Sengkang West LRT line to resume full service on Oct 4 after six-month closure for upgrades

SINGAPORE – Full train service on the Sengkang West LRT line will resume two weeks ahead of schedule on Oct 4, six months after the inner loop was closed for upgrades to the Sengkang-Punggol LRT (SPLRT) depot.

Originally spanning 3.5ha – about the size of five football fields – the depot has been undergoing expansion works since 2022.

Once completed in 2027, it will span 11.1ha and provide the space needed to house a larger fleet of light rail vehicles to meet growing ridership demand.

To manage demand for now, a free off-peak ride scheme that has been in place for commuters from the north-eastern part of Singapore will be extended to Dec 26, 2027.

First introduced in December 2025, the scheme allows passengers to take their first rail ride for free when they tap in before 7.30am or between 9am and 9.45am on weekdays at any SPLRT station or one of six North East Line (NEL) stations.

Speaking to reporters at the SPLRT depot on Oct 2, Senior Minister of State for Transport Sun Xueling said the initial aim was to have about 7% of commuters shift their travel times but about 10% opted to do so.

“We hope that with the extension of this programme, more commuters will use off-peak rail travel, which will help with the capacity situation,” she added.

Connecting residents in the north-eastern part of the island to the city centre, the NEL is one of Singapore’s most heavily utilised rail lines.

Operator SBS Transit reported in its half-year business update that the line sees an average of 602,000 passenger trips each day. This is a 1.5% increase from the same period in 2025.

The SPLRT averages 151,000 daily passenger trips.

With Sengkang and Punggol populations growing to more than 450,000 people in total, both the NEL and SPLRT are often packed during peak hours.

To alleviate this crowding and boost network capacity, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Oct 2 said it will add more eight third-generation, two-car light rail vehicles to the fleet.

This will bring the total number of two-car vehicles servicing the SPLRT to 41 by 2030, allowing it to take on more passengers. Average capacity across the SPLRT will go up by 30% once all the carriages are in.

There are now 25 such third-generation vehicles being delivered to replace the ageing first-generation fleet, which consists of 25 one-car variants and eight two-car models. The eight second-generation, two-car models will remain in service.