bukit timah railway station
By Stephanie, 17 May 2011.
The recent news about the closure of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station has created quite a stir amongst many Singaporeans, netizens and budding photographers who wanted to visit both the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and Bukit Timah Railway Station (now functioning as a passing loop railway station between Tanjong Pagar and Woodlands) before operation ceases for good (with effective 1st July 2011). That is just less than 2 months away! This was a cause of concern for many heritage and nature lovers who were afraid that the government might demolish the stations for commercial development. As we all know, land is extremely scarce in Singapore and any available prime land (especially at Bukit Timah) is most likely to be snapped immediately either to build another expensive condominium or a retail mall. Well, money talks. Click here to read about a proposal, proposed by The Green Corridor, to turn the stations, along with its railway tracks, into an eco-tourism attraction. Thumbs up! 
Fortunately, the government has assured us that the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station will be gazetted as a National Monument under the Preservation of Monuments Board (PMB) as it sees the importance of having to preserve a place that had played such a significant role in our transportation history. In addition, the Bukit Timah Railway Station will also be gazetted as a conserved building under the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). In its proposal, The Green Corridor has suggested turning the station and parts of its rail tracks into a locomotive museum, something which I honestly think is a fantastic idea as I’ve been very impressed by the few train museums that I had visited overseas. Read more
The last level crossing in Singapore
By Jerome Lim, 19 May 2011.
Minutes before arriving at Woodlands on the 30th of June, the last of the Malayan Railway trains to cut across our island would have passed what would be the last operational level crossing in Singapore. It is probably appropriate that the crossing, one of two gated crossings left (the other being at Gombak Drive), is the last that will see a train pass through, being close to the terminal point of the original Singapore-Kranji Railway which commenced operations in 1903. The original line had featured numerous level crossings, particularly in the busy city centre and in planning the Railway Deviation of 1932, a stated objective had been the elimination of the level crossings in the city which proved not just to be costly to maintain, but also contributed to significant congestion on the city roads as well as being dangerous. What we are left with today are five operational manned level crossings, three of which are closed by a barrier rather than a gate. The crossings are at Gombak Drive, Choa Chu Kang Road (the widest), Stagmont Ring Road, Sungei Kadut Avenue and Kranji Road.
A train crossing Kranji Road. The Kranji level crossing would be the last one to operate on the 30th of June 2011. Read more
Don’t miss the last train!
By Jerome Lim, 18 May 2011.
The last day of June this year will bring to a close a long chapter in our history, one that will break a link we have had with the Malayan Railway, now operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), that went back some 108 years. The railway’s beginings can be traced back to the Singapore-Kranji Railway which started service in 1903 providing a link from the north down to the terminal station in Tank Road. A ferry service was introduced which provided rail passengers with a link to the Johor Railway across the Straits of Johor which was replaced by the rail link across the Causeway when that was built. It was a railway deviation in 1932 that diverted the railway to its current terminal at Tanjong Pagar, cutting a path through from Bukit Timah deviating from its original route over towards Ulu Pandan, Buona Vista, Tanglin Halt, towards the new grand terminal built to provide Singapore with a station that was befitting of its economic importance. Beside the grand old station, it was this deviation that possibly provided us with the many structures that give the areas through which the railway passes through a unique flavour as well as helping preserving parts of old Singapore: the two distinctive black truss bridges across Bukit Timah Road; the girder bridges across at the road entrance to Bukit Timah Hill and at the entrance to Hillview Avenue; the quaint old station at Bukit Timah and the wonderful green corridor that has been maintained along much of the railway land.
The last train will pass reach Woodlands Checkpoint at approximately 23:00 on 30th June 2011 and that will end 108 years of trains of the Malayan Railway chugging through Singapore. Read more
A walk on the wild side
By Jerome Lim, 15 May 2011.
I took a walk into a world where there might not have been one, where gold, crimson and blue tinged fairies dance a flight of joy, a joy that’s echoed in the singing of songs of joy that eludes ears made weary by the cacophony of the grey world we have found ourselves in. It is a world that seeks to be found in the midst of the cold grey world we find around us, a world that we may soon lose with the lost of the reasons for its being. The world I speak of is none other than the Green Corridor that has existed solely because of the railway which has allowed a green and seemingly distant world to exist next to the concrete world that we have created in our island.
