The West Coast Extension, in practice
A clearer form than what it used to be, could tell us quite a bit more.
Of course, better late then never. Some may dismiss the recent announcements by Minister Chee as some form of electioneering, noticing how these studies have somehow been underway for the past 10 years or so.
But the latest announcement may indicate that more than enough planning and business case work has gone into the extension. And now we must look not only at the engineering feasibility, but also the logistics of how quickly we can get this line built.
I must be clear that for the rest of these post, this is conjecture from publicly available information; and must not be taken as official information from the LTA. These are my personal opinions on how the line should be built.
The least worst time is now
If anything, one must ask why Phase 1 was not greenlit with the JRL proper, or even CRL Phase 2 — especially when concept studies for a JRL-CRL interchange station in the West Coast area were likely already done with the main JRL project.
It may thus likely be much easier to deliver Phase 1 of the extension, to West Coast CRL. That the LTA has been able to confirm that Phase 1, at least, will be aboveground, may hint at prior work that has been done and can be reused.
I suppose the dilemma boils back down to the choice of West Coast Road against West Coast Highway, as the decision point is at West Coast CRL and will likely influence the design of that station. A decision being made means the interchange can proceed to further design development.
By placing the station within the former Tanglin Secondary, it opens the door for implementing some kind of oversite development integrated with the CRL station. As part of this, the LTA should have some kind of development provision above the station, much like that at TEL Woodlands Station. Can this development provision support a JRL station being built above?
Then again, as explored before, Phase 1, while useful, won’t be earth-shattering. It does nothing that a walkable Jurong Lake District can’t do; and under current plans, it won’t open with CRL2 anyway, so there will be several years where one must use the Jurong Lake District pedestrian network to switch between the CRL and other lines.
Or take the EWL from Jurong East, 1 stop to Clementi.
The Campus Rider
What comes after West Coast CRL? Previously, I presented two choices — West Coast Road, or West Coast Highway. While geographically close within the West Coast area, these two possible routes significantly diverge as we get closer to the Circle Line, so we must choose now.
The LTA’s announcement of Kent Ridge as the new JRL terminal instead of Haw Par Villa means, to me, there is a very high chance that the extension will now be taken along West Coast Road and into NUS. Getting from West Coast Highway to Kent Ridge would involve running alongside West Coast Park and the low-density housing estates nearby. The turn up to Kent Ridge also means forsaking any potential of future extension into the Pasir Panjang port redevelopment, which would be still accessible from Haw Par Villa.
As I’ve mentioned before, the West Coast Highway alignment is also not particularly useful, as high-density industry has developed in the area around Pandan Crescent, and won’t be going anytime soon. The peaky nature of industrial estate transport also makes the West Coast Highway alignment a lot less useful than an alignment along West Coast Road; along West Coast Road, a stop at the market and West Coast Plaza, the de facto neighbourhood centre, can be built.
Thereafter, the line can turn from a southerly direction into an eastern direction, cutting through Clementi Woods Park to reach NUS at its Kent Ridge entrance. Not far away, a stop at the Central Library can be built.
The line can then head northeast towards the AYE and run along it, crossing the Kent Ridge proper with the first of two tunnels I would build for this project, and passing through the University Sports Centre — space which the University can work with the LTA to redevelop and densify as part of this development.
One more station can then be built near Block S17 where there’s currently an open air carpark. Not only can this serve NUS Science and potentially part of Medicine, bridges can also be built across the AYE to serve redevelopment areas along Dover Road and Dover Drive. Of course, this may not be really necessary if a Tengah Line station is able to serve both sides of the AYE as well.
Under the hill
Finally, we arrive at Kent Ridge, which may or may not be the terminal station.
The direct area around Kent Ridge Station has very tricky geography. The main station exit and NUH Main Building are located in a depression, the AYE is raised up relative to NUH, and Exit B of the station, towards South Buona Vista Road, is significantly higher.
Exit B may thus be the best place to build the JRL station. It would likely have to be underground, introducing a new challenge to JRL operations and maintenance, as the fire safety considerations of underground tunnels now come into play. But the timeline also makes sense to open Phase 2 later, if underground construction is needed.
