The Punggol North LRT
What was the middle track at Punggol station actually for?
This is one of those questions it’s hard not to ask yourself during your daily commute. The provisions are sitting right there, visible from any train — stub tracks at Teck Lee, a third track to Sam Kee, the extra-wide platform at Punggol…
While they can be reused to improve the existing train service as previously explored here, could they also be returned to their original purpose? Well, I guess it’s time for some myth busting again.
Did this proposed line even exist in the first place, though? It sort of did. The Concept Plan 2001 showed a third LRT spur extending from the general area of Teck Lee station, along what might now be Punggol Coast Road on Google Maps. Recent URA Masterplans also seem to show Punggol Coast Road could be extended all the way to Punggol East, along a similar alignment which the LRT spur could follow before turning up to Coney Island. Concept designs by the designer of the LRVs also indicate that the spur would likely have four stations of its own, presumably distributed somewhat equally along the line.
EDIT: It was brought to my attention that the plans were far more concrete — they got as far as awarding the contract for a “13km Punggol line” which likely included Punggol North. Subsequent changes appear to have removed the Punggol North LRT from the works, so I’m leaving the above as is.
Way past its time?
The development of both JTC’s Punggol Digital District, as well as SIT’s new Punggol Campus (points 4 and 6 in the below picture), might have put paid to any extension of the LRT from Teck Lee, since the SIT campus buildings — or at least its foundations and/or basements — would be in the way. To add on, the URA Master Plan shows the NEL tracks ending right at the waterfront beneath the JTC business park, also creating large obstacles towards any potential further NEL extension to what would have been the Punggol North LRT area.
As an integrated development between SIT and JTC, it also stands to reason that the entire area will be at least more walkable under shelter than the isolated HDB housing estates; along with Teck Lee station, there may thus be no need for any further LRT coverage within the District proper. It also makes more sense to extend the NEL from Punggol, since that means less people making the vertical trip to and from the LRT. More people using the reverse-peak capacity on the NEL to get to Punggol in the morning is bound to happen anyway.
A bus interchange at Punggol Coast now under construction will also allow additional feeder services to be run out of that interchange to serve at least some of the LRT’s old service area. In any case, the plots of land facing the waterbody between Punggol and Coney Island remain undeveloped anyway, so this is probably still a while off.
CRL Riviera also may render some of the East Loop LRT stations moot, as riders may find it easier to just walk to the CRL station, especially since the current system map notation appears to indicate that there won’t be a transfer between the CRL and LRT within the paid area. This is quite similar to the situation at BP13 Senja, where for a lot of people walking to Exit C of the DTL station can be much faster than going one stop on the LRT and then an awkward transfer, resulting in much lesser users at Senja LRT station.
With the CRL Punggol Extension also meaning that Punggol station no longer has to be the main MRT point of entry into the town, it could also mean some of those buses could also serve CRL Riviera station for eastbound journeys to Tampines and the airport, or future westbound journeys to Yishun and Woodlands should the North Coast Line happen.
Fit for purpose
But even if you found a way to overcome the near-impossible, by threading a guideway through the SIT campus and locating places for stations, how effective would the line be?
Firstly, capacity would be restrained by the single track allocated to terminate the Punggol North line. This is a 500m track starting from just after Sam Kee station, and considering time taken to accelerate to and decelerate from the LRV service speed of 60kph, it would take perhaps somewhere over one minute to travel from Sam Kee to Punggol on this track. For reference, though, normal Punggol West Loop trains take around a minute and a half, but they have more complicated trackwork and turns to pass.
What this means is that the minimum frequency that can be run on the Punggol North line as designed will be severely limited by the infrastructure. At best, you might be able to run a train every four minutes, with a train taking two to three minutes to move and the remaining time picking up passengers at Punggol station. While acceptable now, this might eventually fall behind the East and West loops should an improved signalling system allow for higher frequencies on the loops than what the single track can support.
The lesson here for us, like at Expo-Tanah Merah, is that single track lines are bad. Along the Changi Airport line the 1.4km single track between Expo and Tanah Merah limit maximum frequency to 8 minutes — it’s an extreme case, but much of the time is due to the need for a driver to walk to the other end of the 140m long train. Apart from the lower travel time, LRTs are driverless systems, so perhaps 4 minutes is the best you can have.
Secondly, the North line also shares track between Sam Kee and Teck Lee with the West Loop. This in principle isn’t really an issue since both loops share track through Punggol station anyway, and so the North line trains can be synchronised to similar timings as East Loop trains, in order to slot in between two West Loop trains. But with the single track, to do such synchronization, it may mean that the entire network frequency might have to be reduced, or at least train movements between Punggol and Teck Lee have to be micro-optimized. That may not be a good idea.
Another argument I’ve seen made is that an additional depot would be needed on the Punggol side. This argument may be understandable, should the current expansion of the LRT Sengkang Depot may perhaps not be enough for even further service expansion (such as with longer trains); and even if it is, it might be too far away from Punggol. For now, they get by with overnight parking of trains on the section of guideway above the TPE connecting the Sengkang and Punggol LRT systems. I’d also counter with the question of whether leaving trains in stations overnight is a better thing to do to keep costs down; large depots would be nice to have, but is it a wise thing to pay for the extra space which remains unused?
Taken individually, these issues aren’t that bad, but putting them together is what really kills the project. Compared to two-car LRT trains at three-minute frequencies, the NEL provides several times the carrying capacity and much better frequency too.
How creative are you?
It may be possible that the benefits of the project can be achieved by other means.
Firstly, the abovementioned ability to walk to the CRL station allows us to consider closing the section of the loop along Punggol East (including LRT Riviera) altogether and having trains run from Coral Edge to Kadaloor stations via Punggol. The tracks after Kadaloor station can then be rerouted north to lead to a station at the far end of Punggol East. This would give a one-seat albeit indirect LRT ride to Punggol Central, and as mentioned bus service could also be used to fill in the gap to Riviera station.
Or it could be designed in such a way that only Outer Loop trains serve this new extension, and the Inner Loop remains intact. This could, however, pose some inconvenience as passengers might need to ride the entire Outer Loop the long way. It’s an additional kilometre, which may mean longer journeys by 2 to 3 minutes, though looking at the current BPLRT situation that might not be an issue. That said, it still won’t be as troublesome as what happens with the JRL at Bahar.
There is also a reserve site near where the end of the potential extension would have been. Apart from a station, this may be a good site for more train storage if so desired, similar to the design of Ten Mile Junction depot and station assuming they’re willing to do that again. If the land can be used, maybe other government facilities (such as, for example, a better-appointed Punggol Police Station) can also be placed with the rail facility.
But yet, an argument can be made that there is no longer much of a need for such an LRT extension, considering the lower plot ratios of land along the route (2.1 to 3) compared to what is along the East and West loops (generally around 3.5). This indicates that there may be lesser apartments and other types of housing in the area which may affect demand for any LRT extension. The story may thus be very similar to that of West Coast, in which buses can pick up the slack. Contrary to the caricatures of me some may depict, I believe in using the right tool for the job.
That said, let’s see if they choose to use the land set aside for residential uses on Coney Island or to further develop the area’s eco-tourism potential. That could justify the construction of an LRT extension for both Punggol East and Coney Island, not only to serve local residents but also visitors to that end of Coney Island.
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