Facilities on the Mass Rapid Transit

The Mass Rapid Transit system is the rapid transit

Rapid transit

A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

system in Singapore.

Station layout

MRT stations are either above-ground or underground. Stations have two classifications of areas, paid and unpaid areas, which allow the rail operators to collect fares by restricting entry between the areas only through the fare gates, also known as access control gates. Commuters enter the paid area in order to board a train; and must enter the unpaid area in order to access the street, and must pass through the gates. These gates, connected to a computer network, are capable of reading and updating electronic tickets capable of storing data, and can store information such as the initial and destination stations and the duration for each trip. Fares are collected on the basis of this information.

A typical station has a concourse level and one or more platform levels. The concourse level consists of the ticketing machines and the access control gates between the paid and unpaid areas. Tickets are presented at these gates in order to pass between the unpaid and paid areas. Escalators and stairs providing access to the platform level are located only within the paid area. The platform level is where passengers board and alight from the trains. Most of the time this consists of one actual platform island with two sets of tracks for opposite directions running on either side. Except for Changi Airport Station

Changi Airport MRT Station

Changi Airport MRT Station was opened on 8 February 2002 as one of the terminal Mass Rapid Transit stations for the East West Line, and located in between Singapore Changi Airport's Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. This is one of the four MRT stations that have fare gates on the same level as the...

, the concourse level and the platform levels are separate levels. Escalators and stairs between the concourse and platform levels, as well as the concourse level to the street level if necessary. Most stations have only one platform level. However, cross-platform interchange

Cross-platform interchange

A cross-platform interchange is a type of interchange between different lines in a metro system. The term originates with the London Underground; such layouts exist in other networks but are not commonly so named...

stations have two or more platform levels, one for each train line. These extra levels, together with the linkways connecting between them, make interchange stations to have more levels than a typical station that serves only one line.

In above-ground stations where trains run on viaducts, the concourse level can be either be located on the ground level or on the second level, with the platform level above it. When the concourse level is on the second level, a pedestrian overpass

Overpass

An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...

may sometimes link the unpaid area of this level to another prominent building nearby, such as a polytechnic. In underground stations, the concourse level is typically an underground level, with the platform levels below it. For most underground stations where the concourse level is underground, there will be pedestrian underpasses that lead to street access on top of the station area or basement levels of neighbouring buildings, such as a shopping centre. Some stations, particularly interchange

Cross-platform interchange

stations, are deep enough to be shielded from conventional bomb attacks from the air and act as bomb shelter

Bomb shelter

A bomb shelter is any kind of a civil defense structure designed to provide protection against the effects of a bomb.-Types of shelter:Different kinds of bomb shelters are configured to protect against different kinds of attack and strengths of hostile explosives. For example, an Air-raid shelter...

s. This status is enhanced by the fact that underground MRT systems have prebuilt ventilation systems with air-conditioning to ensure a degree of comfort in the unlikely event of a conventional air assault.

Most stations have island platforms, although Braddell MRT Station and Dover MRT Station have side platforms. This is because island platforms are seen to be less costly than side platforms. Also, all stations are made to be as straight as possible because the degree that trains would turn at when approaching and leaving a station would be too great if curved stations were built. A good example of this engineering defect is seen at Mong Kok East Station in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, where Platform 1 of this station (to the left if travelling to the Hong Kong-China border) is curved and the gaps are wide. Trains also risk being scratched depending on how it enters the station.

Facilities and services

All stations have lift, General Ticketing Machines (GTMs), at least one Passenger Service Centre (PSC), payphones, toilets, LED

Light-emitting diode

A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...

and plasma display

Plasma display

A plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...

s (showing the time, date, train service information, safety messages and commercials), located within the unpaid area of the concourse level. Some stations however, such as the underground Somerset MRT Station

Somerset MRT Station

Somerset MRT Station ' is an underground station on the North South Line of the Mass Rapid Transit in Singapore, located under 313@Somerset Shopping Centre between Orchard Road and Somerset Road. It was upgraded in 2002, the first phase of station upgrading works on the system...

, have toilets located at street level instead.

