Alstom Metropolis C751A

Operational history and overview

In February 1997, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore shortlisted several rolling stock companies for the bidding of the trains. In January 1998, GEC Alsthom (now known as Alstom) secured a contract to supply rolling stock for the NEL. The contract was for 25 trains, each consisting of six cars, under Contract 751A. The trains were part of the Metropolis family of the urban EMU trains. Unlike all other MRT lines, it draws power from the overhead catenary.

Also, the C751A was the first MRT rolling stock to have seats of the same color in every carriage and is also the first fully driverless rolling stock in Singapore. Nevertheless, SBS Transit hires rover employees to drive trains manually if needed. For Alstom, it uses the URBALIS 300 moving-block communications-based (CBTC) Automatic Train Control (ATC) system, which optimizes headway and enables extra trains to be injected automatically into the system at rush hour to increase passenger capacity and reduce congestion. In the depot, trains are also operated in fully automatic mode. Communication between the train and the fixed signaling equipment is enabled by the IAGO two-way continuous transmission system. Station-based automatic train supervision ensures a greater degree of availability. Built-in test equipment has also been included, and Eurobalise standards have been adopted for spot transmission.

The seats feature a uniform two-tone color scheme of beige and purple-blue. The floor is indigo, while the interior body panels are beige and cream. The trains also have two side windows at each end for viewing the tracks. The exterior of the C751A trains are white and black together with red and purple stripes. C751A trains do not have a middle window cut out, unlike the newer driverless trains in the MRT system. This is because it had to make way for the old detrainment ramp, which was not as compact as that of the newer Alstom Metropolis models on the North East Line and the Circle Line.

Platform gap reducers were since added to all C751A trains.

All C751A trains consist of the Visual Passenger Information System (VPIS). These displays show the name of the next station, the current station, door-closing messages, and occasionally the date and time. Also, some of the C751A trains have been installed with four rows for the standing area since 2015.

Refurbishment

In December 2018, LTA announced that the C751A trains will undergo mid-life refurbishment works from 2019 onwards. A contract worth $116.7 million was awarded to CRRC Nanjing Puzhen for the refurbishment works. All 25 first-generation C751A trains will be upgraded. The part of these trains interior, such as new seats, panels & flooring were everything materials. The current 6 LCD screens on the side panels (which former showed rail travel information of the next station and terminating station, silent commercials, and safety videos) above some seats had already been deactivated & were removed in refurbished trains. However, a new LTA's LCD Dynamic Route Map Display (DRMD) located above each door will be retrofitted. These Dynamic Route Map Display (DRMD) sets will be similar to those found on newer MRT trains such as the Kawasaki Heavy Industries & CRRC Qingdao Sifang T251 and Alstom Movia R151 trainsets. In addition, the air-conditioning and ventilation systems will be upgraded.

The exterior livery design will be retained with the exception of Land Transport Authority logos. Smaller SBS Transit logos are located on the gangway ends of each car in a similar fashion to LTA's earlier corporate livery designs.

The first refurbished train set (7013/7014) re-entered passenger service on 28 February 2022, with all 25 trains being for mid-life refurbishment interior were completely from April 2026.

Train formation

The coupling configuration of a C751A in revenue service is DT–Mp–Mi+Mi–Mp–DT.

The car numbers of the trains range from 7x001 to 7x050, where x depends on the carriage type. Individual cars are assigned a five-digit serial number by the rail operator SBS Transit. A complete six-car trainset consists of an identical twin set of one driving trailer (DT) and two motor cars (Mi & Mp) permanently coupled together. For example, set 7013/7014 consists of cars 71013, 72013, 73013, 73014, 72014 and 71014.

• The first digit is always a 7.
• The second digit identifies the car number, where the first car has a 1, the second has a 2 & the third has a 3.
• The third digit is always a 0.
• The fourth digit and fifth digit are the train identification numbers. A full-length train of 6 cars has 2 different identification numbers. For example, 7013/7014.
• Alstom built sets 7001/7002 – 7049/7050.

References

References

1. "SBS AR22 Review Section v29 Full Report".
2. "Alstom Motors Catalogue 2015 – English". [[Alstom]].
3. "Alstom Bogies Catalogue 2015 – English". [[Alstom]].
4. "Singapore Northeast Line: will soon be the largest, fully automatic metro system in the world".
5. "URBALIS Evolution: Controlling the Performance".
6. "Singapore Northeast Line – The first fully automatic heavy metro system". [[Alstom]].
7. (18 January 1998). "MRT CONTRACTS". The Straits Times.
8. "SMRT to deploy drivers to once-driverless MRT lines to improve reliability".
9. "VISUAL PASSENGER INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR SINGAPORE MRT AND LRT LINES".
10. (December 17, 2018). "NEL to undergo major renewal from January". [[The Straits Times]].
11. (27 February 2022). "Refurbished North East Line train to enter service from Feb 28; first of 25 to get mid-life upgrade". The Straits Times.