Sentosa Express

Sentosa Express
Overview
Native name Sentosa Ekspres
圣淘沙捷运
செந்தோசா எக்ஸ்பிரஸ்
Locale Sentosa, Singapore
Number of stations 4
Operation
Began operation 15 January 2007 (2007-01-15)
Operator(s) Sentosa Development Corporation
Technical
System length 2.1 km (1.3 mi)

The Sentosa Express is a monorail line connecting Sentosa island to HarbourFront on the Singapore mainland across the waters.

Built at a cost of S$140 million, development started in June 2003 and was completed in December 2006.[1] The fully elevated 2.1-kilometre (1.3-mile; per direction) two-way line (4.3-km total track length) and three out of four stations opened on 15 January 2007.[1] The fourth station, Waterfront, opened on 1 February 2010.[2]

The monorail system, privately owned and operated by Sentosa Development Corporation, can move up to 4,000 passengers per hour per direction.[3]

Train timings

The daily first and last train timings of both Sentosa and Beach termini are 07:00 and 00:00 hours.[4] Trains run at an average frequency of three minutes during peak hours.[3] The entire route, from one terminus to the other, takes eight minutes.[1]

Fare and ticketing

The single-day Sentosa Pass costing S$4 allows island entry and unlimited rides on the Sentosa Express.[4] The contactless RFID card can be purchased from automated ticketing machines at any operational Sentosa Express station. Payment can be made using cash, NETS or credit card.

Alternatively, visitors may also scan their EZ-Link cards (used for electronic payments on public transport) on Sentosa terminus' turnstiles for island entry payment and a day of unlimited number of rides on the monorail.

Stations

Station name / colour codeInterchanges within vicinityOpenedPast working name
EnglishSimplified Chinese · TamilJapanese
Sentosa圣淘沙 · செந்தோசாセントーサ 15 January 2007Gateway
Waterfront滨海 · வாடேர்ப்ரோன்ட்ウォーターフロント
  • Resorts World Sentosa – mainland public buses
 1 February 2010Sentosa
Imbiah英比奥 · இம்பிஅஹ்インビア
  • Madame Tussauds Singapore
 15 January 2007Merlion
Beach海滩 · கடற்கரைビーチ
  • Beach Station Bus Terminal
 15 January 2007Palawan

S$26 million was spent on the elevated stations and the depot next to Beach terminus.[1] Sentosa terminus is the only station of the line on the mainland; the rest are on Sentosa. It is also the only one with full-height platform screen doors and bay platform using the Spanish solution. The other stations are not air-conditioned and are the first railway stations in the country to utilise Automatic platform gates.

Like the Mass Rapid Transit, stations have bi-directional escalators and a lift to take passengers from the station concourse to the platforms, except Sentosa terminus which has both on the same level within VivoCity on the mainland.

Station name signage and system map signage at the stations are in the three languages used by the majority of visitors—English, Chinese (simplified) and Japanese (Katakana phonetization).

Sentosa

The northern terminus is just a few levels above HarbourFront MRT station and the nearby HarbourFront Bus Interchange. Like Changi Airport and Promenade MRT stations, ticketing, turnstiles and platforms are all on the same level.

There is one track and two side platforms at this station. Like the dismantled Sentosa Monorail stations in the past , it is one of two train stations in Singapore, the other being Choa Chu Kang LRT Station, to feature an organised boarding system like the Spanish solution — passengers enter via one side of the train after passengers have alighted on the other side. After the trains enter the station, passengers alight on the right side, where there are faregates, ticketing machines and a ticketing counter.

Waterfront

In Waterfront station, platform A handles Beach-bound trains, while platform B handles Sentosa-bound trains. There are two tracks and one island platform. As the line is left-hand drive, all train doors open on the right. It also connects to the Resorts World Sentosa.

The original station did not open for service before being demolished in December 2007, less than a year after the monorail line's opening, to make way for the construction of Resorts World Sentosa. The station was rebuilt and opened on 1 February 2010.[2]

Imbiah

Imbiah station is located in the middle of Sentosa next to Imbiah Lookout. Platform A handles Beach-bound trains, while platform B handles Sentosa-bound trains. There are two tracks and one island platform. As the line is left-hand drive, all train doors open on the right. The nearest attraction is Madame Tussauds Singapore.

Beach

Beach station is located between Siloso Beach and Palawan Beach at Sentosa. The station consists is a single track and one platform.

The beaches, shops, sea sports, pubs, cafés, food court and restaurants are at street level; transfers to the trams are available at this station. The blue trams go to Siloso Beach while the green ones to get to Palawan and Tanjong Beaches. It is also near to the bus terminal where bus service 123 is provided.

Rolling stock

The Sentosa Express is the first system to use Hitachi's small and straddle–type monorail with a capacity of about 184[1] passengers per train. With a total of seven two-car, 25-metre-long[1] trains of different colours each—namely green, orange, blue, purple, pink, red and yellow; the pink and red trains were added to the original fleet of four only on 1 December 2009. The Yellow train was added in Jan 2017. In addition, there is 2 other maintenance train that is yellow in colour.

Everyday, five monorail colours will be picked to be deployed on this service while the other two remain in the depot.

Incidents

On 4 December 2014, a technical fault caused power disruptions on the monorail and stalled a train during the night; several passengers were evacuated.[5]

See also

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 February 2009. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  2. 1 2 http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/storyprintfriendly/0,4582,370675,00.html%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
  3. 1 2 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 February 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
  4. 1 2 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 December 2006. Retrieved 5 December 2006.
  5. ↑ 61 rescued from stalled Sentosa monorail train Archived 8 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine.

Bibliography

  • T. Rajan, "Sentosa Express set to roll from VivoCity", The Straits Times, 5 December 2006
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