from North South Line concourse to Circle Line concourse and transfer hall
	NEL Concourse	Faregates, Ticketing Machines, Station Control, Transitlink Counter
B3 NSL Platforms	Platform A	North South Line towards  NS1  EW24  Jurong East via  NS9  Woodlands (→)
	Island platform, Doors will open on the right
	Platform B	North South Line towards  NS27  CE2  Marina Bay (←)
	Transfer Hall	Escalators and lift access to North East Line concourse and platforms, transfer linkway to North South Line, and Circle Line platforms
	CCL Concourse	Station Control, Transitlink Counter
B4 CCL Platforms	Platform A	Circle Line towards  CC29  NE1  HarbourFront via  CC15  NS17  Bishan (→)
	Island platform, Platform A doors will open on the right, Platform B doors will open on the left
	Platform B	Circle Line towards  CC29  NE1  HarbourFront via  CC15  NS17  Bishan (→)
B5 NEL Platforms	Platform A	North East Line towards  NE1  CC29  HarbourFront (→)
	Island platform, Doors will open on the right
	Platform B	North East Line towards  NE17  PTC  Punggol (←)

Incidents

On May 4, 2007, services from HarbourFront to Dhoby Ghaut were disrupted following a power trip. This occurred at about 8.45pm and commuters were told to use the free shuttle bus services provided. By 10.30pm, services from HarbourFront to Clarke Quay resumed and about an hour later, the entire line was operating again.

A short circuit along the track at the station caused train services along the North-South Line to be disrupted on November 1, 2007. The incident occurred at 6.13pm, and affected train services from Newton to Marina Bay MRT stations as well as those from Marina Bay to Raffles Place MRT stations.

Northbound train services from Raffles Place to Jurong East MRT stations were not disrupted, but southbound trains were turned around at Newton MRT Station and buses were used to ferry affected passengers from 6.48pm between Newton and Marina Bay MRT stations. Train services resumed at 7.13pm. 15,000 passengers were affected during the incident.

On Feb 13 2008, the line between Little India and Dhoby Ghaut stations was affected at about 6.53pm. A power trip caused the delay. Precautionary measures were taken to check the line, causing delays by up to 20 minutes.

Main article: 2011 MRT train disruptions

The most recent disruption was on December 15, 2011. A train service heading northbound had been stuck up by a damaged power rail at about 7p.m., causing train disruptions in both directions. Southbound services were turned around at Bishan and passengers had to take a bus bridging service to continue their journey to Marina Bay. Southbound services resumed at 9p.m., but northbound services between Marina Bay and Bishan stations were closed for the night and some southbound services were turned around at Ang Mo Kio. SMRT staff worked around the clock to repair the damage to get the northbound train service to resume by the next morning.

SMRT CEO apologised for the incident and promised to review its standard operating procedures. It will also be working to improve its communication strategies. This was the second consecutive train disruption in two days, the other was on the Circle Line on December 14, 2011.

The Singapore media reported this as one of the worst train disruptions in Singapore's train history.