Pre-construction: Marine Terrace

Marine Terrace station is located roughly 1km away from Marine Parade station. It serves several HDB blocks and schools in the area as well. This station will see 6 entrances as well, with entrances 1 and 6 on the map below being connected by a pedestrian subway to the main station building.

Indicative map of the station entrance locations

An artist's impression of one of the entrances - probably entrance 3 outside St. Patrick's School

Pre-construction: Marine Parade

Marine Parade estate has long clamoured for an MRT station to connect Singapore's first estate built on reclaimed land with the rest of the island. With the Thomson - East Coast Line (TEL), this wish of the residents here will finally be answered. The station has 6 entrances which stretch over the station itself to the end of the cut-and-cover tunnels next to the station housing the cripple siding for the line.

Indicative locations of the station entrances

Artist's impression of entrance 6

Pre-construction: Amber (Tanjong Katong)

The third announced station is Amber station, located along Tanjong Katong Road South and Amber Road. This station is the deepest along the East Coast sector of the Thomson - East Coast Line (TEL) at 30 metres deep. It will also feature stacked platforms like the Katong Park station and it will have 3 entrances.

Indicative locations of the station's 3 entrances.

A view of one of the entrances, likely entrance 3 along Tanjong Katong Road South.

Pre-construction: Katong Park

Katong Park station sits right next to the Katong Park along Fort Road. This station will feature a stacked platform and is the second deepest station along the East Cost stretch of the Thomson - East Coast Line (TEL), at 29 metres. The station will have two entrances, one along Fort Road and another along Meyer Road.

Artist's impression of entrance along Fort Road.

A station map with the indicative locations of the entrances labelled

Pre-construction: Tanjong Rhu

The first announced station along the East Coast sector of the Thomson - East Coast Line (TEL) is Tanjong Rhu. Smack in the middle of the residential developments, this cosy neighbourhood will soon be temporarily torn up for a future convenient travel option. The station will be 16 metres deep as the tunnels need to rise to cross the Kallang - Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) tunnels as it travels further eastwards. A long section of cut-and-cover tunnels will be built stretching over the KPE tunnels. What is now a shady grove of trees will give way to station entrances in future.

Location map for Tanjong Rhu station with entrances numerically labelled.

Entrance perspective looking southwards. This entrance is the North entrance (#1), facing the Singapore Sports Hub.

Station exit layout

With the LTA road show making its way around the various malls, we've done our research and come up with a few diagrams to show you the locations of the station exits. The exits have been numbered, against LTA's tradition of assigning letters, to help give an idea of the exact number of entry points per station. We hope this will help give you a better idea of where the entry points for the station will be situated. With many thanks to Seloloving at SSC for his help.

Tanjong Rhu station will have 2 exits.

Katong Park, a stacked station, will have 2 entry points. One exit is located at the child learning & development centre.

Amber, another station with stacked platforms, will have 3 entry points. Properties are being acquired to accommodate this station.

Marine Parade station, together with a pedestrian subway above the cripple siding, will feature 6 entry points.
Provisions for linkage to Parkway Parade are in the pipeline and depending on the developer's willingness, will be built eventually.

Marine Terrace station will also feature 6 entry points to expand the station's reach to schools and residents.

Siglap station will see 4 entry points being built, including two exits linked by a 100m long subway.

Bayshore station will see 5 entry points to cater to future developments in the area. A new road will be built over the station.

Bedok South is being built with proposed developments in mind and features 5 entry points.

Sungei Bedok terminus will feature 3 entry points.

Pre-qualification

Today the Land Transport Authority released the pre-qualification for contracts on the East Coast sector of the Thomson - East Coast Line. The following contracts are open for pre-qualification:

T301 - Construction of the 4-in-1 depot
T302 - Construction of station E1 and bored tunnels
T303 - Construction of Tanjong Rhu station (E2) and cut & cover tunnels
T305 - Construction of Katong Park station (E3) and bored tunnels
T306 - Construction of Amber station (E4)
T307 - Construction of Marine Parade station (E5) and cut & cover tunnels and bored tunnels
T308 - Construction of Marine Terrace station (E6) and cut & cover tunnels and bored tunnels
T309 - Construction of Siglap station (E7)
T310 - Construction of Bayshore station (E8) and cut & cover tunnels and bored tunnels
T311 - Construction of Bedok South station (E9) and bored tunnels
T312 - Construction of Sungei Bedok station (E10) and cut & cover tunnels
T313 - Construction of Xilin station (DT36) and cut & cover tunnels
T315 - Modifications to Tanah Merah station (EW4)

Of all the East Coast Line stations, Katong Park and Amber stations will feature stacked platforms. The rest of the stations will feature single-level platforms.

Roadshow: First look

This morning marked the beginning of the LTA Rail Story roadshows, starting at Parkway Parade mall. There are a number of panels offering limited, and slightly vague at best, information on the construction of underground MRT lines in Singapore. Little information from the construction of early lines is shown and the large focus is on the future and things coming ahead (most of which can't be seen yet) - the upcoming Thomson-East Coast Line, Cross Island Line, Jurong Region Line and other extensions.

