Downtown MRT line

For the station, see Downtown MRT Station.

Downtown MRT Line Laluan MRT Pusat Bandar 滨海市区地铁线 டவுன்டவுன் எம்ஆர்டி வழி
The Downtown Line is coloured blue on system maps.
Overview
Status	Opened (Stage 1) Under testing (Stage 2) Under construction (Stage 3) Under planning (Stage 4/Stage 3 Extension)
Owner	Land Transport Authority
Termini	Bukit Panjang Sungei Bedok
Stations	6 (operational) 28 (U/C), 2 (under planning)
Service
Type	Rapid transit
System	Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore)
Services	1
Operator(s)	SBS Transit DTL
Rolling stock	Bombardier MOVIA C951
History
Opened	22 December 2013 (Stage 1) December 2015 (Stage 2) 2017 (Stage 3) 2024 (DTL3e)
Technical
Line length	4.3 km (2.7 mi) (operational) 39.9 km (24.8 mi) (U/C)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Signalling	Invensys Rail SIRIUS CBTC
Route map Template:MRT route

The Downtown Line (DTL) is the fifth Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore. The 4.3-kilometre (2.7 mi), 6 station Stage 1 of the line opened on 22 December 2013, with Stages 2 and 3 due to open in December 2015 and 2017 respectively. The line will connect the North-Western and Central-Eastern regions to the new downtown of Singapore.

The Downtown Line interchanges with the North East Line at Chinatown, with the East West Line at Bugis, and with the Circle Line at Bayfront and Promenade. Future extensions of the Downtown Line will interchange with the North East Line at Little India, with the North South Line at Newton, with the East West Line at Tampines and Expo, with the Circle Line at MacPherson and Botanic Gardens, and with the Bukit Panjang LRT at Bukit Panjang.

This line is the third in Singapore to be entirely underground (apart from the Gali Batu Depot). When fully completed, the line will be about 44 km (27 mi) long with 37 stations and will serve more than half a million commuters daily. It will also be the longest driverless rapid transit line in Singapore, surpassing the record set by the Circle Line. Travelling from one end to the other will take about 70 minutes. The line is coloured blue in the rail map.

History

LTA's Downtown Line (Stage 1) project office next to Bugis MRT station.

On 14 June 2005, the Land Transport Authority announced the Downtown Extension of the Circle Line to serve the Downtown at Marina Bay area, where an integrated resort (Marina Bay Sands) and Singapore's second botanical garden (Gardens by the Bay) was to be located. The 3.4-kilometre fully underground line was estimated to cost S$1.4 billion. Construction of the extension began in January 2008. During the construction of the North East Line at Chinatown station, platform provisions were built to facilitate an interchange station.

Stage 2 of the Downtown Line was first conceptualized and announced as the Bukit Timah Line. It was supposedly a 20-kilometer line that would connect the new downtown with the Bukit Panjang, Upper Bukit Timah and Bukit Timah corridor, alleviating the heavy traffic travelling along the sector, but a full route was released. Provisions were provided at Nicoll Highway station which would have seen the line terminating there and interchanging with the Circle Line. However, the Nicoll Highway collapse and subsequent feasibility works deemed the old station unusable. The former Downtown Extension of the Circle Line was subsequently assimilated into the Downtown Line and was revamped as part of Stage 1, a 4.3-kilometre (2.7 mi), 6 station segment connecting Chinatown to Bugis stations. Stage 2 is now 16.6-kilometre (10.3 mi) long and consists of twelve stations, including three interchange stations.

Construction for Stage 2 began on 3 July 2009 with a groundbreaking ceremony at Beauty World Station and was scheduled to be completed by Q1 2016. On 28th June 2015, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew announced that the Downtown Line 2 will open ahead of schedule in December 2015 .

Stage 3 of the Downtown Line consists of the original Eastern Region Line that was announced in 2001. The route goes from Chinatown to Expo. The station locations and finalized route were unveiled on 20 August 2010. Stage 3 of the Downtown line will be 21-kilometre (13 mi) long and serve 16 stations. The completion date is set to be done on the first half of 2017.

A new depot, the Gali Batu Depot, is under construction at part of the former Kwong Hou Sua Teochew Cemetery off Woodlands Road to serve the line.

