Singapore — More than 17,000 households in Yishun and Sembawang will be able to save as much as half an hour in travel time if they are heading into town, when Canberra MRT Station begins operations on Saturday (Nov 2).

The station, between Yishun and Sembawang stations on the North-South Line, is within a 10-minute walk for these households, and a 30-minute MRT ride to Marina Bay, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said at the opening ceremony for the station on Friday.

Canberra MRT Station — boasting numerous “green” features — will be the first station where residents can connect directly to the ticketing platform via an overhead bridge, Mr Khaw said. The bridge is lined with shops, and is connected to Canberra Plaza, which has sheltered links to residential estates in the area.

Residents told TODAY on Friday that they expected to save 20 to 30 minutes by using the new station — which is the time they have been spending to take a feeder bus from their homes to either Yishun or Sembawang stations.

Mr Aaron Khoo, a full-time national serviceman, who lives a five-minute walk from the new station, is thrilled at his new streamlined travel options.

“Sometimes (the feeder bus timings) might be a bit irregular, two buses might come at once,” he said, adding that travel time from his house to Sembawang or Yishun could take as long as 25 minutes.

The 20-year-old said that during peak hours, the feeder buses are sometimes so full that he is forced to wait for the next one.

Another resident who lives near Canberra MRT Station, Ms Irene Wee, is also very pleased to see an end to squeezing onto a feeder bus during peak hours.

The 49-year-old added that the one hour it typically takes to travel to her workplace in the city will now take her an estimated 35 minutes.

“(Before the station opened) we have to stand at the door (of the bus) and try to squeeze in,” she said. “Maybe after the train starts, it will be much easier.”

At the opening ceremony, Mr Khaw, who is also Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure, highlighted an important first for Canberra MRT Station.

TOP RATING FOR GREEN FEATURES

It is the first MRT station to be awarded the highest "Platinum" rating with the Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA's) new Green Mark scheme for Transit Stations, adapted from the Green Mark Scheme introduced in 2005.

“It has many green features, including energy-efficient air-conditioning and lighting systems. They help reduce the cost of station operations, and keep train fares affordable,” Mr Khaw said.

Other green features at the station include a “green roof”’ partly covered with plants, and more energy-efficient LED lighting.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Transport Minister and Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure, at the opening ceremony for Canberra MRT Station on Nov 1, 2019. Photo: Justin Ong

The Green Mark scheme for transit stations was introduced by BCA in consultation with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and others to ensure that station design and operations are environmentally sustainable, BCA said in a statement on Friday.

Criteria include the ease of access from stations to modes of public transport such as buses and taxis, with the scheme also placing “high emphasis on ventilation performance of the station design, which enhances the thermal comfort of users”.

At least 50 upcoming MRT stations — such as those slated to be on the Cross Island Line and Thomson-East Coast Line — are “in the pipeline” to meet the Green Mark Platinum Standard, the authority added.

These efforts could save enough energy to power up to 7,500 four-room Housing and Development Board flats a year, BCA said.

'WHITE ELEPHANT MRT STATIONS NOT WELCOME'

Mr Khaw said in his speech that Canberra station had “existed only on paper” for 30 years. The first section of the North-South Line opened in 1987.

He said that “transport planning is integrated with urban planning,” and that Canberra station was not built until sufficient residential projects had been launched nearby. Construction of the station began in April 2015.

“As each MRT line is a multi-billion-dollar investment, we take a conservative and prudent approach,” Mr Khaw said. “We seek to avoid poor utilisation and unnecessarily high operating costs. We certainly do not welcome white-elephant MRT stations.”

Mr Khaw said that the project was a complex one, due to the station being built over an operating MRT line. “The contractors were especially proud of their zero-casualty record,” he said.

He added that it is “not a secret” that Canberra station, numbered NS12, would eventually be built, given that the Sembawang and Yishun stations were numbered NS11 and NS13 respectively.

Other instances of “skipped” station numbers — some with “shell stations” in between — include Harbourfront and Outram stations on the North-East Line, and Botanic Gardens and Caldecott stations on the Circle Line.

Hume MRT Station — located between Hillview and Beauty World stations on the Downtown Line — is slated to open by 2025, while Brickland and Sungei Kadut stations are slated to open on the North-South Line by the mid-2030s.