SINGAPORE - Some 290 older escalators at 32 MRT stations on the North East Line (NEL) and the North-South and East-West lines (NSEWL) will be refurbished from 2026 in an effort to improve passenger experience.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) on March 7 called a tender for the upgrading exercise, which is expected to be completed in 2032.
The escalators earmarked for upgrading will get improved features, such as the ability to operate at different speeds during peak and non-peak hours.
The move comes after SMRT, which operates the NSEWL, previously completed a $47.3 million refurbishment exercise of its own for 231 escalators at 42 NSEWL stations. This took SMRT six years, from 2016 to 2022.
That project, by contractor Otis, was the first major refurbishment of escalators since the MRT system – and the NSEWL – began operations in 1987. The NSEWL are Singapore’s oldest rail lines.
SMRT had carried out the upgrading as it owned the operating assets for the NSEWL at the time. It later sold these rail assets in September 2016 to the Government under the LTA’s New Rail Financing Framework.
In response to questions from The Straits Times, LTA said the NSEWL escalators that SMRT had refurbished were commissioned between 1987 and 1990.
For the latest exercise, the escalators earmarked for refurbishment at 16 of the NSEWL’s 62 stations were commissioned from 1996 onwards. These 16 stations include Toa Payoh, Woodlands and Dover.
LTA said that escalators at Marina South Pier and Canberra stations on the North-South Line (NSL), and the six stations between Pioneer and Tuas Link on the East-West Line (EWL), are newer and do not need to be refurbished yet.
For instance, Pioneer and Joo Koon stations on the EWL began operating in 2009, and the NSL’s Canberra station opened in 2019.
For the NEL, which operator SBS Transit started running in 2003, the latest refurbishment exercise will cover escalators at all 16 underground stations from Punggol to HarbourFront.
LTA said it will put in place measures to minimise inconvenience to passengers, such as carrying out work in stages.
The tender for the upgrading exercise closes on May 31.
SMRT’s previous escalator refurbishment project took longer than expected as Otis had to revise its upgrading plan several times, hampering its initial progress. The project was also partially affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The rail operator had initially estimated that work on each escalator would take between eight and 10 weeks. But this was later adjusted to at least four months for all escalators after work started, with more complicated cases taking up to eight months.
SMRT had said that the upgrading of each escalator involved removing, installing and replacing more than 1,000 parts and major components.
Now, the refurbished escalators can move at a slower speed during off-peak hours – at 0.5m instead of 0.75m per second – so that it is safer for seniors and young children.
They also come with new safety features, such as handrail speed monitors that activate an emergency stop when a handrail slips from its groove.
Correction note: An earlier version of this story said the 16 NSEWL stations where escalators will be upgraded include Queenstown and Yishun. This is incorrect. LTA has clarified that the stations are Woodlands and Dover.
