http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...144317/1/.html

SINGAPORE: The final 12 stations of the Circle Line running from Marymount to HarbourFront will start operating on 8 October.

The stations are Caldecott, Botanic Gardens, Farrer Road, Holland Village, Buona Vista, one-north, Kent Ridge, Haw Par Villa, Pasir Panjang, Labrador Park, Telok Blangah and HarbourFront.

Bukit Brown station is still being planned as a future station. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the projected ridership for the station is still very low, so it will be opened in future when there is sufficient ridership.

The LTA said the 12 new stations will link commuters to places such as the research and business hub of one-north and the vibrant food and club scene in Holland Village.

The opening of the final 16.6km stretch will mark the completion of the entire 33.3km-long Circle Line which has 28 stations.

The expected daily ridership for the Circle Line is about 400,000.

Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew visited three new Circle Line stations at Labrador Park, Holland Village and Caldecott on Monday.

Mr Lui said: "The completion of these final 12 stations of the Circle Line will also link Singaporeans and visitors by rail to a variety of destinations for work and recreation. The Circle Line will enhance connectivity of the rail network and bring significant time savings for commuters."

For example, commuters travelling from Bishan to Buona Vista will only take 26 minutes on the Circle Line, compared to the current 40 minutes on the North-South and East-West Line.

The full opening of the Circle Line is also expected to ease crowding along the North-South and East-West lines by about 10 to 15 per cent. The North-South and East-West lines currently serve an average of about 1.6 million commuters daily.

Mr Lui also announced that an additional 13 trains will be added to the North-South and East-West lines around 2014-2015.

The additional trains will enhance the capacity on the North-South and East-West lines by about 25 per cent.

He added the LTA and SMRT are also finalising plans to add more train trips to improve off-peak frequencies. He said these service improvements will be announced soon.

Mr Lui said: "Frequencies during the peak periods are limited by the signalling equipment. And until that is upgraded, there will continue to be bottlenecks.

"There's a possibility for frequencies during off-peak periods...to be better than what it is today. The LTA and SMRT are finalising their plans to improve their frequency and they will announce this in due course."

Currently, commuters have to wait an average of about six minutes between trains during off-peak periods.

- CNA/fa/ac