MASS RAPID TRANSIT DOWNTOWN LINE

MASS RAPID TRANSIT DOWNTOWN LINE:

(Expediting of construction): 5.

Mr Cedric Foo Chee Keng asked the Minister for Transport if the construction

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of the MRT Downtown Line can be expedited.

6.

Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether the Ministry will consider expediting the construction of the Bukit Timah corridor of the Downtown Line as 2015 is too long to wait for its completion; and (b) what are the criteria used in determining how the stations along this line will be located.

The Minister for Transport (Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat): Sir, with your permission, can I take Question Nos. 5 and 6 together as they are related?

Mr Speaker: Yes.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: Sir, the Government is committed to ensuring the timely completion of the Downtown Line (DTL).

The DTL is a 40-kilometres rail line that will connect the north-western and eastern areas of the island to the CBD and the Marina Bay area. It will be built in three stages. The first stage, or DTL 1, which serves the new developments in the Marina Bay, such as the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort and the new Marina Bay Financial Centre, is targeted for completion in 2013. The second stage, serving the Bukit Timah corridor and Bukit Panjang area, is scheduled for completion in 2015. The final stage, which serves areas such as Bedok Reservoir and Tampines, is expected to be completed in 2018. By implementing the project in phases, commuters can enjoy the benefits of the DTL even before the entire line is completed.

In working out the implementation schedule, LTA took into account the need to meet strategic transport needs and

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demand as well as economic and financial viability considerations. The scheduling of the project also took into account the scale and complexity of the project as well as the resources required to manage and execute the project safely. The DTL is the longest underground rail project to date and runs through built-up corridors. LTA has already started preparatory work for the first two stages of DTL.

As to how the locations of the stations are determined, LTA takes into consideration the need to maximise the stations' accessibility and connectivity to population and employment centres. Where feasible, interchanges will be built to link the DTL with existing RTS lines, to connect the DTL to the rest of the RTS network. Engineering requirements and site conditions also affect station locations. LTA is still in the process of finalising the details of station locations.

Mr Cedric Foo Chee Keng: Sir, I understand from the Minister that the DTL will take up to 2018 before final completion. In the interim, can I understand how the Ministry will provide new capacity, whether rail or bus, to cater to the growth in demand which is expected to be very strong in the next few years?

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: Sir, my Ministry, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Public Transport Council (PTC), on an on-going basis, monitors the traffic conditions in our public transport system, in terms of crowding and capacity. Where necessary, the PTC and the LTA will work closely with the public transport operators to increase bus capacity. The Member pointed out that it takes up to 2018 to build a rail line, so what happens in the meantime. So where necessary, in a particular area, where it is getting very congested, we look towards increasing bus capacity. This could be in terms of increasing bus service frequencies or new bus routes, ie, new buses coming on stream.

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Mdm Halimah Yacob (Jurong): Sir, we heard the Minister's explanation that it depends on scale, complexity and various other reasons in determining the schedule. But I think the Minister has still not directly answered the question why the building of the line cannot be hastened. I hope the Minister will answer that question. My second point is whether the Ministry will also take into account when it constructs the MRT line, how to also ensure connectivity to the other transport contact points, ie, the buses and other public transport amenities, because this is always a perennial problem, that the lines are built but there is not much connection to the other public transport systems. Will that also be taken into account?

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: Let me answer the second question first. The answer is yes. This is what we will do. We will ensure that the DTL connects with the Compass line, which is the present, East-West and the North-South lines and also the Circle Line that we are building. We will ensure that this is the case and, where possible, like she has said, with bus interchanges. Her first question was: can we hasten it and bring it forward? We will do this as expeditiously as possible. As I have said, preparatory work has already started. Once the approval has been given by Cabinet, we have moved. So preliminary engineering works are done. But the scale and complexity is something that I think Members understand. This is the longest underground line that we are building. So, it is time-intensive. Even as we want to do it as fast as possible, because it goes through built-up areas, we have to minimise disruptions to traffic, and, over and above that, we have to ensure that we do it safely. So we are on the same page. We like to do it as fast as possible but we have to take into account these considerations.

Mr Cedric Foo Chee Keng: Sir, the policy we take with regard to air transport

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is an excellent one. Before Terminal 2 was actually chock-a-block, we started with Terminal 3 construction. We announced the plan that Terminal 3 will be opened in 2008. And we all understand how much goodwill and how much externalities such new capacity, which is presented ahead of demand, have brought to Singapore. But does it mean that the Ministry has been late in thinking through the land transport issues and policies so that it will take another 11 years from now for it to come to full fruition or is there fiscal constraint that we cannot hasten it any further?

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: It is not a financial constraint. As I have said, approval has been given and the resources have been allocated and we are already proceeding. Did we plan it in advance? The answer is yes.

The idea of a DTL was mooted in the late 1990s and we have been studying the feasibility of this project. This is an expensive project, and we must have a certain discipline in the whole process of approving such huge undertakings. It costs us about $11 billion to build. If we look at our present rail network, as a proxy, the capacity situation in terms of our MRT trains when they run during peak hours, on average, they are about 70%-80% full. So the capacity is still there. When we build the DTL, we are building, exactly as what the Member said, in anticipation, because of the residential population growth in the north western area and also in the eastern area. This is what we are doing. The key issue here is to ensure that it is timely.