Transcript of Acting Minister for Transport Jeffrey Siow’s Remarks at Dakota MRT Station Visit on Circle Line Tunnel Strengthening Works and Service Adjustments

1.          Good morning everyone, I'm here at Dakota MRT station to get an update on the tunnel works for our Circle Line (CCL). As you know, we started this project about two and a half months ago in mid-January, and we had suspended service between Paya Lebar and Mountbatten stations for this period, so that we have a long and continuous period of uninterrupted maintenance time to do these works daily.

2.          I'm very glad to update today, that the works have been progressing very well, and that we will be able to complete them ahead of schedule. This means that we can resume train services between Paya Lebar and Mountbatten stations on 10th April, which is more than a week ahead of the original planned dates. This is good news for our commuters.

3.          First of all, I want to thank the contractors and the LTA project managers for working very hard to make this happen. It is a very tough and complicated work, with many workers involved, working across the days and hours, also through the Ramadan period. And, they managed to move forward the completion of the projects while doing so very safely. I also want to thank many staff, both from SMRT as well as SBST, and volunteers who have helped us at the stations doing marshalling, providing information to commuters, so that our commuters are able to navigate, know what the alternative travel routes are, and overall, be able to carry on their journeys smoothly. And finally, most importantly, I want to thank the commuters for their understanding, because I know it's a significant disruption to their daily lives, but they understand why we are doing this, and they have been able to make adjustments to their travel schedules. We've been able to work with them together to make this project work and to complete the project. So, it's good news that we're able to bring forward the project and we are happy for them.

4.          So, now that the works have been completed smoothly, we are going on to our next phase of the Circle Line development, which is to open Circle Line Stage six (CCL6). Many commuters are looking forward to this, and so am I. We are going to continue our plans to open CCL6, on track, in the middle of this year, as planned. What we have to do before then is to complete one final round of systems testing, and this is for the whole physical line. We will need some service adjustments in order to complete this testing. What we will do is to do some early closures on the weekends, as well as late openings. This is something we've done before. We are going to stop the CCL service one hour earlier on Saturday, and open it up to three hours later on Sunday, for the next few weekends. LTA will be able to give you more details on that. We are going to do this as the final stage of the works. And once that is completed, the whole of the CCL will be complete, and commuters will be able to enjoy service as planned. This is something that we're all looking forward to.

5.          After the testing period, or somewhere in the middle of the testing period, I think we'll be able to get a fix date on when exactly we would be able to open the Circle Line Stage 6. I will give an update then.

Chinese Remarks

1.          大家早上好，今天很高兴宣布环线的隧道维修工程会提早完成。

2.          在 Paya Lebar和Mountbatten车站之间的环线服务会在四月十号提早恢复正常。

3.          随着环线维修工程的顺利完成，我们就可以按照原本的计划，准备开通环线第六阶段。

4.          在开通之前，我们需要做一些服务调整。整条环线，在接下来的几个周末，在星期六会提早半个钟头停止服务，在星期天会延迟三个钟头才开始服务。

5.          在此，我要感谢乘客们多多的体谅，谅解，因为这是我们最后的准备，最后的系统试测。

6.          做完这之后，我们就可以指定开通环线第六阶段的日期。

7.          陆路交通管理局会提供更多细节。