Portal:Trains/Featured article/Week 1, 2006
The Mass Rapid Transit or MRT (Simplified Chinese: 大众快速交通, 地下铁路 or 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, serving almost half of Singapore's population of four million 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 and reducing dependency on road-based systems, such as the bus network. The MRT has 63 operating stations, over 109 kilometres of lines. The MRT works in conjunction with the Light Rapid Transit (LRT) system, which links the MRT stations with the respective public housing (HDB) estate they serve.
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