Possible MRT "short-trip" on EWL in future?

• JurongWestresident

  3 Jul 14, 22:12

  By 2017, the East West Line will be extended all the way into Tuas and to somewhere near the Malaysia-Singapore second link bridge.

  As we all know, the traffic at Tuas is only high during peak hours when most people stream there to work in the morning and stream back to home in the evening. The demand for MRT services in Tuas may be low during off-peak hours.

  Hence, I think when the Tuas MRT Extension opens, SMRT should consider having a "short-trip" of the EWL which only runs along HDB towns, while have a service which runs al the way into Tuas at a lower frequency.

  For instance, 

  • a Pasir Ris-Tuas Link train service at 10 minutes frequency.
  • a Pasir Ris-Pioneer train service at 5 minutes frequency.

  What do you all think?

  Also, if we have a "short-trip", is it better to end it at Boon Lay instead of Pioneer?

  • This would shorten the length and reduce the number of trains required to run the service.
  • After all, the people using Pioneer were originally using Boon Lay, and the bus network has not changed much since the Boon Lay Extension opened. 
  • (in fact, the feeder bus connection from Boon Lay to Pioneer has improved with the new 241 bus service)
  • Besides, the viaducts, tracks and stations at Boon Lay were designed for terminating trains. 
  • Anyway, even without the "short-trip", people can still take the regular train service to Pioneer.

  Well, I am just thinking:

  Since there will not be much demand for MRT services to Tuas during off-peak hours, would it be better to have the Pasir Ris-Tuas Link MRT run at a low frequency, while have a "short-trip" MRT that runs at a high (regular) frequency along the HDB towns, between Pasir Ris and Boon Lay?