Senior Minister of State for Transport Sun Xueling told reporters at the Sengkang-Punggol LRT depot on Friday that full train service on the Sengkang West Inner Loop will resume on Saturday, 4 October, ending a six-month closure for depot upgrades two weeks ahead of schedule.
The reopening matters because the inner loop serves residents who have been bus-bridgeing since April while SBS Transit ran partial loops. Land Transport Authority (LTA) engineers finished depot expansion works that allow longer train stabling, and the agency said remaining testing on the inner loop cleared over the past fortnight.
What the free-rail extension buys commuters
Alongside the reopening, Ms Sun said LTA will extend the Free Morning Off-Peak Rail Rides scheme by one year to 26 December 2027. The pilot, which began on 27 December 2025, waives the first rail leg for weekday taps before 7.30am or between 9am and 9.45am, excluding public holidays.
Eligible stations cover the six North East Line stops from Punggol Coast to Kovan and every Sengkang-Punggol LRT station. Commuters must still pay for transfers that start outside those zones, and the free leg applies once per direction per day when the tap-in time falls inside the windows.
Ms Sun said ridership data showed about 10 percent of passengers moved out of the 7.30am to 9am crush, compared with the original 7 percent goal. LTA framed the extension as capacity management: spreading demand should lift average space on SPLRT trains by roughly 30 percent once the inner loop returns.
Depot works and the early finish
LTA closed the inner loop in April 2026 to expand the Sengkang depot and replace ageing trackside power assets. SBS Transit kept the outer loop running with shuttle buses on affected segments, and town council feedback sessions in May flagged longer waits at Cheng Lim and Farmway stations.
Engineers originally targeted a mid-October reopening. Ms Sun credited contractor shift overlap and overnight possession windows for pulling the date forward. She cautioned that weekend engineering hours will continue on the outer loop until year end for signalling software upgrades unrelated to the inner loop handback.
What residents should check before Monday
Commuters who rerouted via Punggol bus interchange during the closure should revert to LRT paths from Saturday first train. LTA will publish a revised frequency table showing three-minute headways on the inner loop during peak and five-minute off-peak service.
Free off-peak taps still require a valid stored-value card or bank card; concession holders keep their usual discounts on paid legs. Ms Sun urged residents who work hybrid schedules to test the 9am to 9.45am window, which remains underused compared with the pre-7.30am cohort.
Parliament's Transport SGC will review SPLRT reliability metrics in November. For now, the dual announcement — earlier loop reopening plus a longer free-tap pilot — is the ministry's answer to northeast crowding without adding fleet until the depot expansion fully stabilises.
Service patterns from Saturday
SBS Transit said first and last train timings on the inner loop will mirror pre-closure schedules published on the MyTransport.SG journey planner. Station staff will place floor decals at Cheng Lim and Kupang pointing commuters to the reopened platform doors after months of directional signs for bus bridging.
Ms Sun noted that Punggol Coast residents who joined the free off-peak pilot last December accounted for a disproportionate share of the 10 percent shift, suggesting newer estates may have more flexible work hours. LTA will publish anonymised tap data each quarter so town councils can see whether the 9am window needs widening.
Opposition MPs in Sengkang GRC had pressed for earlier reopening dates during the April sitting; Friday's announcement effectively closes that line of questioning while shifting scrutiny to whether one year of free taps is enough if fleet capacity remains tight until 2028.