We took the train from Singapore (Tanjong Pagar Railway Station) to Johor (JB)
May 24, 2011 by admin
Filed under Recreation, Stories, Transport
By Andy Lee, 26 Oct 2010.
Following our trip to Tanjong Pagar Railway station, we embark on our maiden train trip to Johor. (we have only taken MRT and LRTs in Singapore)
We can hear the whistle, and we boarded the 0845 train.
(for short trips, tickets are only on sale on the day itself)
Train is noisy, air is a bit stuffy, but hey, this is a NEW experience 🙂
Daddy would prefer to have a non-aircondition cabin, so we can smell the dungs, the soot, the “outdoor freshness”. Read more
Tanjong Pagar Railway Station
By Jeffrey and Flora, 23 Jan 2011.
After exploring the Bukit Timah Railway Station a few months ago, I felt the need to visit the other old railway station in Singapore before it was too late: Tanjong Pagar. This train station was much easier to get to (there’s a bus stop right across the street) and I didn’t feel like a creep walking around taking photos. Maybe I’m just getting used to that feeling, though.
Bukit Timah Railway Station
By Jeffrey and Flora, 16 Dec 2010.
Recently, I met up with notabilia and Singapore Noodle to explore the Bukit Timah Railway Station. Not quite knowing where it was, I left my house extra early and arrived about an hour later by bus. I walked up a dirt and gravel road next to a black trestle bridge that crosses Bukit Timah Road, right near the King Albert Park bus stop. At the top of the road, I was greeted by this sign:
I was a little disappointed, but notabilia asked the station master for permission to take photos and permission was granted. He seemed used to dealing with curious people with cameras around their necks asking him to poke around his railway station. Read more
When does a city become a home?
May 21, 2011 by admin
Filed under Recreation, Stories, Transport
By Tom Keeble, 4 May 2011.
In a radical departure for this little corner of the web, I’m going to talk about something a little bit abstract – that moment when the place you live becomes a place you feel at home.
Having been in Singapore for almost 4 years now, it’s interesting to observe our changing response to the place. Going from the time where we loved the differences to Melbourne and saw the good in everything, such as; a thriving urban, globalised city that has managed to retain some unique cultural flavour and preserve at least some of its natural and built heritage; cheap, reliable, safe and useful public transport; a young and burgeoning cultural and scientific scene with the opportunity to both observe a generation opening its eyes to the possible, and to leave our own mark; and a government that actually has a view to the future instead of making unborn generations pay for the priveleges the Boomers are enjoying now, to seeing the not-so-good side of Singapore. Read more
tracks by madeleine lee
The series of 9 poems shared by Madeleine Lee during The Green Corridor Forum:
tracks by madeleine lee
i    railway
at five each day give or take
a trundling rusty centipede
creaking past beaten panels
zinc tokens of sound proofing
awakening grumbling
its steely tiger head suddenly
silenced after a century
background noisy dischord
foreground political jar
in between some elevator music
stepping onto meter tracks
between s and m infinite h’s
now less risky
now equidistant
still wanting perspective Read more
The last train from Tanjong Pagar
By Jerome Lim, 14 May 2011.
On the 30th of June, we will see the last day of operation at the grand old station at Tanjong Pagar. The station, grand not in terms of scale, but in the magnificent style in which it was built, has served Singapore as the southern terminal station for close to eight decades, having been completed in 1932 to provide a city fast growing in economic importance with a station befitting of its status, and being part of a deviation of the railway which had prior to that, run through the Bukit Timah corridor before terminating at Tank Road. With the return of the railway land which has been held on a lease by the successors of the Malayan Railway, Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) and the shift of the southern terminal on the 1st of July, the age of rail travel across Singapore, which has lasted a little over a century, would draw to a close.
Operations at the grand building which has served as the southern terminal of the Malayan Railway since 1932 will cease on 1st July 2011.
In what form the station, which has recently received status as a National Monument, will be conserved following the handover we do not know, but whatever does happen, it would only serve as a reminder of the once working station which had for many years been an oasis of the laid back old world feeling that is missing from the modern Singapore that we have gotten used to. Gone will be the whistles and the drone of the diesel engines, the coming and going of passengers, the popular food outlets and what has become an institution at the railway station, the Habib Book Store and Money Changer. Gone will also be the opportunity to soak up the feel of the mood around the station, and lazily sip away at a cup of tea seated at the station end of the arrival platform. Read more
