First 2 new trains for Sengkang-Punggol LRT arrive in Singapore, will enter service in Q3 2025
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An artist's impression of the new two-carriage trains for the Punggol-Sengkang LRT.
PHOTO: LAND TRANSPORT AUTHORITY
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SINGAPORE – The first two new trains for the Sengkang-Punggol LRT arrived in Singapore on Nov 23, and will enter passenger service in the third quarter of 2025.
They are among the 25 new two-carriage trains the authorities are bringing in to cater to increased ridership demand in Sengkang and Punggol, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in a Facebook post on Nov 23.
The post included a video of the new trains being offloaded from a ship.
LTA added that all new trains will be transported to the Sengkang LRT depot for thorough testing and commissioning.
The remaining 23 new two-carriage trains will arrive in Singapore progressively and start operating in batches after the third quarter of 2025.
The new trains are manufactured by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and will provide better passenger comfort, said LTA.
Seventeen of the trains, ordered in 2022, are slated to be progressively delivered from 2024 to 2027 second half of 2027
The current Sengkang-Punggol LRT fleet consists of 16 two-car trains and 25 one-car trains, LTA said on Nov 25.
Some of the existing trains started operations in 2003 for the Sengkang LRT and in 2005 for the Punggol LRT before the rest entered service in 2016.
The earlier order of 17 two-car trains will replace the existing 25 one-car trains, while the later order of eight two-car trains will replace half of the existing 16 two-car trains.
As a result, the Sengkang-Punggol LRT network will eventually have a fleet of 33 two-car trains.
Each train car can accommodate 105 passengers, The Straits Times reported previously.
On average, the Sengkang-Punggol LRT clocked 612,000 car-km without service delays that lasted more than five minutes from October 2023 to September 2024. This is lower than the 1.22 million car-km between delays during the whole of 2023.
Residents who often use the Sengkang-Punggol LRT were neutral about the new trains, as many said the current ones are still in good condition.
Ms Chantelle Lee, 23, who lives at Thanggam in Sengkang, said they still work fine, and are clean and comfortable.
The business planning intern, however, is hoping for less bumpy rides on the new trains, especially from Cheng Lim to Sengkang stations where the bumps are more keenly felt.
She is also hoping for the addition of charging ports and clearer map displays of the entire LRT route that signal the next stop.
Punggol resident Summer Koh, 23, said she has had “no complaints” about the existing LRT trains in the past 10 years.
With the new trains, the university student is looking forward to seeing clearer audio-visual announcements that can cater to the needs of passengers with disabilities, in addition to digital screens that can display train schedules and real-time arrival and departure times.
But a Thanggam resident in her late 20s, who wanted to be known only as Ms Mindy C, said the existing trains are “quite small”, making them “super squeezy” for passengers during peak hours.
Also noting that some trains are poorly ventilated, leading to a “funky smell” at times, the marketing associate wishes for the new trains to have more room, better ventilation and more digital signs.
