Everything About the Early Closures & Late Openings on Thomson-East Coast Line That’s Being Extended

Phase two has been effect for Singapore during the pandemic for quite some time now.

A breath of fresh air to go out, for sure, but there are still some restrictions if you’re a night owl.

The first is that no alcohol can be consumed in dining areas past 10.30pm. No cracking a cold one with the crew late at night.

And if you frequent the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL), you’ll know that it now closes at 9 pm daily from 20 July to 30 August.

Their train services would also start later on weekends, at 6.30 am.

The bad news is the late openings and early closures are about to be extended.

Again.

Multiple Extensions

Let’s backtrack for a few months to everyone’s “favourite” month.

And by that, I mean the start of Circuit Breaker in April.

Terrible times, I know.

The first operating hour cut dates back just a few days before CB, on 3 April. However, these were only for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

It was also scheduled to last until 26 July.

LTA mentioned that “This will double the engineering hours available to test the systems and trains in preparation for the opening of stage two of the Thomson-East Coast Line later this year.”

It was also expected to open by the end of 2020, with LTA noting in January that works were about 90 per cent complete.

July Till Today

On 15 July, it was then announced that then shortened operating hours would apply daily.

Not the best news part-way into phase two, for sure.

“The additional engineering hours will be used to continue testing of the integrated systems and trains in preparation for the opening of Stage 2 of the Thomson-East Coast Line,” SMRT said.

Which isn’t too bad since it would have only lasted till 30 August, right?

Well, SMRT’s Facebook just posted and updated which is…pretty self-explanatory.

For those you can’t see it, the post is an infographic which shows that the altered train times will continue all the way into 1 November. 

Really suay (bad luck) for anyone who has to frequent these stations especially at night.

As of this writing, there haven’t been many comments but we can anticipate some people being…not too happy about this.

For now, commuters can use public bus services 169, 856 and 901/M to travel within Woodlands, or to transfer to the North-South Line at Woodlands station, SMRT said.​​​​​​​

The TEL is anticipated to be fully completed sometime in 2024. It currently serves 32 stations and 8 interchanges.

Although given the current situation, it might just be even longer.