| Marina Bay Temporary Maintenance Facility | |
 Marina Bay Temporary Maintenance Facility siding (April 2021) |
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| Location | Beside Marina Bay CCL station |
| Line Served | Â Downtown Line |
| Status | Decommissioned; Converted into linkway |
| Type | Underground |
Marina Bay Temporary Maintenance Facility (MBTMF) is a former underground MRT light maintenance facility that served the Downtown Line (DTL). It is located adjacent Marina Bay MRT Station, and undergone decommissioning works in 2021.
The entrance and ventilation openings to MBTMF are located along Bayfront Avenue, near Exit A of Marina Bay station.
On 1 November 2023, the linkway between the Circle Line Concourse and Marina Bay Station Exit 5 opened with faregates at the location of the former MBTMF.
History
When the Downtown Line (DTL) Stage 1 (Bugis–Chinatown) opened in 2013, the line did not have a depot to operate from. The DTL’s main depot, Gali Batu Depot, was under construction and would not be connected to Stage 1 until the commissioning of Stage 2 (Bukit Panjang–Bugis) in 2015. As a result, between 2013 and 2015, the DTL had to rely on the Circle Line Kim Chuan Depot for major maintenance works, and the MBTMF for light maintenance works.
The MBTMF was constructed as part of the Circle Line (CCL) Marina Bay station. For DTL trains to reach the facility, a crossover at Bayfront was used to allow DTL trains to cross over to the CCL. Shunting manoeuvres would likely have taken place outside of train operating hours, using either CCL rolling stock or locomotives, or operating DTL trains in Restricted Manual mode, given the incompatibility of signalling systems of both train lines.
It is not known if MBTMF saw use after the commissioning of the DTL Stage 2 and Gali Batu Depot in 2015, by which the facility would have been made redundant.
Location
The facility is located adjacent to the Northbound platform (Platform A) of Marina Bay CCL station.
| (Former) Marina Bay Temporary Maintenance Facility |
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| Platform A: Circle Line towards CC6 Stadium via CE1DT16 Bayfront (→) Circle Line towards CC29NE1 Harbourfront via CE1DT16 Bayfront (Peak Hours) (→) Platform B: Circle Line towards CC6 Stadium via CE1DT16 Bayfront (→) Circle Line towards CC29NE1 Harbourfront via CE1DT16 Bayfront (Peak Hours) (→) |
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Decommissioning
From 18 April to 1 June 2021, works were carried out to remove the tracks leading to the temporary maintenance facility as they are “no longer in use”. To facilitate these works, only one platform at Marina Bay station was in operation from 15 May to 1 June 2021.
Present Use
Rolling stock:
MBTMF formerly maintained C951Â trains for the Downtown Line.
Gallery:
MBTMF lies along the west edge of CCL Marina Bay station.
External Links & References:
- World Buildings Directory – Marina Bay Station (archive.org) [Accessed 15 Apr 2021]
- SMRT C830C [848]: Marina Bay → Bayfront – YouTube [Accessed 15 Apr 2021]
You are wondering, What is happening to it now? They are turning it into a unpaid connection between the CCL station and Exit 5.
Due to the complexity in transferring the DTL trains between the DTL and CCL at Bayfront station, and manually driving the DTL trains to the temporary maintenance facility at CCL Marina Bay station, as well as the fact that the DTL system was still new then and require minimal maintenance,
It is likely that the DTL trains then (probably just a small number) were parked at the DTL network during non-service hours, at that time when there was only DTL stage 1,
and it was only when a DTL train needs to undergo heavy maintenance that the DTL train would go through the hassle to be maintained at the temporary maintenance facility at the CCL Marina Bay station.
I never knew its existence lmao