COMMUTERS at the Kallang MRT Station, fed up with trains too crowded to board, will get some relief during the peak hour rush from Monday.

Train operator SMRT will add an extra two trips during the morning peak hour from 8am to 9am, meaning that a train will call at the station 26 times, up from 24, during that hour - or every 2.3 minutes.

These two extra trips mean places for 2,400 passengers during the morning rush hour, when it is common for trains to whizz by the Kallang station without anyone being able to get on board.

By the time the city-bound train arrives at this 10th station on the East-West line, it is already packed.

In all, 93 extra train trips a week will be introduced across the network from Monday - 83 on the East-West and North-South lines run by SMRT and the remaining 10 on the North-East Line run by smaller player SBS Transit.

SMRT's 83 trips work out to 16 extra trips during the morning and evening peak periods on the five weekdays on its two lines.

These extra trips are part of a raft of measures announced last month by Transport Minister Raymond Lim to cut waiting times and expand the capacity on public transport.

In the longer term, some $20 billion will be put into building two new rail lines and two extensions to double the length of Singapore's rail network.

Among the stations to benefit from the added trips, Kallang is tops. On average, about 1,400 commuters fill each train that pulls in between 8am and 9am.

Other stations with similarly heavy traffic are Toa Payoh on the North-South Line and Clementi on the East-West Line.

By putting more train trips through these stations, SMRT aims to bring the load down to 1,200 per train.

Commuters travelling from Yishun to Marina Bay, and from Pasir Ris to Boon Lay, will stand to see the most improvement in train service frequencies, said SMRT.

'Additional trains will be added at terminal stations, which means more trips along a particular stretch.'

However, no extra trips will be added from Boon Lay during the morning peak hours, a fact that has left some commuters disappointed.

Mr Shafiee Hayee, a 39-year-old clerk who has been among those unable to board the city-bound train at the Jurong East station in the mornings, said: 'I was really looking forward to some relief.'

SMRT explained that the track layout and high frequency of train arrivals at Jurong East posed technical difficulties in getting more train trips through the station, which is an interchange connecting the East-West and North-South lines.

SBS Transit said that by upping the number of train trips by 10 a week on the North-East line, passengers at the Boon Keng and Little India stations will only have to wait three minutes for a train during the morning and evening peak hours.

Undergraduate Jian Minxian, 25, who boards the train at Sengkang, the second stop on the city-bound journey, said: 'A minute does not make a big difference, but it's a good start.'

taniat@sph.com.sg