$126-million door project starts in Pasir Ris
Pasir Ris MRT station has become the first here to be fully fitted with half-height screen doors
Mon, Nov 02, 2009
my paper
By Joy Fang
PASIR Ris MRT station has become the first here to be fully fitted with half-height screen doors that will protect people from accidentally falling off platforms.
The station has 48 of the 1.5m-high screen doors in total - 24 on each side of the 138.5m-long platform.
The doors started operating yesterday, about three months after work to install and test them began.
All the 35 other aboveground MRT stations will have such doors installed by 2012.
The $126-million project was put in place after the number of people falling off platforms rose in recent years. In 2007, there were 31 cases of commuters straying onto the tracks, almost double the 16 cases in 2005.
So far this year, there have been 21 cases, close to the 23 cases in the whole of last year. At least two died this year after being hit by approaching trains.
Yishun and Jurong East MRT stations, where installation work began in September, will have their screen doors operating by the end of next month.
Pasir Ris was picked because it is a terminal station; Jurong East because it is an interchange station and Yishun because it is a typical station, said Mr Chua Chong Kheng, the Land Transport Authority's group director for rail (Thomson and existing lines).
"With the experience from these three stations, we can then install the doors in the other stations with more confidence," he said.
Installation work at the other stations, beginning with those in the west, will start early next year.
Launching the doors at Pasir Ris yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said that they would improve the safety of trains and platforms for commuters, but commuters also have to be responsible for their own safety.
Secretary Fauziah Hashim, 37, who takes the MRT from Pasir Ris to work, said: "Often when the trains are coming, people will push their way to the front because they want to get in first, which is very dangerous." With the screen doors, however, it is much safer, she said.
joyfang@sph.com.sg
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