PM Lee Hsien Loong at the Opening of Downtown Line Stage 1, Downtown Station Concourse

Mr Lui Tuck Yew
Minister for Transport

Mr Michael Lim
Chairman, Land Transport Authority

Mr Lim Jit Poh
Chairman, SBS Transit

Ladies and Gentlemen

DOWNTOWN LINE

I am very, very happy to be here this morning to open Downtown Line Stage 1. It is our fifth major MRT line, and it is the beginning of our plans to double our MRT network to 360km by the year 2030. When this Downtown Line is completed, it will become the world’s longest driverless underground mass rapid transit line. Every day it will move more than 500,000 riders, and it will make it faster and easier for families in the eastern and northwestern parts of Singapore to travel to the city centre and to the rest of Singapore. So this is the first step in that journey.

DEVELOPING OUR PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

We have come a very long way since the early-1980s, when we were considering whether to build a train system at all. There were different views, because it was a very big decision and a very big change from where we were. Dr Goh Keng Swee was cautious; he felt we should expand our bus network. But Mr Howe Yoon Chong was convinced that we should build a train network. At that time, I was studying in Harvard. I got a message from home asking me to get in touch with a professor in Harvard – Kenneth Hansen, and he was a professor in transport economics. I asked him whether he would come to Singapore to do a study and advise us on the merits and the ways we could expand our public transport system. So he came to Singapore, he brought a team, he did a study, and he recommended an all-bus system. But he said, you can make it work – all you have to do is to make all the buses run 20 percent faster than they do. And it wasn’t such an unreasonable idea at that point where we were. But eventually, we studied it carefully and we concluded that this was not practical given our land constraints. And to run buses 20 percent faster, every passenger must get on 20 percent quicker, every bus driver must be 20 percent more alert, traffic has to give way; it is not possible. And even if you had done 20 percent, what happens when you need to go 20 percent faster beyond that when the city grows and the traffic grows? So eventually, we accepted the recommendation of a Government study team to go for a combination of buses and trains, all of the above and below as well. So we started work on the MRT in 1982, and then we opened the first five MRT stations on the North-South line in 1987, before progressively opening other stations on the East-West and North-South lines. That was the start of the MRT network which we have today.

But we have not stopped here. We are continuing to invest in our public transport infrastructure, to make this a better home for Singaporeans and to raise the quality of life of us all, and to make it a more convenient and business-friendly city. In the immediate term, we are increasing bus services through the Bus Service Enhancement Programme, or BSEP. We have added 16 new routes and buses to 111 services, so waiting times have come down, service standards have gone up. The BSEP is still continuing and we have plans beyond that. We are investing more resources to maintain and service existing train infrastructure. The extra effort is now paying off, because service and reliability are improving, and breakdowns are fewer. You still have an interruption from time to time – sometimes a cable gets damaged, we have trains stop, commuters inconvenienced, but if you look at the statistics, the trends, the averages month by month, steadily but surely we are improving things. In the longer-term, we are expanding our MRT network, bringing in new trains and upgrading our signalling system so that commuters can enjoy more comfortable rides and shorter waiting times. And we are opening several new lines and extensions over the next 10, 15 years – Downtown Line, Tuas West Extension, Thomson Line, Eastern Region Line, Jurong Region Line and Cross Island Line. So anybody coming to Singapore, the dictionary for Singapore acronyms will be a little bit longer. By 2030, our rail system will be larger, denser and more integrated than Hong Kong or New York City today. And eight in 10 households will be within a 10-minute walk of a train station. So I hope you will be patient, you will support what we are doing and we will enjoy the progress in the services, in the network year by year.

These infrastructure improvements will take time, but meanwhile there are many little things which we can do to make our journeys more pleasant, for example, giving up seats to those who need them more. I am glad Singaporeans are doing this more, on their own. Once in a while you find a young man pretending to be asleep when a pregnant lady or an old gentleman is standing by. So just to remind them before they fall asleep not to use that chair, the trains on the Downtown Line have now got special chairs – brightly coloured priority seats. There is no reason you won’t notice when you sit down there! We can also make it a more pleasant experience by queuing for trains instead of jostling at the doors. You see this in other cities, even where the trains and platforms are very crowded. In Tokyo or in Japan generally, passengers are very orderly and well-disciplined and instinctively queue up, even when there are just two of them standing on the platform. And I was in Seoul recently, took a ride; similarly it is marked on the ground on the platform, people will queue up, that’s just the way you do these things. And I am glad that this is catching on here too. At Bishan and Ang Mo Kio stations, the commuters are starting to queue to board trains, and SMRT and LTA are quietly encouraging passengers at other stations to follow suit. And it is beginning to happen, even at crowded stations like City Hall. It shows good social graces, and it makes getting on and off a more pleasant social experience.

So I thank everyone who is involved in making Stage 1 of the Downtown Line a reality. First of all, the SBS Transit staff who have continued to do a professional job and keep morale high despite a lot of pressure and several challenging years. They are coping well with the public demand and the scrutiny. We will continue to give you and the other transport operators our full support. Thank you very much. Secondly, I should mention the LTA officers who are planning and implementing a national public transport system. It is not an easy job. I know that you take pride in your work and have great satisfaction in delivering a good quality network for all. I also like to thank all the contractors and all the builders and all those who have worked to make this happen. Today’s opening is a tribute to your hard work. Well done and thank you very much indeed!

CONCLUSION

I think all of us will be taking the train ride later. I hope you all enjoy this ride on the brand new line. It is free until 1 Jan 2014, 10 days’ time. So take advantage of this – test out the new trains, enjoy the facilities, experience the ride. And don’t forget to queue up and don’t forget to offer your seats to those who need them more! Thank you very much.

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