SINGAPORE - Commuters riding the North East and Downtown line from Monday (July 11) might just be able to jump onboard the first National Day Parade (NDP) themed trains in Singapore.
The trains, launched by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in partnership with this year's NDP executive committee and public transport operators SBS Transit and SMRT, are decorated to reflect this year's NDP theme - "Building our Singapore of tomorrow".
A total of four trains have been decked out, one for the North-South and East-West Lines (NSEWL), and one each for the North East Line (NEL), Circle Line (CCL) and Downtown Line (DTL). Two trains - the ones on the NEL and DTL - began running on Monday, while the remaining two on the NSEWL and CCL will serve commuters from July 18. The themed trains will continue to run until mid-August.
On the designs of the trains, Colonel (NS) Eugene Lam, the NDP executive committee's chairman of branding and publicity, said: "The train cabins reflect the theme of this year's NDP as well as showcase elements of the NDP show. We really tried to keep it very patriotic this year, with primarily red and white designs in the train."
Each train is decked out in three designs across different carriages. One design focuses on Singapore folklore, another on this year's theme of building a better future and the last design is on racial harmony and unity in Singapore.
"It's like a continuum where the different carriages reflect different acts of this year's show," Colonel (NS) Lam added.
The train designs will include speech bubbles above passenger seats featuring lyrics of or words inspired by well-known National Day songs - such as "This is my home truly", adapted from Kit Chan's Home - and footprint decals asking commuters to "Stand up for Singapore", a play on the National Day song of the same name.
LTA also hopes the designs can encourage better commuter behaviour by acting as subtle social "nudges" to get commuters to move in to have a closer look at the decorations.
Many commuters who boarded the first themed train launched on Monday morning reacted positively to the decorations.
Mr Foon Hong Ming, a 20-year-old full time national serviceman who boarded the train at Bugis on the DTL called the designs "unique to Singapore" while Madam Jessie Lim, a 65-year-old part-time cleaner, was delighted by the designs as they were "colourful and attractive".