Most stations have commercial space set aside for supermarkets, convenience stores, kiosks, Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and self-service automated kiosks for a myriad of services. Plans are currently underway to increase the amount of commercial space at many SMRT Corporation

SMRT Corporation

SMRT Corporation is a public transport operator incorporated on March 6, 2000, as a result of an industry overhaul to form multi-modal public-transport operators in Singapore. It is the second-largest public-transport company in Singapore after ComfortDelGro...

stations as part of SMRT Corporation's efforts to raise rental revenue from the leasing of commercial space in its stations to help in the defraying operating costs.

Selected stations, located in areas of higher commuter traffic, will be rebranded as Xchanges.

Raffles Place Station
Raffles Place MRT Station
Raffles Place MRT Station ' is a Mass Rapid Transit interchange station on the North South Line and the East West Line in Singapore. It is directly beneath the centre of the financial district of Raffles Place, located in the Downtown Core area, south of the Singapore River...

as Raffles Xchange
Dhoby Ghaut Station
Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station
Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station ' is a Mass Rapid Transit station in Singapore, located at the eastern end of Orchard Road. Originally it was only a station on the North South Line but after the opening of the North East Line on 20 June 2003, it became the interchange station for these two lines...

as Dhoby Xchange
Choa Chu Kang Station as Choa Chu Kang Xchange
Tanjong Pagar Station
Tanjong Pagar MRT Station
Tanjong Pagar MRT Station ' is an underground Mass Rapid Transit station on the East West Line in Singapore. The station caters to people, especially businessmen, working in the Shenton Way and Robinson Road area, and residents...

as Tanjong Pagar Xchange
Boon Lay Station
Boon Lay MRT Station
Boon Lay MRT Station ' is an above-ground Mass Rapid Transit station on the East West Line in Jurong, Singapore.The station currently serves residents living in Boon Lay, Pioneer, Gek Poh, Nanyang and people working in Tuas,Tuas South,Pioneer Sector,Jurong Hill,Jurong Pier,Lok Yang,Benoi and Gul.In...

as Boon Lay Xchange
Buona Vista Station
Buona Vista MRT Station
Buona Vista MRT Station is a Mass Rapid Transit station located in the town of Buona Vista in Singapore, that is part of the East West Line and the Circle Line, and served as an interchange between the two lines. It is the second station complex in Singapore that serves both an above-ground line ...

as Buona Vista Xchange
Tampines Station
Tampines MRT Station
Tampines MRT Station ' is an above-ground Mass Rapid Transit station that is part of the East West MRT Line in Singapore and serves the town of Tampines. Tampines MRT Station was one of the first few stations on both the North South Line and East West Line to be installed with barrier free...

as Tampines Xchange
Esplanade Station
Esplanade MRT Station
Esplanade MRT Station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit station on the Circle Line in Singapore. The station was opened on 17 April 2010 along with the rest of Stage 1 & 2 of the Circle Line. It is operated by SMRT Corporation and is located next to the War Memorial Park, the Suntec City Mall...

as Esplanade Xchange
Orchard Station
Orchard MRT Station
Orchard MRT Station is located on the North South Line of the Mass Rapid Transit and is located along Orchard Road, Singapore. Some of its platform livery is maroon in colour, but most of that are black with marbles....

as Orchard Xchange (Future)
Bukit Batok Station
Bukit Batok MRT Station
Bukit Batok MRT South Station ' is an above-ground Mass Rapid Transit station on the North South Line in Singapore, and for six years part of the Branch Line until the opening of the Woodlands Extension. The station serves mainly residents of the Bukit Batok neighbourhood...

as Bukit Batok Xchange (Future)

A listing of retail outlets located at the above Xchanges is available at the Shopping at SMRT website.

MediaCorp's

MediaCorp

Media Corporation of Singapore, better known as MediaCorp, is a group of commercial media companies in Singapore, with business interests in television and radio broadcasting, interactive media, and, to a lesser extent, print publishing and film-making....

Today

Today (Singapore newspaper)

Today is a free English-language compact in Singapore published by government-owned MediaCorp print media arm. It is distributed from Monday to Sunday....

newspaper and Singapore Press Holding's

Singapore Press Holdings

Singapore Press Holdings Limited is a media organisation in Singapore with businesses in print, Internet and new media, television and radio, outdoor media, and property. SPH has over 4,000 employees, including a team of approximately 1,000 journalists, including correspondents operating around...

my paper

My paper

My Paper is a free, bilingual newspaper in Singapore published by the Singapore Press Holdings....

are distributed at most stations every morning. An afternoon edition of the Today newspaper are distributed at most stations every afternoon.

