The Downtown Line stage 3 was opened on 21 October 2017. It is the second last stage of the Downtown line. The last stage is DTL3e, which was announced on 15 August 2014, in conjunction with the announcement of the Thomson-East Coast MRT Line.
Two stations, Xilin MRT Station and Sungei Bedok MRT Station will be added to the Downtown Line, with Sungei Bedok as an interchange station with the Thomson-East Coast Line. It will add an additional 2.2 km to the line with the extension.[26] Due in 2024, Stage 3e will join the current East West and future Thomson-East Coast lines that runs through Marine Parade.
However, it seems that there was a planning oversight. Jalan Besar and Rochor stations are around 300m apart - what's really puzzling is that users will have to sit through a loop of 9 additional stops to get to the other station.
This adds to the load of the DTL during peak hours and makes it difficult for commuters to walk to the other station directly. Users would have to exit 1 station, cross a junction before walking another 100m to get to the other station - without shelter from the weather.
The LTA should have designed an underpass to connect the 2 stations for transfer to be made easier, since there is an underpass along Sungei road.
This adds to the load of the DTL during peak hours and makes it difficult for commuters to walk to the other station directly. Users would have to exit 1 station, cross a junction before walking another 100m to get to the other station - without shelter from the weather.
The LTA should have designed an underpass to connect the 2 stations for transfer to be made easier, since there is an underpass along Sungei road.
However, it makes perfect sense for the authorities, as this means DTL3 users would have to pay more and waste more time for their commute.
