Gali Batu Depot

Gali Batu Depot
卡利巴株地铁车厂

Gali Batu Depot
Location
Location	350 Woodlands Road, Singapore 677730
Coordinates	1°23′52.57″N103°45′21.47″E / 1.3979361°N 103.7559639°E / 1.3979361; 103.7559639
Characteristics
Owner	Land Transport Authority
Operator	SBS Transit Rail Pte Ltd (ComfortDelGro Corporation)
Depot code	GBD
Type	At-Grade
Roads	Woodlands Road
Rolling stock	Bombardier Movia C951
Routes served	DTL   Downtown line
History
Opened	27 December 2015;9 years ago (2015-12-27)

Gali Batu Depot is a train depot located off Woodlands Road in Singapore. It provides maintenance services for the Downtown line of the Mass Rapid Transit system, with the capacity to stable up to 42 trains.

Construction of the 25-hectare (62-acre) at-grade depot, Singapore's first aboveground MRT depot to serve an underground MRT line.

History

In early 2009, as works for the trains were underway, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) shifted its a attention to the Gali Batu Depot, which would store the Downtown line (DTL) trains. By March, the LTA has selected two companies to work on the depot; GS Engineering and Construction Corp and Hock Lian Seng. ^[1]

Prior to construction, nearly 2000 graves from the Kwong Hou Sua Cemetery had to be exhumed due to the depot's proximity. Exhumation was expected to start in March and finish by June 2009. ^{[2] [3]} Construction of the depot began in late 2009. During construction, 3,900,000 cubic metres (140,000,000 cu ft) of dirt was dug out. ^[4] By February 2015, The Straits Times reported that the depot was in its final stage and will be passed to its operator by the end of the year. ^[5] Although Stage 1 of the DTL was opened in December 2013, operations of the line were conducted from Kim Chuan Depot as Gali Batu was not ready yet, only being ready by October 2015. The transfer of operations from Kim Chuan to Gali Batu were conducted within three hours to avoid disrupting operations in the DTL, with migration tests conducted on three nights every week for six months prior to the transfer. In December 2017, the depot started operations along with stations in Stage 2 of the DTL. ^[6] Prior to the opening, several religious leaders from the Inter Religious Organisation (IRO) jointly blessed the depot. ^[7]

In February 2015, the LTA announced that the capacity of the depot will be expanded to stable 81 trains by 2019. A S$ 137.4 million (2015) ( US$ 99.94 million) contract was handed out in January 2015 and is expected to be completed by November 2019. ^[8] In October 2019, it was announced that signalling simulation centres will be installed in Gali Batu by Siemens after Thales set up a similar facility in Bishan Depot, which stemmed from the Joo Koon rail accident. ^[9] It was installed progressively from the end of 2019 to the expected completion date of the end of 2020. ^[10]

Details

Gali Batu Depot is located off Bukit Panjang station on the Downtown line and has 2 reception tracks: 2 tracks Expo-bound towards Bukit Panjang station. ^[11]

References

1. Feng 2017, p. 117.
2. Feng 2017, p. 119.
3. "SLA to commence exhumation of graves at Kwong Hou Sua Cemetery". Singapore Land Authority . 5 November 2008. Archived from the original on 6 May 2021. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
4. Feng 2017, p. 119-120.
5. "New train depot ready in July".
6. Feng 2017, p. 127.
7. "Religious leaders 'jointly blessed' Downtown Line 2 depot ahead of Dec 27 opening".
8. "Factsheet : Gali Batu MRT Depot". Archived from the original on 1 March 2018.
9. "Siemens, Alstom to set up signalling simulation centres here".
10. "Factsheet: Simulation Facilities for Signalling System Testing".
11. "LTA | News Room". www.lta.gov.sg. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 10 April 2020.

Bibliography

• Feng, Zengkun (2017). Downtown Line: Soaring to new heights (PDF). Singapore: Straits Times Press Pte Ltd. ISBN   978-981-4747-66-0. OCLC   1003852882.