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
Johor Sultan drives the last train out
By Cassandra Chew, The Straits Times, 1 Jul 2011.
ON BOARD THE SPECIAL LAST TRAIN OUT OF TANJONG PAGAR STATION: TRAIN enthusiast Char Lee leaned out the doorway in between train carriages and held his camera to capture the last moments of Malayan Railway’s (KTM) last train travelling through the heart of Singapore.
Along the way, the 30-year-old member of the KTM Railway Fan Club yelled and waved to people who gathered along the route from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands.
This special train, which left the station at 11pm, an hour after the last scheduled KTM train departed, was driven by Johor Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar.
Small groups of people gathered along the track for a final look.
Source: The Straits Times
