Several stations along the North-South Line (NSL) and East-West Line (EWL) will close earlier during the next three months for maintenance work to be carried out.

Next month, Paya Lebar, Eunos, Kembangan and Bedok stations along the EWL will shut at 11pm on all Fridays and Saturdays, except for the 10th and 11th.

In May and June, Jurong East, Bukit Batok and Bukit Gombak stations on the NSL, as well as Dover, Clementi, Jurong East and Chinese Garden stations on the EWL will close at 11pm on selected Fridays and Saturdays.

During the May and June closures, train services on the EWL between Queenstown and Buona Vista stations will operate as a two-way shuttle, with longer service intervals of up to 12 minutes.

"This arrangement allows train services to continue between these stations using a single track, while facilitating the turnaround of trains for the rest of the EWL," transport operator SMRT said in a press release yesterday.

The early station closures are to allow for the installation of 22kV power cables as part of the renewal of the power supply system.

SMRT added that where feasible, railway noise barriers and replacement of track circuits will also be carried out along the early-closure sectors in May and June.

Shuttle buses will run between Aljunied and Tanah Merah stations, between Jurong East and Choa Chu Kang stations, and between Buona Vista and Boon Lay stations during the early closures.

SMRT said more time will be needed for travel between the affected MRT stations via the shuttle bus services, and has advised commuters to plan their journeys ahead.

In other sections of the rail network, the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) will also see shorter operating hours between April and July as testing ramps up for the opening of Stage 2.

The six stations will open at the end of the year, and the longer engineering hours are meant for "rigorous systems integration and testing", said Land Transport Authority chief executive Ngien Hoon Ping.

Singapore's rail reliability has been on an uptick, with train-km between delays breaching the one million mark in the first nine months of last year. The Government has pledged to invest more than $60 billion over the next decade to expand and renew the rail network.

To facilitate improvements, simulation facilities have been built to test signalling software before it is loaded onto actual train lines.