40 more Circle Line trains to get platform gap fillers by 2025

Platform gap fillers are being fitted on 64 older Circle Line trains, with installation works completed for 24 of them and the remaining 40 trains slated to have these rubber strips by 2025, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said.

LTA is currently assessing if gap fillers – which narrow the gap between the train floor and platform edge – can be installed on the 92 fourth- to sixth-generation trains that serve the North-South and East-West lines.

A spokesman said on March 11 in response to queries that the authority is considering factors like the remaining lifespan of these trains, and the technical feasibility given the varying train heights and clearance space from platforms across different train models.

The newest trains on the North-South and East-West lines all come fitted with gap fillers. 

All trains on the North East Line, Downtown Line and Thomson-East Coast Line already have gap fillers, said Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat in a written reply to a parliamentary question on Feb 6.

More than half of the North-South and East-West Line trains are progressively being decommissioned, and will be replaced with 106 new trains that come with gap fillers by 2026, he added in response to Nominated MP Ong Hua Han.

Several commuters have fallen into the gap between the station platform and train over the years.

In April 2019, a commuter travelling on the Circle Line had her leg trapped between the platform at Buona Vista station and an MRT train.

LTA said most platform gap-related incidents were resolved quickly by commuters themselves, or with prompt assistance from station staff and fellow commuters.

The platform gaps range between 6mm on the Downtown Line – where trains have gap fillers – to 110mm on the underground stations on the North-South and East-West Lines.

Fillers were added to above-ground stations on the North-South and East-West lines from 1997. This reduced the gaps to 75mm.

From the second half of 2015, fillers were installed on new MRT trains plying the North-East and Circle Line trains.

Mr Ong, who has fallen off his wheelchair after getting stuck in a platform gap, said he posed the question about gap fillers to the Transport Ministry as he understands the anxiety and stress that people with disabilities face whenever they get off a train with a considerable platform gap or a large height difference between the train and platform.

He also asked whether LTA had conducted studies on reducing the height difference.

These platform gaps and height differences lower wheelchair users’ level of independence as they will have to ask someone else for help, which disrupts their commuting flow, added Mr Ong, who has brittle bone disease.

Ms Judy Wee, 62, who was born with congenital deformity of her limbs, said wheelchair users have no choice but to wait for the next train if the platform gap or height difference is too big.

“We would just hope for the best, and pray that the next train is level and does not have much of a gap,” said the executive director of a non-profit organisation.

Around four years ago, she was flung off her wheelchair while disembarking from the train as her wheels got caught in the platform gap. She also dropped her phone onto the train tracks.

Since then, it has become the norm for Ms Wee to slow down and manoeuvre her wheelchair by lifting the front two wheels up whenever she enters and exits a train, to avoid getting trapped in the platform gap.

Even for some trains with fillers, the 62-year-old said that she would still need to exert extra effort to push her wheelchair past the bump caused by the substantial height difference between the platform and train.

Ms Wee added that she believes that both the gap and height difference can pose dangers to commuters using wheelchairs, and said that it would be “the best” if both can be resolved.

LTA did not respond to ST’s queries on addressing the height difference between station platforms and MRT trains.

Madam Mariani Ahmid, 61, had a scare in 2022 when her then-two-year-old niece got her leg trapped in the platform gap at Bishan MRT station. Her niece was pulled out safely by her father just in time before the MRT doors closed, but she was shaken by the incident.

The transport nurse applauded the installation of fillers, which she said will make it safer for young children to board and get off the MRT train.

Content creator Mark Chua, 34, said personal mobility aids – including mobility scooters – and baby prams could also get stuck in platform gaps.

He noted that the fifth- and sixth-generation trains on the North-South Line have wider gaps where it “does not seem reassuring to board without worries” for the average commuter, as footwear and smaller items could easily drop into the gaps.