Sentosa Express

A train at Beach Station during a test run

The Sentosa Express (Chinese: 圣淘沙捷运) is a monorail line connecting Sentosa to HarbourFront in Singapore.

Built at a cost of S$140 million, it is the first to use Hitachi's "small" straddle-type monorail. Construction of the track and stations started in 2003 and was completed in June 2006.

The line opened on 15 January 2007, with three stations along its 2.1 kilometre double-track route. A fourth station, Waterfront, will open in 2010 when Resorts World Sentosa is completed.

Four two-car trains, each sporting a different colour, ply the route in eight minutes. The trains can move up to 4,000 passengers an hour. With a capacity of about 120 people per train, it departs every five minutes during peak hours and every eight minutes during off-peak times. All Station have platform screen gates or doors: Sentosa Station have full screen doors and other stations have half of the screen doors.

It was not constructed by the Land Transport Authority and is thus not considered part of Singapore's rail network.

Stations

Station name / colour code			Descriptions	Past working name
English	Chinese	Japanese
Sentosa	圣淘沙	セントーサ	Located at third level of VivoCity, the northern terminus is just a few levels above HarbourFront Terminus Station and the nearby HarbourFront Bus Interchange. It is the only air-conditioned station, the only station on mainland Singapore and the only station with full-height platform screen doors on the line. Just like Changi Airport and Promenade Stations, ticketing, turnstiles and platforms are all on the same level. Like the dismantled Sentosa Monorail stations in the past, it is currently the only train station in Singapore to feature an organised boarding system — passengers enter via one side of the train after passengers have alighted on the other side.	Gateway
Waterfront			The first station upon entering the island will only open in 2010 with Resorts World, an integrated resort containing Universal Studios Singapore and a casino.	Sentosa
Imbiah	英比奥	インビア	Just next to the gigantic Merlion, it provides convenient access to the Imbiah Lookout cluster of attractions like Sentosa Luge & Skyride, Images of Singapore, Carlsberg Sky Tower, Sentosa 4D Magix, Butterfly Park and Singapore Cable Car.	Merlion
Beach	海滩	ビーチ	Alight at the single-platform southern terminus for the beaches, sea sports, pubs, cafés, food court and restaurants. Transfer to the green beach trams to get to Siloso Beach or the blue ones to get to Palawan Beach and Tanjong Beach. To get to other attractions around the island, transfer to the Blue Line island buses. Trains have to enter the station before they can switch directions and tracks to enter/leave the depot which is just beside.	Palawan

S$26 million was spent on the stations and depot. Other than Sentosa Terminus, all of the other three stations on the line are non-air-conditioned and are the first and, currently, the only train stations in Singapore with half-height platform gates. The three also have bi-directional escalators and a lift each to take passengers from the station concourse to the platform level and vice versa.

Fare and ticketing

The single day Sentosa Pass (S$3) allows unlimited rides on the Sentosa Express, Sentosa Buses & Trams, including admission into Sentosa. The Sentosa Pass can be purchased at any operational Sentosa Express Station. Payment can be made via cash, NETS or credit card, but the EZ-link card used for other public transportation in Singapore is not accepted.

See also

• Sentosa Monorail — a now-dismantled monorail system that ferried visitors around Sentosa

References

• T. Rajan, "Sentosa Express set to roll from VivoCity", The Straits Times, 5 December 2006

External links

• Sentosa Express
• HITACHI wins contract to develop "SENTOSA EXPRESS" for SENTOSA Development Corporation (press release)
• Monorail Society: Sentosa Express Construction Gallery