Additional Engineering Hours Will Be Used for Rigorous Testing Ahead of Stage 2 Opening at the End of the Year
 

1.         Train services on Stage 1 of the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL1^[1]) from Woodlands North to Woodlands South will close earlier at 10.00pm every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and start later at 6.30am every Saturday and Sunday, for the period from 3 April to 26 July 2020.

2.         This will double the engineering hours available to test the systems and trains in preparation for the opening of Stage 2 of the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL2^[2]) later this year. Similar shortening of operating hours was done for the Downtown Line previously.
 

3.         Mr Ngien Hoon Ping, Chief Executive of the Land Transport Authority (LTA), said, “We are making good progress on TEL2 and are on track to open its six new stations at the end of the year. To prepare for this milestone, we are lengthening limited engineering hours to ensure that rigorous systems integration and testing from Woodlands North to Caldecott can be carried out.”

4.         Mr Neo Kian Hong, Group Chief Executive Officer of SMRT Corporation said, “We are working closely with the LTA on the systems integration and testing for the opening of TEL2. We strive to minimise inconvenience to our commuters as engineers do their best to prepare for the next phase of TEL. We look forward to the opening of TEL2.”

Alternative Travel Arrangements

5.         Commuters may use existing public bus services such as 901/M, 169 and 856 to travel within the vicinity of Woodlands. They may also use these bus services to transfer to the North-South Line at Woodlands Station to continue their travel on the rail network.

6.         Commuters are advised to check for travel updates before starting their trip. Information will be available on the LTA and SMRT Facebook and Twitter accounts, LTA Traffic News and MyTransport.SG.


Enclosed:
Annex A: TEL1 First and Last Train Departure Times from Fridays to Sundays

^[1] TEL1 comprises three stations – Woodlands North, Woodlands and Woodlands South
^[2] TEL2 comprises six stations – Springleaf, Lentor, Mayflower, Bright Hill, Upper Thomson and Caldecott