In August 2011, SBS Transit won the bid and was appointed to be the operator of the Downtown Line, under a new framework which would see the authority remaining the owner of the line. Final costs of building the line may reach an estimated S$20.7 billion, up more than 70% from an initial estimation of S$12 billion. In January 2013, plans for a southern extension which will run from Expo through the East Coast area, interchanging with the Eastern Region Line were announced for completion by 2025.

Stage 1 of the Downtown Line began service on 22 December 2013, with its official inauguration made on the day before by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Stage 3 Extension was announced on 15 August 2014, in conjunction with the announcement of the Thomson-East Coast MRT Line. Two stations, Xilin MRT Station and Sungei Bedok MRT Station will be added to the Downtown Line, with Sungei Bedok as an interchange station with the Thomson-East Coast Line. It will add an additional 2.2 km to the line with the extension. Due in 2024, Stage 3 will join the current East West and future Thomson-East Coast lines that runs through Marine Parade.

Stations

Main article: List of Downtown MRT Line station names

Here are the following station locations for all three stages of the Downtown Line.

Station Number	Station Name	Interchange/Notes
Stage 2 (under testing)
DT1  BP6	Bukit Panjang	Template:SLRT lines
DT2	Cashew
DT3	Hillview
DT5	Beauty World
DT6	King Albert Park
DT7	Sixth Avenue
DT8	Tan Kah Kee
DT9  CC19	Botanic Gardens	Template:SMRT lines
DT10  TE11	Stevens	Template:SMRT lines
DT11  NS21	Newton	Template:SMRT lines
DT12  NE7	Little India	Template:SMRT lines
DT13	Rochor
Stage 1 (completed)
DT14  EW12	Bugis	Template:SMRT lines
DT15  CC4	Promenade	Template:SMRT lines
DT16  CE1	Bayfront	Template:SMRT lines
DT17	Downtown
DT18	Telok Ayer
DT19  NE4	Chinatown	Template:SMRT lines
Stage 3 (under construction)
DT20	Fort Canning
DT21	Bencoolen
DT22	Jalan Besar
DT23	Bendemeer
DT24	Geylang Bahru
DT25	Mattar
DT26  CC10	MacPherson	Template:SMRT lines
DT27	Ubi
DT28	Kaki Bukit
DT29	Bedok North
DT30	Bedok Reservoir
DT31	Tampines West
DT32  EW2	Tampines	Template:SMRT lines
DT33	Tampines East
DT34	Upper Changi
DT35  CG1	Expo	Template:SMRT lines (Changi Airport Branch)
Stage 3 Extension (under planning)
DT36	Xilin
DT37  TE31	Sungei Bedok	Template:SMRT lines

The Downtown Line's numbering scheme reserves station code "DT4" between Hillview (DT3) and Beauty World (DT5) for the future Hume Station. This station doubles as an emergency escape shaft.

Rolling stock

A view of the Chinatown station on the Downtown Line platform.

The rolling stock consists of Bombardier MOVIA C951 cars, running in three-car formation. They will be stabled at Gali Batu Depot when it opens with Stage 2 of Downtown Line by 2016. For the period between the operation of Downtown Line Stage 1 and Downtown Line Stage 2, trains will be stabled at a maintenance facility that was built at Marina Bay as part of the Circle Line project. Kim Chuan Depot will house the Operations Control Centre for the Downtown Line until Gali Batu Depot and Changi Depot is ready to be used.

On 12 October 2012, the first of 11 trains for the Downtown Line Stage 1 arrived at Jurong Port. It was transported to Kim Chuan Depot to undergo testing by LTA before it was handed over to SBS Transit. As of 28 February 2013, Bombardier had delivered five of the 11 trains for Downtown Line Stage 1. LTA together with the operator, SBS Transit, conducted the necessary tests to ensure safety standards, functional performance and systems compatibility requirements were met before revenue service began on 22 December 2013.

Train control

The Downtown Line is equipped with a fully automatic communication-based train control system from Invensys Rail, using a digital radio system for communication between trains and the centralised control system. A fall-back signalling system, relying on conventional track-circuit occupancy detection, is included to ensure fully automatic operation and train protection independent of the radio system. Automatic platform screen doors provide safety for passengers, offering protection from arriving and departing trains.

External links

• Downtown Line