Sentosa Express

Sentosa Express
圣淘沙捷运
Info
Locale Singapore
Transit type Straddle-beam monorail
Number of lines 1
Number of stations 4
Operation
Began operation 15 January 2007
Operator(s) Sentosa Development Corporation
Technical
For the dismantled monorail system that used to loop Sentosa from 1982 to 2005, see Sentosa Monorail.

Sentosa Express (Chinese: 圣淘沙捷运; pinyin: Shèngtáoshā Jiéyùn) 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]

As of Jul 14 2011, the Red train has the STARIS installed, using the same system utilised in the SMRT trains for the NSL and EWL.

Contents

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 days.[3] The entire route, from one terminus to the other, takes eight minutes.[1]

Fare and ticketing

The single-day Sentosa Pass costing S$3 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 code Interchanges within vicinity Opening Past working name
English Chinese Japanese
Sentosa 圣淘沙 セントーサ 15 January 2007 Gateway
Waterfront 滨海 ウォーターフロント 1 February 2010 Sentosa
Imbiah 英比奥 インビア
  • Sentosa island buses (Red, Blue, Yellow Lines)
15 January 2007 Merlion
Beach 海滩 ビーチ 15 January 2007 Palawan

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 Island. It 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.

The original Waterfront 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]

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 shopping centre 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 phoneticisation), hence the inclusion of Japanese even though it is not one of the national official languages.

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 six two-car, 25-metre-long[1] trains of different colours each—namely green, orange, blue, purple, pink and red; the pink and red trains were added to the original fleet of four only on 1 December 2009. Unlike the old, dismantled Sentosa Monorail trains, the current trains are air-conditioned, have inter-car walk-through gangways and spaces for standing passengers, wheelchairs and strollers. Seats can also be flipped up to maximise standing space when required.

Operated by drivers and guided with Automatic Train Protection to ensure trains keep a safe distance between each other and Automatic Train Supervisory to provide the route setting for the train to travel, trains cruise at 15 to 50 km/h but is designed to speed up to 80 km/h.[1]

See also

References

External links