Why I drove the last train out
By His Royal Highness, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor, 1 Jul 2011.
WHEN I found out last year that Tanjong Pagar Railway Station would be closed, I expressed my desire of driving the last train out of Singapore to the KTM chairman.
What the governments do has got nothing to do with me. To me, it is a sentimental matter.
It was my great grandfather, the late Sultan Ibrahim, who opened the Causeway, designed for both road and rail links. He paved the way, literally, for the first train to rumble into Singapore from Malaysia back in 1923.
I felt it was only appropriate for me, as the ruler of Johor, to drive the last train out.
Besides trains, I fly jets, helicopters, and I sail my own yacht. I am never a boring person. Everything to me is a challenge. I always like to find something new to do. Every day, I look at the weather and think to myself, what should I do today?
So when the KTM chairman said OK, the train instructor was sent to my palace.
Source: The Straits Times
All Aboard: Riding the Train from Tanjong Pagar Rail Station to Johor Bahru
By Jeffrey and Flora, 18 Apr 2011.
Not only are they a dying form of transportation, trains and railway stations are also time machines, taking passengers back to a simpler, slower time. As I set foot inside Tanjong Pagar Rail Station a few days ago, I forgot about the glass and steel buildings in the CBD, the crowded malls and congested streets of Singapore. Train service out of this station will end on July 1, 2011, so I decided to take a train ride to Johor Bahru before it would be too late.
After July 1, the Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) will no longer run trains out of Tanjong Pagar Rail Station to Malaysia. Passengers seeking to ride the rails from Singapore to Johor Bahru and beyond will have to begin their journey at Woodlands Train Checkpoint (WTCP). Tanjong Pagar Rail Station, as well as Bukit Timah Rail Station, have been gazetted and will be conserved. The land where the train tracks now lay seems to be fair game and will probably be developed at warp speed, as land is scarce on this little island. Read more
