LTA completes upgrade of North-South and East-West lines

As part of the upgrade, LTA replaced more than 1,100 track circuits.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has completed the renewal and upgrade of the North-South and East-West lines (NSEWL) after more than 10 years.

LTA began conducting the comprehensive renewal and upgrading of the NSEWL’s six core systems began in 2012 and did it in phases in collaboration with SMRT.

With the renewed and upgraded core systems in place, the reliability of the NSEWL has improved significantly. The NSEWL has recorded a Mean Kilometres Between Failure (MKBF) performance of over 1,000,000 train-km since 2019, compared to 70,000 train-km and 60,000 train-km on the NSL and EWL respectively in 2012.

Amongst enhancements done to the rail lines include track circuit system renewal with more than 1,100 track circuits replaced and power supply renewal covering 1,3000km of power cables, 250 km of fibre-optic cables, 206 power transformers, 172 switchboards, and various equipment in 171 substations. 

"NSEWL stations have replaced the 64P touch voltage protection systems with new Voltage Limiting Devices to isolate power faults and prevent line-wide disruptions," LTA said.

Meanwhile, LTA said 26 of the 66 train replacements for the NSWEL trains have arrived in Singapore. Seven of the 25 are already in passenger services, whilst the remaining are undergoing testing and commissioning.