Image: The first 4km section of the Singapore Downtown Line will begin commercial operations in October 2013. Photo: courtesy of DIMETRONIC.
Commercial operations on the first phase of the line are expected to start in October 2013, with automatic operations under the supervision and control of the Sirius communications-based train control (CBTC) system.
During trials, the company will use C951 three-car trains, 73 of which are being delivered by China-based Changchun Bombardier Railway Vehicles.
Invensys Rail is supplying Sirius CBTC and Rail 9000 automatic train supervision (ATS) technology, Westrace Mark 2 electronic interlockings and platform screen doors (PSD) for the line under a S$288m ($185m) contract, awarded by the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) in 2008.
"The line is expected to carry more than 500,000 passengers daily in a completely automatic operation."
The entire Downtown Line will have a total length of 42km, 34 stations and two depots, and is being built in three phases to connect the north-western and eastern areas of Singapore to the Central Business District and Marina Bay.
The line is expected to carry more than 500,000 passengers daily in a completely automatic operation.
The company has been testing its signalling technologies on a test track at Changchun in China since 2011 to verify the automation systems; the tests are expected to be completed by the end of January 2013.
Sirius is an automatic train control system that helps reduce the interval between trains to increase the transport capacity of a line.