A JOINT venture (JV) between SBS Transit and French multimodal transport operator RATP Dev has won the tender to operate and maintain the Jurong Region Line, Singapore’s seventh Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line.
Both operators were awarded the nine-year licence, which includes an option for a two-year extension, by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Thursday (Nov 28). The service fee quoted for 11 years by the JV is approximately S$750 million, said LTA in a media statement. This was about 8 per cent lower than that quoted by SMRT Trains, which had also bid for the contract.
The JV is between SBS Transit Rail and RATP Dev Asia Pacific – a subsidiary of RATP Dev – and is named Singapore One Rail.
RATP Dev is the international operating arm of French state-owned transport group RATP, which is the third-largest urban transport operator in the world. The group is present in 15 countries across five continents, and has delivered automated metro systems in cities such as Paris, Sydney, Doha, and Riyadh. It has also opened several new rail lines over the past decade, including the 3.5-billion-euro (S$5 billion) extension of Paris Metro Line 14 for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Significantly, RATP Dev will be the first foreign operator to jointly run an MRT line in Singapore.
In an interview with The Business Times in 2018, RATP Dev’s then chief executive Laurence Batlle had said the group was eyeing the Jurong Region and Cross Island metro lines, as well as future bus tenders, in Singapore. Malaysia and the Philippines were also markets of interest.
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The group had previously made three unsuccessful bids for public transport projects in Singapore. In 2001, it failed to land the contract for the Marina Line rail project – the first stage of what is now the Circle Line. Then in 2015, it lost out on two government bus contracts – the Bulim package made up of 26 bus services operating from the Bukit Batok, Clementi and Jurong East interchanges, and the Loyang package comprising 25 bus routes in Punggol and Pasir Ris.
On Thursday, LTA also said that it will not be awarding the contract to operate the Cross Island Line and will be selecting the operator “at a later date”.
An “ambitious” metro project
The upcoming Jurong Region Line will span 24 MRT stations and connect key activity nodes in the western part of Singapore, such as the Jurong Industrial Estate, Jurong Innovation District, Nanyang Technological University and the Tengah new town. The line will open for passenger service in three stages from 2027.
The completion of the Jurong Region Line will also take SBS Transit’s rail network in Singapore to 107 km, up from 83 km. The partnership between SBS Transit and RATP Dev “combines years of expertise in high-capacity urban rail and complex project management”, both operators noted in a media statement.
Jeffrey Sim, group CEO of SBS Transit, said: “Together with our French partner, RATP Dev, we are thrilled to receive this vote of confidence from the LTA, recognising the quality and competitiveness of our proposal.”
In their tender proposal, both operators said that Singapore One Rail will be leveraging advanced technologies – such as condition-monitoring technologies, video and data analytics and generative artificial intelligence – to deliver “safe, reliable and sustainable” train services. It will also establish a flagship customer experience innovation lab to encourage commuters to co-create innovative technologies and solutions “for a better public transport experience”. The lab will also serve as a platform to build local capabilities, as well as host workshops and hackathons to generate “fresh and creative ideas” to tackle public transport challenges, both operators added.
Henri Pottier, CEO of RATP Dev in Asia-Pacific, said that the group was honoured to work alongside SBS Transit to deliver one of Singapore’s “most ambitious” metro projects. “Our combined expertise will contribute to a more efficient, sustainable, and future-proof public transport system, ensuring the Jurong Region Line meets the highest standards of reliability, innovation, and integration with the broader transport network in Singapore.”
The award of the Jurong Region Line tender comes a year after SBS Transit’s parent company ComfortDelGro and RATP Dev had jointly won the contract to operate the south sector of Line 15 of the Grand Paris Express in the Greater Paris region.
