The rapid urbanization and population grows in Asia Pacific regions posed a challenging task for Authorities to cope with the demands for space and resources and the stress on the environment.

One of the key challenges is to create a sustainable transportation system that is efficient and environmental friendly. Every modern city and growing city have plan for its own Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network in their long term strategic plan to tackle the congestion and pollution problem.

MRT system implementation and subsequent operation and maintenance activities involve a large scale system planning, project management, engineering development, system safety, testing and integration with multiple sub-systems.

The complexities and challenges presented opportunities for us to leverage on our domain knowledge and years of experiences in implementation of MRT systems in Singapore to develop an Advanced Command, Control and Communication (C3) Solution for Railway Systems. C3 is a collection of distributed software and hardware systems engineered to work collectively to realize the 3 key needs of Control, Command and Communication integrated into one single and homogeneous solution for operator to manage the MRT system efficiently. This high level of integration between the various major components of a MRT system provides the following benefits:
• Increases the responsiveness of the system
• Facilitates the sharing of information between operators and with the commuters
• Enhance the overall operability of the system, on a day-to-day or incident management basis.

We have assembled a team of expertise from various disciplines to embark on this new and large scale system development. The team includes Project Management team to manage the schedule, coordination with customer, contractors, interfacing parties and the large resources required for the project, System Engineering team, Software Engineering team, Safety team, Quality and System Assurance team, Installation team, EMC team, Test and Commissioning team and Safety and Software Assessment team.

The journey started in 2003 and with the initial funding from Economic Development Board (EDB) Innovation Development Scheme; the system was developed in phases to overcome the complexities and customers’ need; and deployed in multiple cities along the way with the latest major deployment and revenue service of our Advanced C3 system in Singapore Circle Line supporting the driverless train in 2010. The system is show cased in the World Urban Transit Conference 2010 in Singapore.

The system details were presented during this event.

The journey was not easy and unexpected challenges threaten to pull back the project. The Nicoll Highway collapse disrupted the project schedule dramatically. Major changes in planning, new safety process and new total cost management concept were introduced to contain the impact and overcome the obstacle.

The successful implementation of this system has also won us recognition in large scale system engineering and management and safety award. In addition, it allow us to contribute our expertise in deployment of MRT supervisory systems overseas, notably the Beijing Traffic Control Centre during the 2008 Olympic Games and Integrated Control and Supervisory System for the Guang-Fo MRT lines during the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou.

The innovative and ergonomically designed C3 Operation Control Centre in Singapore Circle Line MRT as well as the Beijing Traffic Control Centre has been favorite site visit for VIPs, Ministers, City Mayors and Metro planners.