The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will be taking over all rail operating assets from April 2018.
Commuters will benefit through more coordinated and timely expansion and renewal of the rail system, according to a LTA press statement released yesterday, Feb 14.
North East Line (NEL), Sengkang LRT and Punggol LRT (SPLRT) will transit to the New Rail Financing Framework (RNRFF) – which is a more sustainable, asset-light operating framework – on 1 April 2018.
This completes the transition of the entire rail network to NRFF.
SBS Transit's rail operating assets will be acquired by LTA at net book value, which according to local paper Todayonline, was estimated to be around S$28.8 million (S$30.8 million with Goods and Services Tax) as at March 31 this year.
60 percent of the payment will be made at the start of April. The remaining 40 percent will be paid in two installments of 20 percent each on the next two anniversaries of the transition.
"The New Rail Financing Framework is a more sustainable model for us in the long term. It enables us to focus on the operations and maintenance of the rail systems so that we can improve our service delivery further," said SBS Transit Chief Executive Officer, Mr Gan Juay Kiat.
He added that the framework "relieves us of the cost of asset renewal and upgrade, and of procuring additional operating assets when ridership demand increases, in order to meet service level and reliability standards set by the LTA."