Ironing out rail issues
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Wong Kai Yi
The first simulation facility for Singapore's rail network was built at Bishan Depot and completed at the end of 2018 to serve the North-South and East-West lines.
It was needed to keep tight oversight of the resignalling projects being done on both lines, and to develop a home-grown understanding of the complex signalling system.
Simulations conducted at the Bishan facility, one of the largest of its kind in the world, helped to:
- Ease the transition when the lines were being converted from the fixed-block system to the more efficient moving-block one.
- Stabilise the performance of the new signalling system sooner by improving the robustness of software testing.
The Bishan facility also conducted simulations before Canberra station - which opened in November last year on the North-South Line - was ready to operate.
It helped to:
- Iron out any challenges when the signalling software was updated to incorporate a new station into an existing track. For example, simulations were run to see if trains would still maintain their distance from one another even with the new station.
- Test whether the trains would stop at the station and open their doors and whether the train could be held at the platform during an emergency.
