Tampines MRT station is a Mass Rapid Transit interchange station on the East West and Downtown lines in Tampines, Singapore. The station is situated at the heart of the Tampines Town Centre next to Tampines Avenue 4, Tampines Central 4 and Tampines Central 5, within the proximity of Tampines Bus Interchange and Tampines Concourse Bus Interchange. It is one of five Singapore MRT stations that interchanges between an elevated and underground line. Due to construction constraints, the East West and Downtown line stations are not connected by a paid linkway and passengers are required to exit and reenter the paid area of either stations within 15 minutes to avoid incurring additional costs.
History
East West MRT line
Tampines station was originally called Tampines North before receiving its present name on 13 May 1984. The contract was awarded to Sato Kogyo Pte Ltd for the construction of the line from Changi Depot to Pasir Ris, including Simei, Tampines and Pasir Ris stations on 11 March 1986. The East West line station opened on 16 December 1989. Since then, the Land Transport Authority has continuously upgraded the station with newer amentities. The Station Upgrade Programme began in January 2001 with the installation of a lift, wider faregates and the upgrading of the facade to have a modern feel and aesthetics, which was completed in October 2002. The platforms were retrofitted with platform screen doors beginning on 17 April 2011 with operations commencing on 2 July 2011. In a bid to improve the ventilation and air circulation at all elevated stations, the platforms were installed with high-volume low-speed fans. Tampines station was the first to be fitted, with the fans in operation on 28 May 2012. TITAN faregates replaced the former Cubic first generation faregates on 29 June 2012.
Downtown MRT line
The contract for the construction of the station was awarded to KTC Civil Engineering & Construction Pte Ltd at a contract sum of S$118.5 million in July 2011. The Downtown line station opened on 21 October 2017. Due to the density of the housing blocks in the area and the distance to the East West line station, a dedicated linkway was deemed unfeasible to build. Passengers are required to transit through a public walkway to transfer between either lines.
Incidents
On 8 August 2003, a westbound train lost traction current at 10.13 pm and stalled along the track between Pasir Ris and Tampines. An empty train was used to push the train towards Tampines and service resumed at 10.35 pm. However, 21 minutes later, the traction current tripped again, this time in between the same two stations in both directions and SMRT staff only managed to restore the eastbound side before the end of operating hours. 73 passengers were stuck in a westbound train and detrainment was carried out. During both delays, eastbound services terminated at Tampines and alternative transport was provided for affected passengers. At about 11 am on 7 May 2007, a man in his 50s hit his head against the oncoming train and got his foot stuck in the platform gap. The man was already in a semiconscious state when he was rescued by the Civil Defence and suffered injuries to his left ankle and head. Westbound train services were disrupted for about 8 minutes. On 7 August that year, a 48-year-old Chinese man fell onto the westbound track at the station. SCDF received a call about an incident at Tampines MRT station at 6.32pm. The man was pronounced dead by paramedics at 6.45pm. On 21 January 2008, a maintenance works train which was carrying out works between Tampines and Simei broke down, causing a disruption from 5.28 am to 12.45 pm on both the eastbound and westbound services from Pasir Ris and Tanah Merah, affecting 57,000 commuters. SMRT was fined S$387,176 on 10 March that year after the LTA's investigations concluded that the disruption was due to SMRT's working party not complying with operating procedures. This was specifically on securing the parked portion of the maintenance train, which comprised a locomotive and a wagon. The fine was the largest ever for a rail related incident in Singapore. According to operating procedures, during maintenance works, the portion comprising a locomotive and a Rail Grinding Vehicle will proceed with its works, while the portion of the maintenance train is detached and parked at a distance from the working zone. However, investigations from LTA and SMRT showed that SMRT did not apply the locomotive's parking brake. There was also no wheel chock placed to prevent movement along the gradient of the track. If SMRT had followed operating procedures, a roll-back would have been prevented. On 20th of that month, SMRT announced that it had decided to appeal to the LTA against the fine. In a letter, SMRT said it had provided free shuttle bus services to help affected commuters. SMRT also mobilised more than 300 staff for on-site recovery, crowd management, dissemination of information and preparation for resumption of service. However, on 3 April 2008, LTA turned down SMRT's appeal for a lower fine and ordered SMRT to pay the fine in full within two weeks. On 26 November 2009, a Malay man was found dead in the stations's toilet. A train developed a signalling fault at Tampines on 30 April 2012 at about 9.20 am. The faulty train was taken out of service upon reaching Joo Koon. Services took about half an hour before resuming to normal.
