Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore)

The Mass Rapid Transit or MRT (Chinese: 大众快速交通 or more commonly known as 地铁; Malay: Sistem Pengangkutan Gerak Cepat; Tamil: சிங்கை துரிதக் கடவு ரயில்) is a rapid transit system that forms the backbone of the railway system in Singapore with a network spanning the entire city-state. The initial section of the MRT, between Yio Chu Kang and Toa Payoh, was opened in 1987, establishing the MRT as the second oldest metro system in Southeast Asia after Manila's LRT System.

The network has since grown rapidly as a result of Singapore's aim of developing a comprehensive rail network as the main backbone of the public transport system in Singapore. In 2005, the average daily ridership on the MRT network was about 1.338 million. While this figure pales in comparison to the bus network's 2.785 million, it was nonetheless an 76% increase compared to figures in 1995 (0.760 million), while the bus network saw an 8.1% drop in ridership in the same period. This trend is expected to continue as current public transport policies promote the expansion of the rail network at the expense of bus services which are withdrawn or reduced to avoid duplication of services.

The MRT has 64 operating stations with 109.4 kilometres of lines and operates on standard gauge. The rail lines have been constructed by the Land Transport Authority, a department of the government of Singapore, which allocates operating concessions to the profit-based corporations SMRT Corporation and SBS Transit. These operators also run bus and taxi services, thus ensuring that there is a full integration of public transport services. The MRT is complemented by the regional Light Rapid Transit (LRT) systems which links the MRT stations with the respective HDB public housing estates they serve. Services operate from about 5:30 am and usually end before 1 a.m. daily with frequencies of approximately five minutes, and services being extended during festive periods.