from what i know, Circle Line (CCL) is supposed to serve low to
middle corridors unlike other MRT lines which serve heavy corridors
- it is some sort of a hybrid between MRT and LRT line. so it will
not use 6-car trains but will use 3 or 4-car trains, which means it
can manouevre the 90-angle turn well. in fact, it has space to "jut
out" a little bit onto the land between Temasek Avenue and Benjamin
Shares Bridge Rochor Rd exit since it's been reserved by LTA for
future road expansions (on some roads there is a wide strip of
grass or pavement between road and buildings as they've been
earmarked for future road expansions by LTA and property owners
have their land acquired cos of that, not jus building new MRT
lines) and thus no buildings can come up there above the tunnels
without permission from LTA. don't worry, they have all the
engineering stuff sorted out before releasing the tunnel and
stations maps to the press and public.
there is no conclusive plans for Circle Line (CCL) Phase 6 from
HarbourFront to Millenia. however, from what i know, Circle Line
(CCL) Phase 5 will terminate at NE1 and interchange with North-East
Line. (there's speculation that NE2 is actually the interchange
with CCL as the age-old rule of SMRT that interchange stations
cannot be terminals as interchanges are busy stations and terminals
always have track faults 'cause their crossover is used many times
a day and has a high chance of failure - that's why they built an
"extra" station NS27 Marina Bay to accomodate terminating trains
though there's no apparent demand. but with CCL terminating and
interchanging at CC1/NS24/NE6 Dhoby Ghaut, i don't know if this
policy exists anymore.) beyond that it could possibly require a
"full" MRT line as the future New Downtown at Marina South surely
requires a heavy-corridor MRT line to meet with the traffic. so
that's the dilemma LTA is having. possibly they could extend
North-South Line at Marina Bay towards New Downtown and let Circle
Line terminate at Marina Bay since they have spare land there for a
new station.
FYI, underground MRT stations are always built under roads or
reserve sites so no one else can build anything above it since the
foundations may cut into MRT lines. however to maximise land use,
they jus build it under the roads anyway since there will be no
possibility of having to build a foundation for a new building.
tunnels follow the same theory so they tend to manouerve under
roads or schools or state land or government buildings, accounting
for weird turnings at some tunnels, like Somerset - Orchard,
Braddell - Toa Payoh, Novena - Newton, Outram Park - Tiong Bahru
and Raffles Place - Tanjong Pagar.
my plans for Circle Line (CCL) Phase 4:
CC17 MacRitchie Station: more like a supplementary station for park
users and transferring to other buses at the MacRitchie
"interchange" bus stop. also serves the flora shops along Thomson
Road and Mount Alvernia Hospital. to be built jus next to the long
overhead pedestrain bridge jus under junction of Lornie Rd and
Thomson Rd between the two current bus stops.
CC18 Adam Station: this is built quite a distance way from
MacRitchie station and will create the longest station-to-station
travel time (now is Changi Airport - Expo, Kranji - Yew Tee and Yio
Chu Kang - Khatib, all 5 minutes since SMRT tries to keep it to 5
minutes even if trains have to travel very fast for Airport tunnel
route). serves as second connecting station to Bukit Timah area
apart from Newton station on NSL. the tunnel will follow Lornie and
Adam Roads deep in the ground before leaving Adam Road as Adam Road
turns south towards Adam Food Centre and the tunnel travels
straight towards Coronation Plaza. to be built under the Bukit
Timah canal just in front of Coronation Plaza jus after the
vehicular tunnels ended, which is an engineering feat (considering
how difficult it took to build Chinatown station which is under a
river) but better than to build it at Adam food centre, which has 1
flyover, 1 river and 2 underground vehicular tunnels.
CC19 Farrer Road: this serves the Farrer Estate and Farrer Court
residents as well as the landed property behind (how fortunate they
are!). the tunnel will follow Coronation Rd, before turning towards
King's Rd below the new Nanyang Primary School. to be built at
junction of Empress Rd and King's Road jus behind the Farrer Court
HDB-privatised apartments, 100m away from Farrer Road, since they
have more land there.
CC20 Holland Village: this serves Holland Village and supplements
buses plying the Holland area. here, the tunnels could cut across
the landed properties of Leedon Estate, Taman Warna and Chip Bee
Gardens, of course the tunnels will go as deep as possible if
necessary. expected to follow the road of Taman Warna after the
tunnel crossed Holland Road towards Holland VIllage and curve into
Holland Avenue before stopping at a long strip of land and current
carpark next to Holland Rd Shopping Centre and Block 12. there are
2 connecting bus stops there.
