The
Thomson Line (TSL) will be the sixth
Mass Rapid Transit line in
Singapore and is currently under planning and evaluation. It will be a fully automatic and driverless system, similar to its three predecessors, and will be completely underground.
[1] Announcement of station locations is expected in 2011 or 2012. Completion of the 23-station line (inclusive of 3-reserve stations) is expected in 2018.
[2]
The 30 km rail line will be built from Woodlands in the north, through
Ang Mo Kio and down the
Thomson corridor to the city centre.
[3] In total, there will be 23 stations. En-route, the 30-kilometre line will connect from
Marina Bay through the
Central Business District and up through
Ang Mo Kio all the way to
Woodlands connecting estates such as
Sin Ming,
Kebun Baru,
Thomson and
Kim Seng which do not now have a direct MRT link.
[4]. The latest updates from the Land Transport Authority in June 2011 indicate that the Woodlands station will be the integration point between the TSL and the proposed RTS (Rapid Transit System) to Johor Bahru. The northern-most station on the TSL will be near Republic Polytechnic, and a 32-ha depot will be at Mandai
[5].
It is one of four more rail systems to be built by 2020. The other three rail systems are the
Circle MRT Line, the
Downtown MRT Line, and the
Eastern Region MRT Line. Together, the four will extend the rail network from the current 138 km of track to 278 km by 2020. When completed, it will improve movement in the
city centre, with a train station within every 400m on average, roughly equating a five minute walk.
[3] Its network density will rise from 31 km per million residents today to 51 km per million. This will surpass what Hong Kong and Tokyo have today and is comparable to current densities in places like New York and London.
[6]