No MRT service from Bedok to Tampines, Tanah Merah to Expo between Nov 29 and Dec 8 for track works

SINGAPORE – Train services on the East-West Line (EWL) will not run between Bedok and Tampines stations for 10 days from Nov 29 to Dec 8. There will also be no service between Tanah Merah and Expo stations during that period.

Affected passengers will have to take shuttle buses instead, and should allot more time for their journeys, which could take up to 30 minutes longer, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA). The cost of their journey, however, will remain the same.

Simei and Tanah Merah MRT stations will be closed during this period.

An estimated 180,000 passengers could be affected daily over the 10 days of service adjustments, said LTA.

Those travelling to Simei and Tanah Merah can take a shuttle bus service, Shuttle 7, which will run between Bedok and Tampines stations, while those heading to or from Expo can take Shuttle 8, which will ply between Bedok and Expo stations.

Announcing this in a statement on Oct 3, LTA said this is the second round of service adjustments to allow works connecting tracks from the existing EWL to the new East Coast Integrated Depot.

These works will also connect the tracks to a new platform at Tanah Merah station.

Shuttle 7 will operate every three to five minutes, while Shuttle 8 will run every 10 minutes.

Commuters can also take shuttle trains running at five-minute intervals between Tampines and Pasir Ris stations and between Expo and Changi Airport stations, and those running every eight minutes between Paya Lebar and Bedok stations.

There are longer waits for these shuttle trains, compared with regular services with frequencies of around two to three minutes at peak hours.

This is because the shuttle trains can only travel back and forth along the same track, instead of turning around as they do with regular services.

At around the halfway mark of the 10-day period, the wait for shuttle trains at Bedok station towards Paya Lebar could go up to 17 minutes during off-peak hours to allow the live testing of trains and various systems on the new tracks, LTA said.

This round of closures comes after a

three-day closure between Tanah Merah and Tampines stations

from Dec 7 to 9 in 2024. The closure was initially slated to last four days till Dec 10, but track works were

completed ahead of schedule

.

The next round of service adjustments will take place in the first half of 2026, before the

new depot – Singapore’s largest bus and train depot – is expected to open its doors

later that year.

LTA advised commuters to plan their journeys and consider alternative MRT routes, such as the Downtown Line (DTL).

During the second and third days of the suspension of train services in December 2024, the DTL recorded an increase of about 20 per cent in ridership.

Six more trains will be deployed to ply the line during the upcoming service adjustments, bringing the number of DTL trains in service up from the current 54 to 60 trains.

Seventy-nine shuttle buses will be rolled out, an increase from the 55 deployed in the previous round.

Spanning 4.8km across 12 locations on the tracks along the EWL and towards the new depot, this round of works is more extensive than the previous one, which affected only one point along about 100m of tracks.

The upcoming works will include the installation of new tracks, sleepers that distribute the load of trains on the tracks, and the third rail that supplies power to trains.

These will then be followed by the restoration of power cables and testing of the signalling, power and communications systems using actual trains on these new tracks.

LTA noted that it completed preparatory work – including the laying of cables and structural works for the viaduct – in advance, to minimise the duration of closures this time around.

Citing the need for an “uninterrupted closure window” to complete the works, the authority said trains will not operate along the affected segment of the EWL and demarcated “safety buffer” zones along the tracks near Bedok station, and between Tampines and Simei stations, during the 10-day period to ensure safe working conditions.

Mr Chia Choon Poh, group director of rail (electrical and mechanical) at LTA, said this complex undertaking is comparable to rewiring major road junctions. He likened the upcoming works to introducing a cross junction on a straight road, adding that works of this scale cannot be completed during short overnight windows.

LTA added that this specific window, between Nov 29 and Dec 8, was selected, as it is the period when fewer commuters will be affected. The year-end school holidays fall during this time, and national exams would have ended.

The third and final phase of service adjustments in the first half of 2026 will focus on the decommissioning of the existing Changi Depot to allow the full transfer of its operations to the new East Coast Integrated Depot.

Tampines resident Ong Yuqin, 28, said she was bothered by the upcoming suspension of EWL services, as it would add up to 30 minutes to her commute to her Lakeside workplace.

To get to her office by 9am, the marketing specialist said she may have to wake up 45 minutes earlier, at about 5.30am, to factor in the extra travel time from Tampines to Bedok. She added that she might pay more to take a cab instead.

“We shouldn’t be paying at all, or at least not the same fare, for the shuttle buses and shuttle trains because we are already inconvenienced,” said Ms Ong.

Bedok resident Kenny Ng, 30, said he understands these works are inevitable and would eventually make passengers’ lives easier.

But the software engineer, who needs to travel to his Expo workplace, felt that the 10-minute frequency of Shuttle 8 could be raised, especially since each shuttle bus is unlikely to be able to accommodate an entire train’s worth of passengers at peak hours.

Modifications to Tanah Merah station

At Tanah Merah station, a new platform will be added to allow the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) to operate on two tracks.

The stretch between Tanah Merah and Changi Airport stations will

become part of a new TEL extension

, which will pass through the future Changi Airport Terminal 5 (T5). This 14km TEL extension is expected to be completed in the mid-2030s, when the terminal opens.

As such, eastbound EWL services towards Pasir Ris will be shifted to operate from a new platform from Dec 9.

Passengers transferring between trains at that platform to services to and from Changi Airport would need to go down to the level with the passenger service centre before ascending to another platform.

This is different from the current arrangement, where they can simply board trains to Changi Airport by crossing to the other side of the platform.

East Coast Integrated Depot

More trains can be launched from and withdrawn to the new East Coast Integrated Depot once these track works are completed on Dec 9.

This new depot – serving the EWL, TEL and DTL – will allow greater flexibility for train operators to adjust service patterns and respond more quickly to incidents, said LTA.

It will also facilitate the operation of trains plying the TEL extension to Tanah Merah station and

to the upcoming Changi T5 TEL station

, providing connectivity between airport terminals, as well as to the upcoming Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System Link via the Woodlands North TEL station.