Kawasaki Heavy Industries & CSR Qingdao Sifang CT251

Kawasaki Heavy Industries & CSR Qingdao Sifang CT251
In service	2019
Manufacturer	Kawasaki Heavy Industries CSR Sifang
Built at	Qingdao, Shandong, China
Constructed	2015–2020
Entered service	2019
Number under construction	364 vehicles (91 trainsets)
Number built	364 vehicles (91 trainsets)
Formation	4 per trainset Mc1-M-T-Mc2
Fleet numbers	TBA
Capacity	1,280 Passengers
Operator(s)	TBA
Depot(s)	Mandai Depot Changi Depot (future)
Specifications
Car body construction	Welded Aluminium Construction
Car length	23.6 m (77 ft 5 ^1⁄8 in)
Width	3.2 m (10 ft 6 in)
Height	3.7 m (12 ft 1 ^5⁄8 in)
Doors	40 (10 per car)
Maximum speed	90 km/h (56 mph) (Design) 80 km/h (50 mph) (Service)
Traction system	IGBT-VVVF or Toshiba PMSM-VVVF
Electric system(s)	750 V DC third rail[1]
Current collection method	Collector shoe
Safety system(s)	Alstom Tempo CBTC ATC with subsystems of ATO GOA 4 (UTO), ATP, ATS and CBI
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in) standard gauge

The train manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industries & CSR Sifang under contract turnkey CT251 is the upcoming rolling stock to be used on the future Thomson-East Coast Line. 91 trainset of 4-cars were purchased by LTA^[1] and will be delivered from 2018 onwards. Train livery of the train is Khaki and brown stripes running around the train cars, similar to C951 trains (which uses teal and dark blues).

Tender

The tender for trains under the contract turnkey 251 was closed on 15 Nov 2013 with 6 bids. The Land Transport Authority has shortlisted all of them and the tender results was published on 28 May 2014.^[2][3]

S/N	Name of tenderer	Amount ($S)[3]
1	Alstom Transport S.A. – Alstom Transport (S) Pte Ltd Consortium	954,410,000.00
2	Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. / Kawasaki Heavy Industries(Singapore) Pte Ltd & CSR Qingdao Sifang Consortium	749,840,000.00
3	Hyundai Rotem	765,856,000.00
4	Bombardier (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Bombardier Transportation GmbH & Changchun Bombardier Railway Vehicles Company Ltd Consortium	810,179,619.00
5	Construcciones Y Auxilliar De Ferrocarriles, S. A.	939,645,996.00
6	CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. / Siemens Pte Ltd, Singapore Consortium	849,623,569.00

Manufacturing process

Kawasaki will be responsible for the overall project management, design, manufacturing of bogies and procurement of major components. CSR Sifang will be in charge of manufacturing, final fitting and assembly of complete MRT trains and factory testing. Kawasaki (Singapore) will be responsible for the delivery of complete MRT trains to the depot, on-site testing and commissioning.^[1]

Features

The CT251 trains may include several features unique to this rolling stock.

Features include:

• Tip-up seats which can be lifted up to create more standing space for commuters;
• Different shaded reserved seats, which allows for clearer distinction between normal and reserved seats;
• Perch seats which are located at the ends of each train car;
• hand grips utilising joints instead of straps, providing commuters a steadier grip;

Train formation

The configuration of a CT251 in revenue service is DM1-M-T-DM2

Cars of T251
car type	Driver Cab	Motor	Collector Shoe	car length
				mm	ft in
DM1	✓	✓	✓
DM2	✓	✓	✓
M	✗	✓	✓
T	✗	✗	✓

Doubts about the consortium

When the defects from the relatively new C151A trains constructed by same consortium made public on 5 July 2016, the discussion of this incident has turned into a political issue in Singapore after Gerald Giam from the Workers Party had made a Facebook post^[4] about why the same consortium are awarded the subsequent contracts (Specifically both C151C and CT251 trains were awarded to the same consortium again in 2015, while the C151B was also awarded to the same consortium in 2012 instead) after the Land Transport Authority and SMRT officially knew the C151A crack defects as early as 2013.^[5][6]

The C151A trains that have surfaced issues, along with newer C151B and C151C trains are to be deployed in the East West Line and North South Line.

References

1. Singapore Government, Land Transport Authority (28 May 2014). "Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd/CSR Qingdao Sifang Co. Ltd/Kawasaki Heavy Industries (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Consortium Awarded Prestigious Contract Worth $749 million" (Press release).
2. TENDER INFORMATION - Land Transport Authority, 28 May 2014
3. CONTRACT T251 - Land Transport Authority
4. So the vendor's dismal track record can become a point in their favour? - Gerald Giam Facebook page, 8 July 2016 9:35am (GMT+8)
5. "Defects on SMRT trains 'not safety-critical', to be repaired by manufacturer: LTA". Retrieved 2016-07-05.
6. "26 China-made MRT trains sent back to fix defects". The Straits Times. Retrieved 5 July 2016.