The Singapore North East Line (NEL), the world’s first automated heavy underground metro, is upgrading its TETRA system. Selex Elsag, a Finmeccanica company, has been awarded a contract to replace the existing SCN-T to SCN Plus, its latest generation TDM-based switching and control node. The work also involves the upgrade of existing TETRA equipment, as well as provision of a TETRA mobile and train computer interface for the new trains. It is expected to be completed in 2016.

Since it opened in 2003, NEL has seen journeys growing year by year. Annual usage rose by 12·9 per cent in 2011 to about 156 million and the TETRA upgrade is in line with the purchase of 18 new trains. These will boost NEL’s capacity to meet the increased projected ridership growth of 70 per cent along the 20?km North-East corridor from HarbourFront station to Punggol station.