C651

The Siemens C651 trains form a type of rolling stock that can be found on the North South Line and East West Line of the Mass Rapid Transit system in Singapore. A total of 114 cars were purchased and introduced from 1994 onwards. This is the only fleet retaining the white exterior bodies (just like the C151 trains before refurbishment) that are used on the North South Line and the East West Line.

Overview
Operating on the North South Line and the East West Line since the mid-1990s, the C651 trains are the second generation of the four types of train cars used on the SMRT network. They were bought mainly to complement the existing C151 trains due to the opening of the Woodlands extension. Unlike its older counterparts, the C651s are painted with a scratch-resistant acrylic finish due to dirt trapping on the aluminum skin of the C151 trains that were difficult to remove.

These cars come with green-blue tinted glass windows. They look almost identical to the first generation train cars before its refurbishment, except that its traction produces a louder, lower-pitched noise when accelerating/braking. However, the C651s will have their traction systems changed to the one used on the C751B trains, and so the special motor sounds of the C651s may walk into history. The run number display on the front of each train is made up of electronic green flip-dot display, as opposed to the manual plastic rollers of the Kawasaki C151 trains, while the rubber strips between the doors are thicker. The trains have a full white body and a thick red stripe in the middle. 19 trainsets of 6 cars each were purchased, the first rolling out of the SGP plant on 17 July 1994 with much fanfare and delivered to SMRT on 20 September 1994. Similar to the Kawasaki Heavy Industries C151 trains, the Siemens C651 trains have no visual passenger information systems, but have a built-in audio announcement system until the STARIS was installed and activated around 2010. After all the C151 trains are refurbished in 2008, the Siemens C651 trains are the only MRT trains with the white body. All the MRT trains along the oldest MRT lines have the black exterior except for the C651 trains.

SMRT Active Route Map Information System (STARiS)
All C651 trains are installed with STARiS and are operational.

Experimental programmes
Many experimental programmes have been run on the C651 cars, including the past program.

For the past program, the third and fourth cars, coloured in green were even more radical in the reconfiguration, with all but eight parts of seats, four at each ends of the car removed completely. In its place was standing room with upholstered cushion, in an attempt to provide a degree of comfort to passengers standing in that space. This design proved to be unpopular with the commuters, and it was eventually dropped. The original seats between the 1st and 2nd door, and the 3rd and 4th door on these cars have been replaced. The remaining upholstered seats were reverted to original seats in May 2006. 10 trains from refurbished C151 trains made this standard, and only 14 seats from each car were therefore removed.

For now, some trains of this type were reconfigured to have more standing space in the late 1990s as part of an experimental programme. In particular, the second and fifth cars (the blue cars) were reconfigured to have more standing room on both sides, as 3 seats from some later cars.

More grabpoles were also added. Regular grabpoles in the centre of each car were replaced by grabpoles that branch out into three in the centre, similar in purpose to those on the C151 and C751B trains. Special non slip floorings were also tested.

Refurbishment
Refurbishment for these trains are expected to begin as per recommendations made by Committee of Inquiry (COI) in the wake of two major train disruptions in December 2011.



Safety systems
Siemens C651 trains are equipped with Automatic Train Control (ATC), supplemented with Automatic train operation (ATO). At a fallback level, Automatic Train Protection (ATP) is available.

Serial number
The car numbers of the trains range from x201 to x238, where x depends on the carriage type. Individual cars are assigned a 4 digit serial number by the rail operator SMRT Trains.
 * The first digit depends upon whether the car is the first, second or third car from the end of the train it is nearer to, where the first car has a 3, the second has a 1 & the third has a 2.
 * The other 3 digits are the train identification numbers. A full length train of 6 cars have 2 different identification numbers, one for the first 3 cars, and the same number plus 1, for the other three.