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

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 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.

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

Jurong Line: Is this Goodbye?

By Daphne, 22 Feb 2011.

It was close to 20 years ago when the last train went down the tracks of the Jurong Line of the KTM Malayan Railway in Singapore. These tracks, which run from the Jurong Industrial park to Bukit Timah, has since been dismantled in part, but mostly left abandoned.

In May 2010, news that Tanjong Pagar Train Station, the only remaining train station part of the KTM Malayan Railway Network that still functions in Singapore, was going to move north to Woodlands broke out. The KTM Malayan Railway has for years brought people and goods from Malaysia to Singapore and vice versa. Since then, there has been speculation as to what would happen to these railway tracks – both the line that runs from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands, and the Jurong Line.

I took a walk down the Jurong Line, two Sundays ago, and to my dismay, work on removing these tracks had already started.

I had began my walk from Penjuru Road, near the Teban Gardens estate in Jurong, and was wondering why I could not spot any semblance of the tracks – I was even starting to think that I was not going down the right path. Read more

Jurong Line: A Photo Guide

By Daphne, 22 Feb 2011.

Want to walk the Jurong Line, the abandoned railway that is part of the KTM Malayan Railway Network and not quite sure how to? Here’s a photo guide that will show you how:
View KTM Malayan Railway Lines in Singapore in a larger map

From Penjuru Road to the Tunnel, along the Teban Gardens Estate

Entering the path from Penjuru Road, you will likely to be greeted by a dirt path. The dirt path that you see here is caused by some machinery that has already started digging up the tracks around this area. A stream, or perhaps you might refer to it as a drain, runs along the side of this path. On the opposite side of this stream lie some kampung (villages). Read more

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

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