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Over half of 106 new MRT trains added to North-South, East-West lines; fleet completion by 2026

Over half of 106 new MRT trains added to North-South, East-West lines; fleet completion by 2026

Straits Times06-07-2025
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SINGAPORE - More than half of the 106 latest seventh-generation MRT trains slated for the North-South and East-West lines (NSEWL) lines have entered service, two years after the first unit was deployed.
As at June 29, 61 Alstom Movia R151 trains have entered service, a spokesperson for the Land Transport Authority (LTA) told The Straits Times.
With three new trains being introduced monthly since October 2024, up from two per month in 2023, the train fleet renewal is expected to be complete by 2026.
The first
R151 trains entered service in June 2023.
The new trains replace the first-generation Kawasaki Heavy Industry (KHI) trains. In September 2024, the failure of a KHI train crippled service along a stretch of the East-West Line for six days, in one of the worst disruptions in Singapore's rail history.
Transport operator SMRT, which runs the line, was fined $3 million by the LTA.
The delay in new train delivery, stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, was cited by SMRT as a reason for the KHI trains remaining in use and the operator extending the interval between overhauls beyond the manufacturer's requirement.
The LTA said that there are 16 KHI trains in service on the NSEWL.
By September, these trains will be phased out, according to a post by SMRT on its Facebook page on June 23.
Designed in Germany, the new R151 trains are assembled in Changchun, China.
They have built-in condition monitoring capabilities and diagnostic systems that can pick up faults early and track the performance of various systems in real time.
The cars have bigger open spaces to increase passenger capacity while maintaining the number of seats. Other upgrades on board include wider windows and perch seats for passengers.
The first 66 of the 106 trains were ordered in 2018 at the cost of $1.2 billion to replace the first-generation KHI trains. Another 40 trains, costing $337.8 million, were bought in 2020 to replace now-retired second-generation Siemens and third-generation Kawasaki-Nippon Sharyo trains.
Alongside the KHI trains (introduced in 1987) and the R151, three other generations of trains, added between 2011 and 2018, are also operating on the NSEWL. These were manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and CSR Qingdao Sifang. They bring the NSEWL total fleet to 169 trains.
Work to renew the NSEWL started in 2012. Valued at $2.6 billion, the refurbishment included not only new trains but also a new signalling system that allows the trains to run at shorter intervals, upgraded power rails that supply electricity to the trains, and a track circuit system capable of detecting rail defects.
LTA said that the improvements have boosted the NSEWL's reliability, captured by the lines' Mean Kilometres Between Failure (MKBF), which is the reliability benchmark used for subways globally.
The authority added that since 2019, the NSEWL's MKBF has been over a million train-km between delays of more than five minutes, compared with 70,000 train-km for the North-South line and 60,000 train-km for the East-West line in 2012.
In LTA's latest rail reliability report, covering up to September 2024, the MKBF for the East-West MRT line, after accounting for the major service disruption, stood at 2.03 million train-km, down from 3.36 million train-km in 2023.
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Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A cat named Hank at the Literary Cat Co. in Pittsburg, Kan. Hank is known as the regional manager of the Literary Cat Co. UNITED STATES – Wander into Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis and you might miss the tawny cat napping in the window, spine pressed against the sunniest corner of the sill. Venture deeper into the cosy warren of picture and chapter books and you will begin to detect a theme, if not a whiff, of birdseed. That lazy feline known as Booker T. Jones turns out to be one of many beasts on the premises. Dave is a 27-year-old cockatiel who looks as if he applied too much coral rouge. Mo, a 26-year-old Barbary dove, roosts peacefully in a cage atop the sale shelf. 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A child pets Eartha Kitt, a jet-black Manx, at Wild Rumpus Books in Minneapolis. PHOTO: ERIC RUBY/NYTIMES Now, thanks to social media, many stores have put themselves on the map with the help of little creatures, including some unlikely stars (bearded dragon, anyone?). The pairing makes sense: Books and animals both provide joy, companionship and windows into other worlds. The former are, admittedly, a lot tidier. At Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vermont, a Russian desert tortoise named Veruca Salt lords over the children's room from his 1.2m tank on the second floor. Ms Claire Benedict and her husband inherited the turtle – previously presumed to be female – from a school librarian. The store hosts an annual birthday party for Veruca, who is around 35, with games, cake and stories. The Tortoise And The Hare is a favourite. Like many bashful creatures, Veruca found his 'voice' on Instagram, where he has more than 2,000 fans. 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PHOTO: VINCENT ALBAN/NYTIMES In 2018, Moo climbed up former President Bill Clinton's leg while CBS was interviewing him about his collaboration with novelist James Patterson on The President Is Missing (2018). And at the end of a bunny-centric story hour, Ms Schaefer said: 'A non-verbal autistic child tapped on my leg and signed, 'Thank you.'' Ms Schaefer makes hiring decisions with Moo, Chuck and Chip in mind. 'People come in and they're like, 'I love to read.' I'm like, 'How are you with rabbits?'' Of course, it is not all rabbit-themed tea parties and clever hashtags (#bringcelery). Recently, Scattered Books bid farewell to its first rabbit, Acorn, who was 14. 'It's very hard to break news of a bunny's death to the community,' Ms Schaefer said. 'Staff was crying, kids were crying and leaving notes.' At the Literary Cat Co in Pittsburg, Kansas, readers have the opportunity to adopt a pet while they shop. The store partners a local rescue organisation, hosting about seven cats at a time, along with three permanent feline 'employees': Hank, the regional manager; Scarlett Toe'Hara, the assistant regional manager (she is polydactyl); and Mike Meowski, the assistant to the assistant regional manager. A cat named Scarlett Toe'Hara at the Literary Cat Co. PHOTO: DAVID ROBERT ELLIOTT/NYTIMES Ms Jennifer Mowdy, the store's owner, described each cat's role, personality and origin story with the air of a matriarch ticking off successful grandchildren. Speaking of the upper respiratory illness that cost Mike Meowski an eye, she sounded stoic. He was a kitten; she was there for him. They soldiered through. Ms Mowdy created a glass alcove for allergic customers – and to deter escapees – and a 'kitty conference room' (accessible by cat door) for litter boxes. With regular scooping, four air purifiers and daily mists of Mrs Meyer's room spray, she said the scent of the store is neutral to positive. 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Jones is an especially good cat to practise 'gentle' on, she said, although Wild Rumpus has a rule that patrons are not supposed to pick up the pets. Because it is impossible to predict the behaviour of children and animals, Ms Hersh added: 'We obviously have fun Band-Aids.' NYTIMES

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