MRT Thomson-East Coast Line Full Journey from Gardens by the Bay to Woodlands North Unedited

This is a video of me riding the Singapore MRT Thomson-East Coast Line from Gardens by the Bay to Woodlands North. The Thomson-East Cost Line (TEL) is still under construction as of March 2023 - 3 stages of the line have been completed at that point, and 2 more stages are expected to be completed by 2025.
The line starts at the Gardens by the Bay and heads north, skipping past Marina South before stopping at Marina Bay, Shenton Way, Maxwell, Outram Park, Havelock, Great World, Orchard, Orchard Boulevard, Napier and Stevens. After that the train will skip past Mount Pleasant before continuing past Caldecott, Upper Thomson, Bright Hill, Mayflower, Lentor, Springleaf, Woodlands South, Woodlands before terminating at Woodlands North.
The Thomson-East Coast Line is well connected with the other lines in its current state. Marina Bay is an interchange station with the North South Line and Circle Line, Outram Park is also served by the East West Line and North East Line, Orchard is also served by the North South Line, Stevens is also served by the Downtown Line, Caldecott is another interchange station with the Circle Line and Woodlands is a third interchange station with the North South Line. Hopefully by 2027, the Johor-Bahru-Singapore RTS Link would be completed, linking Woodlands North with Bukit Chagar in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
This video has been left unedited, and I plan to upload another version with my commentary in the near future when I have time.

[@DaveDVideoMaker]

I’m sure Marina South and Mount Pleasant will open at some point in the future.

[@kylohk]

Well the Covid pandemic has disrupted the development plans of many countries, including Singapore. I understand that 5 stages of this line were meant to be completed by the end of this year, but now the completion date of Stage 5 has been pushed back by 2 years. The Singapore government must have had high hopes for the Marina Bay area, because loads of new attractions have been built over the past 2 decades, come to think of it. I guess Marina South must be the next place to build new stuff in, given how close it is to the ferry pier nearby. The original plan must be to complete those attractions only slightly after the station has opened to attract tourists, but with the number of visitors way down over the past few years, the station has to wait until the surrounding area finally catches up to the times.

[@ZHD1987E]

If you do come back to take the RTS link, you might be disappointed to see that the trains there are the ones similar to KL's Ampang Line.
Malaysia had to cut down the RTS link budget due to the difficult financial situation they faced earlier, and so they had to change the plan away from the Thomson Line proposal.
If you need some local comparison, they are somewhat similar to our Jurong Region Line trains which technically feels like a LRT but instead of a people-mover system like you find in airports (Bukit Panjang/Punggol/Sengkang), they are normal trains running on normal track.

[@kylohk]

That is a pity. How would that affect the number of passengers that can be handled by the RTS? I actually went to JB for a spin earlier today, and the only complaint I have about the shuttle train is the frequency and availability of the service.

[@ZHD1987E]

@@kylohk They will try to keep to the stated goal of 10,000 passengers in each direction per hour. Hoping that is achieved but I think the trip may become even squeezier with the smaller trains running on the line...
As for the shuttle train, well many Malaysians and Singaporeans can relate to this as well, so much so that tickets for the shuttle train sell out within seconds in busy days. Bear in mind that the shuttle train isn't really designed to ferry many people at one go in high frequencies as they use equipment similar to long-haul trains over in Malaysia.

[@kylohk]

@@ZHD1987E 10000 passengers per direction per hour should be more than enough. Even if the RTS runs for 16 hours a day, that would be enough to handle nearly 3% of the population of Singapore, and that should be more than enough. We are still several years from 2027, so we will find out when we get there.
I got more stories to tell about my day trip to JB yesterday, but I will wait until the unedited footage of my ride on the shuttle is out. It will be ready just after work hours today.