Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)

The Mass Rapid Transit, abbreviated and referred to in local parlance as the MRT, is a heavy rail rapid transit system that constitutes the bulk of the railway network in  Singa pore , spanning—with the exception of the forested core and the island's rural northwest—the length and width of the city-state's main island. The first section of the MRT opened on 7 November 1987, and the network has since grown rapidly in accordance with Singapore's aim of developing a comprehensive rail network as the backbone of the country's public transportation system, with an average daily ridership of 3.384 million in 2019, approximately 83% of the bus network's 4.099 million in the same period Singapore's MRT infrastructure is built, operated, and managed in accordance with a hybridised quasi-nationalised regulatory framework called the New Rail Financing Framework (NRFF), in which the lines are constructed and the assets owned by the Land Transport Authority, a statutory board of the Government of  Singa pore . The Land Transport Authority allocates operating concessions to two for-profit private corporations, namely SMRT and SBS Transit, both of which are responsible for asset maintenance on their respective lines. These operators also run bus and taxi services, thus facilitating the full integration of public transport services

As of January 2020, the MRT network encompasses 203 kilometres (126 mi) of route on standard gauge, with 122 stations in operation, spread across six lines set in a circle-radial topology. The network is expected to double to a total length of almost 400 kilometres (250 mi) by 2040 as a result of ongoing expansion works to its six existing lines and the construction of three new lines. The network is complemented by a small number of local Light Rail Transit (LRT) networks in the suburban towns of Bukit Panjang, Sengkang, and Punggol that link MRT stations with HDB public housing estates, bringing the combined length of the domestic heavy and light rail network to 231.6 kilometres (143.9 mi), with a total of 159 stations in operation

The MRT is the oldest, busiest, and most comprehensive rapid transit system by route length in Southeast Asia. More than S$92 billion (US$67 billion) has been spent on the construction of rail infrastructure, the procurement of rolling stock and other rail assets, and the periodical renewal of assets, making the MRT one of the costliest rapid transit networks and public transportation projects in the world on both a per-kilometre and absolute basis. The system has the added distinctions of having the longest fully automated and driverless network in the world, as well as some of the longest and deepest subway tunnel sections in the world. The MRT is also unique in that the vast majority of underground stations in the network double as purpose-built Singapore Civil Defence Force bunkers and air raid shelters, being built with hardened boundary walls, reinforced concrete floor and roof slabs, and concrete or steel doors for the purpose of withstanding conventional aerial bomb and chemical attacks