Televisions

In stations along the Woodlands Extension from its opening date, television units were installed along the platform and these show simulcast feeds from the local free to air stations. These were removed in later years.

Music

Piped in music was initially played at station concourses in the late 1990s. They have been removed since. Some stations also have advertising billboards which advertise artiste albums. These billboards are usually accompanied with a DVD set which also play musics.

Air Fresheners

Lemon scented air fresheners were initially added to the airconiditioning systems in trains. They have since been removed.

Flip Dot Electronic Displays in stations

Initially, the MRT system used green coloured flip dot electronic displays on the North-South Line and East-West Line from 1987 until 2002. The displays announced a train's terminating station when it arrives (or otherwise, a "Do Not Board" warning), although the disadvantage was that it could not tell the duration of a train's arrival time (e.g. the train will arrive at Jurong East Station in 2 mins). The second generation of such displays installed at stations along the Woodlands Extension featured a slightly updated version where the time till the next train arrival would be displayed from 3 minutes prior to the train's arrival. They were eventually replaced by plasma display

Plasma display

s in 2002.

Plasma Displays in stations

Singapore to utilises plasma display

Plasma display

s in metro stations to display train service information. Critics have opposed the use of plasma displays as they are considerably more expensive to install and are susceptible to the problem of screen burn

Phosphor burn-in

Screen burn-in, image burn-in or ghost image, colloquially known as screen burn or screen afterimage, is a permanent discoloration of areas on an electronic display such as a cathode ray tube display or computer display monitor or Television set caused by cumulative non-uniform usage of the...

. However, the rail operators see this as a medium to earn advertising revenue from commercials shown on these displays. At the same time, they are able to display all the train service information, safety messages and time and date on these screens clearly. Using the flip dot system previously, only a limited amount of information could be displayed.

Plasma Displays by Conrac are installed in stations along the North South Line

North South MRT Line

The North South Line was the 1st Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore. The line is currently 44 km long with 25 stations, and is operated by SMRT Corporation...

& East West Line

East West MRT Line

The East West Line was the 2nd Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore. The line is currently 49.2 km long with 35 stations , making it the longest MRT line in Singapore. It takes about 63 minutes to travel from one end to the other...

. 2 plasma displays are installed at a single location per platform. The reason for the installation of only 2 plasma displays at a single location per platform was because these displays had been retrofitted into the platforms when they replaced the aging flip dot displays which were only sited at 1 location per platform. Thus, the existing infrastructure available could only support plasma displays at 1 location per platform.

Plasma Displays by Advanced System Asia (ADV) are installed at the concourse levels of stations along the North East Line

North East MRT Line

The North East MRT Line is the third Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore and the world's second longest fully underground, automated and driverless, rapid transit line after Singapore's Circle MRT Line. The line is 20 km long with 16 stations and operated by SBS Transit. Travelling from one end...

. These were the first generation of plasma displays installed in these stations. However, the normal Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) for plasma displays is about 35,000 hours or about 4 years. Because these displays were tested and commissioned for use more than 5 years ago, burnt marks had appeared, brought about by a sharp contrast of the display of a certain combination of colours over a long period of time. As such, the Land Transport Authority

Land Transport Authority

The Land Transport Authority is a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport of the Singapore Government.-History:...

had to replace these displays, though only at the platform level.

PPM42S3QX/XSS Plasma Displays by Samsung are installed at the platforms in stations along the North East Line

North East MRT Line

. Unlike the platforms along the North South Line

North South MRT Line

The North South Line was the 1st Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore. The line is currently 44 km long with 25 stations, and is operated by SMRT Corporation...

& East West Line

East West MRT Line

, 2 plasma displays are installed at each of 2 locations per platform. The reason for the installation of 4 plasma displays per platform was because these displays were installed at the platforms right from the station's construction phase & thus had the necessary infrastructure to support them at 2 different locations per platform.