Some of the exhibits are interesting though, as they offer more details about the East Coast Line stations. While LTA mentions that you can see the layout of the station closest to you, what they mean are simply the existing maps for the stations updated with circles depicting the locations of the entrances and exits. Only a sole scale model of Marine Parade station is available. Nonetheless, if you'd like to take a look for yourself, do head on down while the roadshow is on.

A view of the scale model of Marine Parade station

Road shows and PICs

If you've not heard, the Land Transport Authority is holding four road shows till January next year. To be held at Parkway Parade (Marine Parade), Thomson Plaza (Upper Thomson), Bedok Mall (Bedok) and 112 Katong (Katong), the four road shows will feature exhibits on the MRT line construction - specifically looking at underground construction. We're also pleased to say that Project Information Centres (PICs) will be back on this line for the community to get more information from time to time. Do head down to the road show to find out more or stay tuned as we update the blog with photos of the exhibits.

Beyond 2024

In the years leading up to the announcement of the East Coast Line, there have been numerous revisions and as such, misinformation as well. Some of the more notorious ones have been in regards to the line's length. In the line's second incarnation, it was announced to be 21km long with 12 stations in 2008. As of 2012, the line had an 'active' part of 13 km with 10 stations, which we now know as the unveiled East Coast sector of the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL). It was never increased again to 21km in 2013 as some sources would state, but neither did the authorities confirm that the active route was now 13km long. In view of this, what has happened to the remaining 8 km and 2 stations (or 3 depending on how you look at it)?

Indicative alignment from URA

Thomson East Coast Line (TEL)

This morning the Minister for Transport Lui Tuck Yew unveiled the rebranded Thomson Line and Eastern Region Line stations. The exact locations of the stations for the former Eastern Region Line were also announced.

Station location announcement?

The blog team was invited to attend the Ministerial Visit to Marina South Pier station this morning. We believe that as we head down to the site that the Minister of Transport will be making an important announcement - potentially announcing the final locations of the Eastern Region Line. Additionally, we expect Marina South Pier station to become operational in September 2014. Do stay tuned for more details as they become available.

Here's a hint for you via the Thomson Line posters by LTA.

Route predictions

Finally, here is our speculative map of the station locations for Eastern Region Line (ERL). We expect the announcement to be made sometime in August, so here are our take on the locations. Once again, we reiterate that these station locations are part of our prediction based on available information and site conditions, not the final location or announcement by relevant authorities.

Based on information that we have collected over the past few years, we have established the following parameters for ERL:

1.  The line will be 13km long, and will be a continuation of the Thomson Line from Gardens by the Bay.
2. There will be 10 stations, named E1 to E10, on the line. E10 on the eastern end of the line will connect directly to Changi Depot. The downtown line will also be extended by 1 station to E10, where it interchanges with the ERL
3.  One of the stations within the section of E1 – E5 will be a future station.

Looking into the available space, construction feasibility and the locations of soil investigations done in the past 2 years, we have come out with 2 possibilities of the overall alignment of ERL. The 2 options differ by the locations of E3 and E4. These 2 scenarios are the result of conflicting locations of SI. We suspect that one of the 2 possible alignments for this section is an alternative proposal for comparison and costing purposes. Similar exercises had been done for Thomson Line prior to the official announcement of the station locations.

Expected alignment

We expect the alignment to run northwards from Gardens by the Bay towards Tanjong Rhu, where it will run along Tanjong Rhu Road, Meyer Road, swing up to Amber Gardens, and merge back to Marine Parade Road just before Parkway Parade. The line then runs along Marine Parade Road until Bayshore where it gradually merges with Upper East Coast Road. The advantage of this alignment is that it avoids most of the old beach and sea wall, and hence reduces complexity during construction.

Here’s a run through of the locations of the MRT stations.

Predictive route - Option A

Contract Awards - T251

Today the Land Transport Authority announced the award of contract T251 for the supply of electric trains for the Thomson (TSL) and Eastern Region Lines (ERL). A total of 91 units will be procured for the two lines under the contract, awarded to the consortium of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, CSR Qingdao Sifang Co. Ltd. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

A render of the train to be procured from Kawasaki - CSR Qingdao Sifang for the TSL & ERL

Amber Road

Did a walkabout several weeks ago and found some intense activity along Amber Road. Suggests that the line may pass through this route option.

 

Golf Courses to make way for redevelopment

An article published today mentions that the Marina Golf Course is one of the two that will not have their lease extended once it expires. This is in line with station E1 along the Eastern Region Line (ERL) being planned as a future station. Soil Investigations in the Gardens by the Bay - Bay East indicate the likely spot of the station near the golf course. With the ERL expected to commence operations in the 2022-2023 range, this coincides with the redevelopment plans announced today as the Marina Golf Course lease expires in 2024. It hence makes sense for a station to be provisioned in a currently low-demand area to cater for the future expected developments largely like how Thomson (now Caldecott) and West Coast (now Haw Par Villa) stations on the Circle Line were conceived.