A Final Journey – The Last Train Part 5

By David Teo, 24 Jul 2011.

While preparing the last part of the 5-part series on “The Last Train” (Part 4 is here), I discovered Mr Lee, the grandfather of a friend, an elderly man all of 85 years. He is partially deaf, and has fading vision. and is so frail he cannot move on his own properly without his walking stick. He is by all accounts, typical of the aged in Singapore, a man who due to his age, keeps repeatedly his life story to all who are within earshot, to whoever cared to listen… Read more

Reminiscing – The Last Train Part 4

By David Teo, 11 Jul 2011.

A KTM Train comes to a stop at Tanjong Pagar KTM Railway station. Today the station is closed and the tracks are forever silenced.

This is part 4 of a 5 part series on “The Last Train”. Part 3 can be found here.

In a typical HDB lift, one is often faced with awkward silence when a stranger, or an unfamilar neighbor strolls into the lift, and the lift door closes, condemning 2 persons within the artificial confines of a limited space. Sometimes we attempt to make small weather talk type of conversations; at times we manage a quick smile and return to a forlorn look at the lift floor counter. Read more

Last Man Standing – Part 3 of “The Last Train”

By David Teo, 9 Jul 2011.

The quaint Bukit Timah KTM Railway Station

This post is a follow-up from Part 2 of “The Last Train” series, a planned 5 part series focusing on the closure of the KTM railway in Singapore.

Of all the things I’ve seen while documenting the closure of the KTM railway in Singapore, my favorite has always been the quaint little-known Bukit Timah station. Indeed, prior to embarking on this project, I, like many Singaporeans were not even aware of this station sitting quietly among the suburbs, nested in the heart of prime Bukit Timah land – one of the reasons why our government wants the land back, I’m sure. Don’t be surprised to see condominiums and shopping malls springing up left, right and centre, even if this station is to be preserved, from what I’ve read… Read more

The Last Train – Part 2

By David Teo, 7 Jul 2011.

This post is a follow-up from Part 1 of the 5 part series “The Last Train” documenting the end of the KTM railway in Singapore.

Many a times, when I am in the zone and taking photo of people, I am acutely aware that every fleeting expression will result in a photo of a different moment, and I take several shots of the same scene so that when I get back into the (now digital) darkroom I can look through the pictures and select THE one representative photo. Read more

The Last Train – Part 1

By David Teo, 5 Jul 2011.

Last week, on the 1st July 2011, the tracks of the KTM railway in Singapore running through Tanjong Pagar, Bukit Timah, Chua Chu Kang and Woodlands became silent as the train service ceased. Trains coming in from Malaysia henceforth would now stop at the new Woodlands stations. The fate of the historic Truss bridges, the old station at Bukit Timah and the level crossing at Chua Chu Kang remains unclear. (If history is anything to go by, they will be demolished to make way for new buildings) Read more

The Green Corridor walk along Bukit Timah [25 Jun]

Saturday, June 25, 8 – 10am, Bukit Timah Railway Station to Old Holland Road.

Join us for this leisure walk along the railway from Bukit Timah Railway Station to Old Holland Road. Mr Wong Kum Seng from the Nature Society (Singapore) will lead this walk.

We would pass by the Bukit Timah Railway Station, which has been gazetted as a conserved building on 27 May 2011. Built in the 1930s, the Bukit Timah Station is an endearing local landmark and a key building of our railway history. We would also pass by an area of significant secondary growth forest, refer to as Clementi Woodlands.

Meeting time: 8am

Meeting point: Outside Cold Storage, McDonald’s Place at King Albert Park (see map at http://gothere.sg/maps#q:king%20albert%20park%20mcdonalds).

Register through Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138172079594336.

If you’re not a Facebook user, just indicate your interest in the comments section below, and turn up on that day.

A colourful journey in black and white

By Jerome Lim, 14 March 2011.

I have always been one for train rides, taking one every opportunity I get whenever I find myself with time to spare, be it from the grand stations of the great European cities, or from stations closer to home, with a particular liking for the old style railways that I sometimes stumble upon. In Singapore, the opportunity had presented itself throughout my life I guess, but somehow, I never embarked on a journey from the grand old station at Tanjong Pagar until I was well into my adulthood, making many trips in the 1990s. Trains always present themselves as a convenient means to get around from one city to another, taking one from the centre of the city right into the heart of another. So it is with the Malayan Railway as well – for another few months at least when Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB or KTM) moves the terminal station from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands. With that, we will bid goodbye to the old railway lines which has served Singapore since the turn of the last century, as well as an old railway station in the heart of the city.

As mentioned in my previous post, I took another ride recently, just for the sake of reliving my previous journeys before the chance to do so evaporates once KTM moves operations to Woodlands. It will be a shame not to have had that experience, one that involves arriving or departing from the platforms which had served as the southern terminal to the Malayan Railway for eight decades from its days as the FMSR. Once the move is made, Singapore would lose not just another historical link it has had with the Malay States in the Malayan Peninsula, but also a proper train station to take a romantic journey on a train from. What will also go are the well worn tracks that served us so well, laid over a corridor of land that probably due to the railway, has remained untouched and relatively green; as well as the many markers left behind by the railway including the railway bridges, signal posts, railway buildings and control huts, distance markers and the last remaining level crossings in Singapore. Read more

There I go again … another journey through Tanjong Pagar

By Jerome Lim, 11 March 2011.

I guess I have not had enough of it, despite probably having tens of, if not a couple of hundred journeys out of Tanjong Pagar. I did it once again, since proclaiming that that journey taken with some friends at the end of last year would possibly have been my last. Having had a mixed bag of experiences on the many journeys through the arches of the grand old station, the ones that probably I remember most of are the regular delays that one comes to expect on the far from reliable train service that KTMB operates. Part of the reason for this, some of the archaic infrastructure and practices still in use on the old railway, does perhaps lend itself to an experience that you would certainly not get on the efficient railways that criss-cross much of the European continent – one that seems out of place in the ultra modern and efficient world we have grown accustomed to in Singapore.

Stepping into the station itself would somehow take you back in time, the atmosphere being one which seems more at home in the Singapore of the 1960s and 1970s. The large airy concourse that greets the visitor is adorned with mosaic murals that speak of a style that was prevalent of a time we have left behind and depict scenes from the Malayan peninsula that would have been more common in that era. Over the years that I had have an awareness of the layout of the concourse, nothing much has changed except perhaps that the occupants of some of the spaces, and an invasion of a Tourism Malaysia hut in the middle of it. It is in one of the spaces along the concourse that some nice food can be found and to perhaps add a old world flavour to the station, you would find food vendors that would be more comfortable conversing in Bahasa Melayu, once a common language on the streets. Read more