SINGAPORE’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) has taken delivery of the first of 44 six-car trains that CRRC Qingdao Sifang is supplying for the Cross Island Line (CRL) that is now under construction. The first train was unloaded at Jurong Port on May 31.
LTA awarded the CRL fleet contract in June 2023 to a consortium of CRRC Qingdao Sifang and Singapore CRRC Sifang Railway Vehicles Service. Worth $S 589m ($US 439m), the contract includes options for up to 11 more trains as well as long-term maintenance.
The fully automated CRL fleet is similar to the trains supplied by CRRC Sifang and Kawasaki Railcar Manufacturing for the Thomson-East Coast Line in Singapore. Each car will have five doors per side, with 1.6m-wide gangways between the cars compared with 1.4m on trains used on other lines.
The new trains will be powered by a 1.5kV dc overhead conductor rail system, which will increase energy efficiency compared to the 750V dc third rail system used to date in Singapore. The CRL fleet is also equipped with condition monitoring and diagnostic systems.
The first train will now undergo system integration testing at the Singapore Rail Test Centre, the first dedicated train testing facility in southeast Asia that was officially opened by LTA in March 2025.
CRL Phase 1, running for 29km from Aviation Park to Bright Hill, is due to open in 2030. Also under construction is the 15km Phase 2, from Turf City to Jurong Lake District, which is due to open in 2032. Engineering studies are underway for Phase 3.
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