More Stations to Open This Year; Steady Progress on Upcoming Rail Lines
As announced at the Ministry of Transport’s Committee of Supply debate today, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will complete the final stages of works and open the Circle Line Stage 6 (CCL6), Downtown Line 3 extension (DTL3e), and Thomson-East Coast Line Stage 5 (TEL5) this year. Construction works for the Cross Island Line Phase 3 (CRL3) are planned to commence next year. Engineering studies for the first phases of the Seletar Line, Tengah Line and West Coast Extension of the Jurong Region Line, are planned to commence this year.
New Stations, New Connections
2. CCL6 will close the CCL circle with three new stations between HarbourFront and Marina Bay stations. Steady progress is being made for the ongoing tunnel strengthening works on the CCL, which need to be completed before the remaining testing and preparatory works for CCL6 can resume. CCL6 is on track to open in the middle of this year.
3. Another three new stations under TEL5 and DTL3e are on track to open in the second half of this year.
4. These new stations along the CCL6, TEL5 and DTL3e will bring us closer to our Land Transport Master Plan 2040 target of having 8 in 10 households within a 10-minute walk of a train station by the 2030s. To prepare for the opening of these new stations, additional engineering hours will be required to integrate the new systems into the existing network. We will continue to plan our works carefully to minimise the impact on commuters.
Rail Projects in Progress
Jurong Region Line (JRL)
5. A new station, JS2A, will be added to the JRL. Situated between JS2 and JS3 stations, the new station will serve future commuter demand in the Tengah area (see Annex A for the location of the new station). This brings the total number of JRL stations to 25. Civil construction works for the new JS2A station structure are underway, and JS2A station is targeted to open in the mid-2030s, in tandem with the completion of future developments surrounding the station. More details will be announced when ready.
6. Over the past few years, LTA and its contractors have made steady progress on the construction of the JRL, working through the challenges of construction in already built-up areas where works have to take place next to live roads and residential developments. Based on the latest progress for the JRL, an additional six months will be required before the first stage of the JRL can be opened. This means that Stage 1 of the JRL will open around mid-2028, instead of the initial end-2027 timeline.
a. In order to catch up with works following earlier delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LTA has been working closely with contractors to increase construction capacity, by deploying additional manpower and equipment to accelerate JRL works as far as possible.
b. However, additional time was required to complete certain complex works safely, and we could not recover all the earlier delays. For example, viaduct construction over the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) could only be carried out during overnight road closures on designated nights to ensure the safety of road users. Certain works also took longer than originally planned, such as the construction of a viaduct over a 25-metre wide canal, where contractors had to implement more comprehensive ground reinforcement measures than originally planned to ensure structural stability.
c. We will provide further updates on the opening dates of the second and third stages of the JRL as works progress.
d. We will introduce interim shuttle bus services in end-2027 to improve transport capacity and enhance connectivity between areas due to be served by JRL Stage 1. More details on these services will be announced when ready.
7. Existing bus services will continue to provide extensive coverage and connectivity for residents along the JRL alignment to key destinations such as transport nodes and amenities. This includes the town of Tengah, where bus services with direct connections to the Central Business District and existing rail lines – the North-South Line, East-West Line and Downtown Line – have also been progressively introduced.
a. For example, Services 97 and 97e will be extended to Tengah on 8 March 2026 to provide a direct link to key employment centres including Labrador Park, HarbourFront and the Central Business District.
b. LTA will also continue to adjust bus services based on ridership patterns and introduce more bus services where needed. These include extending Service 181 from Jurong West to Tengah, and the new City Direct Service 684 linking Brickland and Bukit Batok West with the downtown area.
Cross Island Line (CRL)
8. CRL Phase 1, which stretches from CR2 Aviation Park station to CR13 Bright Hill station, has seen significant progress with several stretches of tunnelling work completed, and is targeted to open in 2030. Construction of CRL Phase 2, which will extend CRL Phase 1 westwards to the Jurong Lake District, is advancing steadily with early-stage tunnelling works ongoing. The CRL-Punggol Extension (CPE) is also progressing smoothly, with the design and construction of stations underway. CRL Phase 2 and CPE are slated for completion in 2032.
9. Engineering studies for CRL Phase 3 have also been completed. CRL Phase 3 will extend CRL Phase 2 further westwards to serve the Jurong Industrial Estate and residential developments in Taman Jurong, and provide commuters with alternative travel routes from the North and Northeast regions to the West. LTA plans to commence construction works for the CRL Phase 3 next year, which is slated for completion in the late 2030s.
Seletar Line, Tengah Line and West Coast Extension of the JRL
10. We plan to commence engineering studies for the Seletar Line and Tengah Line, as well as the West Coast Extension of the JRL, this year. Our initial focus for the Seletar Line will be to provide more travel options for residents in the Northeast. We will explore a corridor serving the Sengkang West and Serangoon North areas, with possible connections to the Cross Island Line and Circle Line. For the West Coast Extension, we will focus on the first phase which will extend the JRL from JE7 station to CR18 West Coast (working name) station. We will continue to conduct feasibility studies for the subsequent phases of these lines.
Annex A: Location Map of JS2A
