Breaking the link – cutting and removing the KTM railway line

By N. Sivasothi, 22 Jul 2011.

A symbolic scene greeted me on my field trip yesterday morning. The Malaysian (Keretapi Tanah Melayu or KTM) railway I crossed each time I ventured into Mandai mangroves since 1987 has been cut. The fastening clips have been removed and collected in canvas bags along the railway.

All this steel will be returned to Malaysia.

A railway track consists of rails, sleepers, fasteners, ballast on a foundation:

1. Two parallel steel flat-bottomed rails are anchored perpendicularly along regular intervals (gauge) to
2. wood or concrete sleepers (Americans call them railroad ties) with a
3. rail fasteners such the Pandrol e-clip and all laid on a
4. trackbed made up of gravel track ballast placed on
5. a foundation of compressed earth.

The KTM railway track is peppered with distance markers, lights and junctions. The markers along the northernmost stretch are old friends which we used to map back to when I was a field assistant to D H Murphy, mapping the mangroves. I made sure the map got into the mangrove guidebook:

Map of Mandai mangroves in the Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore
guidebook with the railway line mapped in. 

The 760.25km from Butterworth distance marker taken down
– no trains run here anymore.

Removal in process closer to Mandai Kechil

I used to take the train to Malaysia frequently in the 70′s to visit relatives; then I started going in the 80′s on my own and in the 90′s to do otter work or meet conservationists and scientists there. My last journey on the train was in the last week of its operations when I visited Taman Negara by way of Jerantut. I filmed the journey back from Woodlands Checkpoint to Ghim Moh and will upload that clip later.

Taking the train from the sterile Woodlands Checkpoint in future will be an anti-climax for sure!

Still, my greatest interaction with the railway line has been in crossing back and forth for mangrove work since 1987 until today. I liked that experience so much that in 1997, I made pains to take a photo (with precious slide film) of Kate Thome debriefing volunteers at the first ever mangrove cleanup I had organised at Mandai Kechil – and I waited to take that photo when the train trundled past. Two years later in 1999, that photo went into the mangrove guidebook!

We also caught the passing train as we walked into the mangrove in Nature at Our Doorstep, a local nature magazine show on 3rd July 2003. We were a little luck with the timing and was happy we were alert about catching it.

Well, you get the picture – I celebrated the quirky situation of the train and Malaysian land running through Singapore every chance I could!

Kate Thome debriefing the first mangrove cleanup for the International
Coastal Cleanup Singapore, September 1997 as the train passes by. 

Scene from Nature at Our Doorstep:
Crossing the railway track to reach Mandai mangrove, 03 Jul 2003.
Yusfiandi Yatiman or Yandi, who was hosting the show, is behind me.

Scene from Nature at Our Doorstep:
Entering the mangrove with the KTM train passing behind me, 03 Jul 2003.

At the Sungei Mandai Besar railway bridge with Yandi
and the NAOD crew, 03 Jul 2003.

RGS students waking the railway track as we head
to Mandai mangroves, 07 Aug 2004.

The only LSM4263 Marine Biology class small enough
for me to take to Mandai mangrove (13 Feb 2008).

Jessica Ker, then a final year undergraduate research student,
like many others before her, crosses the railway
to head to Mandai mangrove, 15 Jan 2011.

I suppose by next week the line will be gone. I hope the area will not change too much – there appears to be cause for some hope (see URA’s Rail Corridor website) and you can follow all the developments, news and blog posts at the excellent Green Corridor website.

When I talk about the train tracks in future, assuming the mangrove remains, I will share Jerome Lim’s voluminous documentation of the railway in the days leading to its departure at Journeys through Tanjong Pagar.

Related Content

• (Abandoned) Railway Track Photo Walkabout
• Stripping of KTM railway track completed
• Jurong Line: Digging Up A Bit of My Childhood
• The Last Train – Part 2
• A Final Journey – The Last Train Part 5