CC21 Buona Vista Interchange: this serves as an interchange to the
East-West Line (EWL). travel time from Bishan to Buona Vista is 17
mins (2+2+6+2+3+2mins, including Bishan - Marymount) only to make
the line feasible. the tunnel will cut across the HDB's Holland
Vista and Holland Drive Estates since it's state land and HDB
wouldn't go that low below ground for foundations. to be built on
current Malaysia-Singapore railway lines to make it close to
Biopolis but one end will touch North Buona Vista Road (the station
will be in a SW-NE orientation so it can travel along North Buona
Vista Rd after CC21).
my plans for Circle Line (CCL) Phase 5: it will not cross Biopolis
or have meandering route as they will be served by another LRT
line. that is, MRT(heavy) -> CCL(middle) -> LRT(light), and
BVLRT (Buona Vista LRT) will be more meandering than CCL.
CC22 Kent Ridge: this serves National University of Singapore (NUS)
and National University Hopsital (NUH). the tunnel will follow
North Buona Vista Road before cutting Anglo-Chinese Junior
College's stadium and HDB's Dover Vista Zone before turning left
and stopping at the current carparks of NUH opposite LT29 and MD10.
the carparks are slated to go, but of course, who needs them by
then when u can travel from Buona Vista to NUH/NUS in 3 minutes or
less.
CC23 Science Park: this serves Science Park I. the government of
couse puts economic growth as important and will surely wan a
convenient link to their science parks. the tunnel of course
follows Kent Ridge Rd before moving parallel with Ayer Rajah
Expressway before turning into Science Park Drive just after The
Fleming and before DSTA (Science Park). to be built at Reuters or
DSO National Laboratories. do not expect Normanton Park station as
it jus does not create enough demand.
CC24 Alexandra: to be built near or on the current Alexandra Fire
Station (i think it's a bit old). to serve the Queensway area as
well as Alexandra Village. the tunnel turns back onto Ayer Rajah
Expressway before turning jus at Alexandra Hospital and travelling
across it towards Alexandra station. the junction looks too busy
for construction to go on, so LTA may wan to ask the government to
rebuild the fire station together with the station (or course
there's plenty of land next to it for a temporary fire station) but
i'm not too sure if it'll go through with all the trouble to do
that 'cause of possible funding problems - who should foot the bill
for the fire station? LTA or SCDF or the govt? if not it could be
under the road of Alexandra Road just in front of Alexandra
Hospital in a north-south orientation.
CC25 Bukit Merah: to be built on the closed Bukit Merah Swimming
Complex next to Bukit Merah Bus Interchange. there is still time
for LTA to ask Singapore Sports Council (SSC) to release the land
for a fee. and anyway, SSC did say they should be reserved for
sports or leisure-related facilities, but since both are
governmental agencies, their ministers could most possibly agree to
this. if not it might have to be cramped somewhere along Jalan
Bukit Merah, perhaps in front of Block 2 Redhill Close. there is a
bit of spare land on roadside for road re-alignments, but it would
have done a great deal of convenience for the old and poor
residents at Redhill Close and the motorists. the tunnel should be
along Jalan Bukit Merah until the Redhill Close stop or turn in
under the HDB's hawker centre to the swimming complex.
CC26 Telok Blangah: to be built on Henderson Rd, next to Telok
Blangah Estate. residents could walk or take feeder buses in if
they leave away from Henderson Road. the tunnel follows Henderson
Rd, of course.
CC27 HarbourFront: serves HarbourFront area. the tunnel follows
Telok Blangah Rd after turning in from Henderson Rd.
under-construction now, in front of Cable Car Towers.
CC28/NE2 HarbourFront Interchange: this is an interchange station
with the North-East Line and terminal station for Circle Line. if
for some reason the crossover equipment fails, passengers who need
to transfer to North-East Line can exit at CC27 HarbourFront and
walk over to NE1 HarbourFront, of course paying their fares as
seperate trips. it could be somewhere at Keppel Road or at St.
James Power Station. but it could a waste of resources having
dupilcate stations like that. SBS Transit prohibits passengers from
staying in the train at HarbourFront at Platform A if the train is
to "go beyond" HarbourFront station due to worries that if the
crossover equipment fails they could well be stuck in the train.
but from what i know (and they do allow exceptions during the first
days of opening) there are 3 tunnels where the southbound train can
cross to the middle track before U-turning and reappearing on the
northbound track at Platform B. there's even speculation the design
of the 3 tunnels is for future links into Sentosa but i doubt it
could turn that much to the south (remember it is a 6-car
train).
