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17 MRT stations to get more space on platforms, additional seating

SINGAPORE — Seventeen MRT stations on the North-South and East-West lines will get more breathing room on their platforms as well as additional seating by 2018.

(Top) How Choa Chu Kang MRT Station platform looks now, and (above) how it would look with the void space covered up. Artist’s impressions: LTA

(Top) How Choa Chu Kang MRT Station platform looks now, and (above) how it would look with the void space covered up. Artist’s impressions: LTA

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SINGAPORE — Seventeen MRT stations on the North-South and East-West lines will get more breathing room on their platforms as well as additional seating by 2018.

Revealing the selected stations today (Oct 19), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said work would begin in the middle of next year. 

Eleven stations — Ang Mo Kio, Boon Lay, Choa Chu Kang, Clementi, Eunos, Khatib, Lakeside, Pasir Ris, 

Pioneer, Tampines and Yishun — will see the void spaces of their platforms covered to create more standing space. These voids were created for “visual connection” between the platform and concourse level. 

Seats at six other stations — Bishan, Buona Vista, City Hall, Jurong East, Raffles Place and Tanjong Pagar — will be repositioned to free up space. 

More seats will also be provided for commuters waiting for trains. The number of seats added will differ from station to station.

These efforts are aimed at improving commuters’ waiting experience and are also part of ongoing upgrading works to spruce up older MRT stations. Other initatives to improve the commuter experience include plans to provide free Wi-Fi at all MRT stations and bus interchanges by 2020. 

In a statement, LTA chief executive Chew Men Leong said that apart from managing crowding on the platforms during peak hours, the LTA hopes to create up to 15 per cent of extra space at the selected stations to make public transport “a more pleasant experience for all commuters”.

He added: “We are constantly looking at ways to upgrade existing stations even as we continue to build new MRT lines … This is part of the overall rejuvenation of our rail network.”

The cost of the upgrades has not been determined as the LTA is still calling for tenders for the work. The authority assured that the majority of the work will be carried out during non-service hours to minimise inconvenience to commuters.

LTA had also announced previously that it hopes to shorten commuters’ waiting times by adding more trains to the rail network. 

The 42 trains added to the North-East and Circle lines by 2016 as well as the 57 trains to the North-South and East-West lines would increase the fleets on these four lines by close to 50 per cent.

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