To actually build it may require even more challenges. Terminal stations need crossovers, and building these facilities close to the station means it has to be in an underground cavern of some form. And unlike Sungei Kadut, where there is adequate space to rip open the ground, Kent Ridge may not offer such opportunities.
It may thus make more sense to cross South Buona Vista Road now, building the extension of South Buona Vista Road to Science Park Road at the same time; and then building one more station at the entrance to Science Park 2 . That way, the tunnels in and around Kent Ridge can be drastically simplified to just two through tracks — being so close to tunnel portals, ventilation and other life safety features can perhaps also be simplified somewhat, while maintaining safety.
A station at Science Park 2 could not only allow terminal facilities to be built in a much more convenient location, it can also provide intermodal transfers to serve West Coast Highway anyway, and facilitate a future extension into Pasir Panjang Terminal whenever that is ready. Much of the hard work can be done under the West Coast Extension as it currently stands.
Of course, at Kent Ridge, significant upgrades will need to be made to the station, in order to handle additional passengers coming from the JRL. This upgrading will also be complicated by the NUH Medical Centre/One @ KentRidge above the station. More escalators, more stairs, perhaps more intermediate floors will need to be created — not only to provide transfer capacity to the JRL, but also to handle an increasing amount of passengers using the station. The JRL project may be familiar with these works, as they’re doing similar things at Choa Chu Kang.
Or they could give up on all this and just go back to the Haw Par Villa routing — after all, the Tengah Line may happen, and if it does go to the Kent Ridge area as well, it can provide the additional capacity from the west to Kent Ridge and Science Park.
Get it built
Ultimately, the announcement doesn’t change many of the fundamentals — that the main value of the West Coast Extension is in getting it done quickly, riding the coat tails of the main JRL project. And the LTA’s current approach to the Tengah Line, as an alternative westward rail line, only gives the West Coast Extension a few years’ head start, with both projects only scheduled to be done in the 2040s.
We roughly know what must be built. The only question is when it will be built, and what are the issues stopping it from getting built. Of course, we can assume these are pessimistic estimates — the 2019 Land Transport Masterplan called for the DTL2e by 2040; it will be done in 2035 — but the LTA’s track record doesn’t call for such optimism.
When the TEL was initially announced, Founders’ Memorial station was meant to be a shell structure box, and activated at a later date much like Hume station. That activation took place in 2019, five years after announcement, and the completion of the station was achieved by just asking the contractor already in place to do additional work. While Founders’ Memorial station will only open in 2028 when the memorial itself opens, the station was fitted out, and presumably systems testing done, with the rest of TEL4. That makes it the TEL’s third ghost station.
Then we must ask if work package contracts near the extension have similar provisions to allow the LTA to trigger additional works. Not only with systems contracts, where not only can the trains for the extension can be bought now while Hyundai Rotem has the production line open. But also, train control, communications, and power systems contractors can stay on after JRL Stage 3 opens in 2029.
Provisions for scope expansion should hopefully also be present in the contract to build CRL West Coast station, where a JRL station can be built on the roof of the CRL station. Perhaps also contract J109, which is building the overrun tracks after Pandan Reservoir as part of a greater work package within Jurong East. Can they be asked to just extend the tracks they’re building to West Coast CRL, instead of going through the entire procurement process again?
It’s not unheard of for one project to be building parts of another project. A part of the North South Expressway structures were built under Downtown line’s Contract 921 at Rochor and Little India stations. And similarly, the NSE project is returning the favour, building the CRL Teck Ghee station under Contract N109A.
Extending work mobilization by a few years isn’t unheard of — at Great World station, technical complications saw the station’s Exit 3 only open very recently, even though TEL3 itself opened over 2 years ago. But if these logistical provisions don’t exist, it complicates things.
But that’s enough talking. Now that there’s a business case to ensure the project’s long term sustainability, there’s no better time to get this project built than now, so the earlier it can start, the better.
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