Parts of KTM railway to be retained
By Grace Chua, The Straits Times, 23 Jul 2011.
Some sections of the former Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) railway tracks will be retained, the Nature Society and other heritage interest groups said yesterday.
They emerged from a meeting with government agencies to report that sections of the track at the now-defunct Tanjong Pagar and Bukit Timah railway stations, and those on two steel bridges at Dunearn Road and the Rail Mall, will be kept under existing plans to conserve the stations.
The civic society groups did not, however, have information on the length of these conserved sections. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) confirmed the information following the meeting the groups had with Minister of State for National Development Tan Chuan-Jin and representatives from the Ministry of National Development and its associated agencies.
Source: The Straits Times via Wildsingapore
Why not turn the section of the track into a nostalgic railway park like those in Britain?
Have vintage trains running back-and-forth at the short 2-3km section, made available for visitors to take a short memorable ride.
for eg.
http://www.avonvalleyrailway.org/
http://www.visitcumbria.com/wc/ravenglass-and-eskdale-railway.htm
Removing the tracks was wrong headed in the first place. The best use of them would have been as a joint KTM/LTA project for a KTM Komuter like EMU service running Tj. Pagar – Buona Vista – Bukit Timah – Kranji – Woodlands – Johor Bahru Kempas – Kulai. It would have reduced a lot of causeway congestion and got a lot of M’sian motorcycles off of Singaporean roads, making everyone safer.