Liquid Crystal Displays in trains

6 liquid crystal displays are installed in each train car. These show silent commercials, safety videos, the name of the next station & terminating station name. These are installed in the Alstom Metropolis Cars & the C751B Cars only. However at present, the units on the C751B cars have been turned off, to be replaced by STARIS v2.

LED displays in stations

These are installed at the entrances and the concourse level of the stations. They show the estimated arrival times of the next two trains per platform, safety messages and train service messages.

LED Displays by Advanced System Asia (ADV) are installed in stations along the North East Line

North East MRT Line

and Circle Line

Circle MRT Line

The Circle Line is Singapore's fourth Mass Rapid Transit line, operated by SMRT Corporation. This underground line is currently long with 28 stations and is fully automatically operated...

.

LED Displays by Wei Long Electronics are installed in stations along the North South Line

North South MRT Line

The North South Line was the 1st Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore. The line is currently 44 km long with 25 stations, and is operated by SMRT Corporation...

and East West Line

East West MRT Line

LED displays in trains (VPIS)

These are installed in all C751A and C830s. These displays show the name of the next station, current station, door closing messages, interchange messages and occasionally the date and the time. However, the displays in the C751B trains are already replaced by the STARIS's VFDs.

VFD displays in trains (STARIS)

VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Displays) is now installed on all Kawasaki C151s/Siemens C651s and Kawasaki C751Bs together with STARIS. The C151s, C651s and C751Bs had already installed with STARIS and the new upcoming C151As will all have the VFDs installed. The C751B's LED Display has already replaced by these STARIS.

SMRT Active Route Map Information System

The SMRT Active Route Map Information System (STARIS) is a new rail travel information system developed in-house by SMRT Corporation

SMRT Corporation

and has been installed for its all 106 fleet of trains. The system comprises 4 units of ceiling mounted Vacuum Fluorescent Displays (VFD) and 8 units of active route map displays installed in every train car. This was already extended to all trains in future.

Barrier-free facilities

A typical barrier-free route for an elevated station would start at the ramp entrance to the station and following the tactile path, would bring the elderly or the handicapped

Disability

A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...

past the wider Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) gates & into the lift at the concourse level. The lift will feature braille plates on lift buttons, audio announcements and LED displays. Upon exiting from the lift at the platform level, the tactile path will lead them onto a designated waiting area where the doors of the middle train cars will be (and where the designated wheelchair space will be) to wait for the train. The tactile path may diverge at the concourse level to lead to the handicapped friendly toilet or passenger service centre. At all elevated stations where platform screen doors are not installed, tactile studs are installed along the platform edge to serve as reminder for them that they are getting too close to the edge.

The barrier-free route will differ slightly depending on whether the station is underground or located at the road median or design of the station but there will be at least 1 barrier free route for the disabled and the elderly at every station, leading from the street level to the platform level, though some stations will have more due to higher passenger traffic.

All stations on the North South Line (NSL)

North South MRT Line

The North South Line was the 1st Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore. The line is currently 44 km long with 25 stations, and is operated by SMRT Corporation...

& stations constructed before 2001 on the East West Line (EWL)

East West MRT Line

initially did not have barrier-free facilities such as lifts, ramps & tactile guidance systems for the elderly and disabled. In addition, all stations on the NSL & EWL initially did not have the wider AFC gates installed as well.

Since 2010, however, all 79 MRT stations were made barrier-free as part of a programme to make all MRT stations accessible to the elderly and the handicapped. Furthermore, all 79 MRT stations have wider AFC gates installed as well as part of a programme to make it easier for passengers with luggage or prams.

Technical information

OTIS

Otis

-People:*Otis family, Prominent American political family*Otis *Otis -Fictional characters:*Otis, a puppy in The Adventures of Milo and Otis*Otis the Aardvark, a BBC puppet character...

is the supplier for the lifts at Changi Airport Station

Changi Airport MRT Station

and the North East Line (NEL)

North East MRT Line

, while Chevailer who is the distributor for Toshiba

Toshiba

is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...

elevators in Singapore is the supplier for all other stations on the NSL & the EWL, also, Kone is the supplier for lifts and elevators for all CCL stations. These lifts typically have a capacity for 15 passengers with a total load of 1 tonne, though those at interchange or busier stations have been designed with a larger handling capacity.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.