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Singapore's sixth subway, the S$18-billion Thomson Line (TSL), will have 22 stations running from Woodlands in the north to Marina Bay in the south, government said on Wednesday as it revealed the exact locations of the stops.
In a joint statement, the Land Transport Authority and Urban Redevelopment Authority said the line will include six interchange stations that will link to the four other existing MRT lines in Singapore, as well as the future Downtown Line.
Running parallel to the existing North South Line, TSL will serve commuters living and working along its corridor in Woodlands, Sin Ming, Thomson, Kim Seng and Marina Bay areas that are not served by the existing MRT network.
Residents along the TSL corridor will be able to experience savings in travel time. For example, a Sin Ming resident travelling to Republic Polytechnic will have his journey time reduced by half, from 50 minutes to 25 minutes, the government agencies said.
Construction work for TSL will commence in stages from third quarter of 2013, LTA told Yahoo! Singapore.
The TSL will be completed in three stages, with the first
stretch (three stations from Woodlands North to Woodlands South) to be completed
in 2019.
The second stretch (six stations from Springleaf to Caldecott) will be
completed in 2020 and the final stretch (13 stations from Mount Pleasant to
Gardens by the Bay) in 2021.
When fully operational in 2021, the 22 stations on
TSL will serve about 400,000 commuters daily.
However, to get the project going, government will need to acquire four full lots, including a
post office along Upper Thomson Road and two landed properties along Stevens
Road and Robin Close, the agencies said.
Pearls Centre will also be affected by the TSL
construction as a TSL tunnel will run under part of the building, they explained.
Also, to optimise
land use around the future TSL station at Outram Park, Pearls Centre at Eu Tong
Sen Street will be acquired and amalgamated with the adjoining State land for a
high-density mixed-use development.
Five other part lots will be acquired but
the acquisition will not affect the main building structure, they added.
The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) on Wednesday gazetted the lands
affected by acquisition.
Landowners who are directly affected will receive
acquisition notices. SLA will also get in touch with them over the course of the
next few weeks to assist them with their queries and concerns, said LTA and URA.
Woodlands resident Shirley Tay, 20, said the new line is convenient for those who stay in the north and travels to central Singapore.
"And if we want to go to the area around Marina Barrage or Marina Bay, we don't have to change buses or MRT lines to get there. It's a straight-forward journey," Tay added.
However, some commuters feel that the new MRT line is similar to the North South Line.
Yahoo! Singapore reader Chris Tan said, "[They] should build tracks that connects North East Line (Punggol) to North South Line (Woodlands) to East West Line (Changi Airport). ... This track is almost identical to the North South Line, waste of resources."
Example of time savings. (Graphic from LTA)
The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit an all-time high of 321 at 10pm on Wednesday, crossing into the "hazardous" range, according to data from the National Environment Agency (NEA).