Deporting the port

Change often seems the only constant in Singapore. Its relentless pace has altered its face, so much so that many in my generation feel that home is foreign place. Nothing seems sacred, places that we have grown accustomed to and build ties with can disappear in the blink in an eye.

Vanishing scenes at Tanjong Pagar.

One change Singapore is in the midst of, the redevelopment of the Greater Southern Waterfront. This, while positive in the longer term, has the impact of removing places that are not only familiar, but are also markers of significance to Singapore’s past. The port, which the city has long been associated with, and the reason for uch of the development along the southern shores, is being moved in two stages to the far west. The closure of Tanjong Pagar Terminal, the cradle of Singapore’s shipping container revolution, has already been effected. Cleared of most of its container handling paraphernalia, the terminal seems to have been put to use for handling Ro-Ro cargo.

The container terminal has been stripped of it container handling paraphernalia and is being temporarily put to use as Ro-Ro cargo reception facility.

Tanjong Pagar – a promontory on which the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company, formed in 1864, would establish wharfs and graving docks. The company initially constructed a wharf of 229 metres in length in 1866, capable of berthing 4 ships of “ordinary size”, a graving dock, Victoria Dock would also be built in 1868. The opening of the Suez Canal late in 1869, brought with it increased steamship traffic and more wharfage was added. Albert Dock was also built in 1879.

A G. R. Lambert print of Victoria Dock in the 1890s. A ship in Albert Dock can also be seen in the background.

By 1885, the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company would acquire the Borneo Company. This gave the company access to 2 kilometres of wharves. The 1899 acquisition of the (older) New Harbour Dock Company at New (now Keppel) Harbour, formerly the Patent Slip and Dock Company, which built No. 1 and No. 2 Docks at New Harbour, made it a monopoly. In 1905, the company was expropriated and the Tanjong Pagar Dock Board, the predecessor to the Singapore Harbour Board and PSA, took over.

Borneo Wharf, which Tanjong Pagar Dock Company acquired from the Borneo Company in 1885. The extended Tanjong Pagar promontory can be seen in the background.

Keppel Shipyard would assumed control of the PSA repair facilities, when the former was formed in 1968. Centred at Keppel Harbour, it continued using the historic Victoria and Albert docks until they were filled in during the 1983 PSA expansion of  Tanjong Pagar Container Terminal during. Keppel Island (the near shore Pulau Hantu) came into Keppel Shipyard’s hands in exchange.

The container terminal goes back to 1972. Its first berths, at Tanjong Pagar’s East Lagoon, came into use on 23 June 1972, when the M.V. Nihon – the first container vessel to call here came alongside. This was an especially significant event, which launched the Port of Singapore’s journey into a mode of cargo transport that now dominates sea trade.

Now that Tanjong Pagar has been emptied of the containers, its container cranes and the container ships that have become synonymous with the name, the area hasn’t looked the same. The container terminal at Keppel are also being cleared, with Brani to follow. The container terminals built at great expense at Pasir Panjang, now operational, will also eventually be cleared. A huge southern extension created out of the sea southwards from Singapore’s western reaches, the Tuas South reclamation, will house the Tuas Mega Port. This will gradually be put into service from 2021, and by 2040 will be where port operations will be concentrated. The extension will also be the future home of the ship-repair and ship-building industry.

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Parting glances:

Juxtapositions (2014).

 

A mega-container vessel, the APL Mexico City coming into port (2014) – the increased sizes of container vessels require larger and deeper berths, prompting the need to develop newer terminals.

 

Another view of a Tanjong Pagar still in operation (2014)

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More views of the since deported port:

In 2012.

In 2012.

Keppel Terminal in 2018.

Keppel Terminal in 2018.

Keppel Terminal in 2018.

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A sneak peek at Maxwell Chambers Suites

I had the opportunity to pay the soon to be opened Maxwell Chambers Suites a visit, thanks to a Ministry of Law (MinLaw) organised guided visit. I must say that the former Traffic Police Headquarters turned design museum looks resplendent in its transformation, having morphed over a period of two-years into an extension of Maxwell Chambers. Maxwell Chambers is the world’s first integrated dispute resolution complex right next door that is housed in the former Customs House. The extension, which is set to open on 8 August, will help cement Singapore’s position as a hub for international dispute resolution.

Windows from the past with reflections of the future – at the former Traffic Police HQ turned dispute resolution complex.

The conserved building has, both literally and metaphorically, had quite a colourful past. Completed early in 1930 as the Police “D” Division headquarters and barracks, a corner of it was used to house the Traffic Branch. The new Division HQ cum barrack block had been built during the decade-long effort to modernise and bring greater professionalism to the Straits Settlements Police Force. The effort, the brainchild of the force’s Inspector General, Harold Fairburn, came in days when “Sin-galore” might have seemed as appropriate a name for the municipality as Singapore. The force was reorganised, expanded and better trained – with the construction of the new Police Training School (old Police Academy). New and modern facilities were also built, including police stations and barracks to house the expanded police force.

The gorgeously decorated Business Centre at Maxwell Chambers Suites.

The re-organisation also saw the Traffic Branch (as the Traffic Police in its infancy was known as) move from Central Police Station to the new station and barrack building at Maxwell Road. The Traffic Branch, and later the Traffic Police, would maintain an almost unbroken association with the building until 1999. That was when the Traffic Police made a move to it current home at Ubi Ave 3.

Standing tall – the former traffic police headquarters seen in new light against the backdrop of Singapore’s tallest building.

The dreaded driving test would be on the minds of many of the older folks when the Traffic Police HQ is mentioned. The process of obtaining a driving licence here, required the prospective driver to pay Maxwell Road a visit or two. This arrangement lasted until December 1968, after the Registry of Vehicles (ROV) took over the conduct of driving tests and built a second test centre in Queenstown. Tests continued to the conducted at Maxwell Road until May 1978.  

The rear façade of the building where the communal barrack kitchens were arranged on the upper floors and next to which was the compound where the “test circuit” was set up.

The version of the building that is probably etched in the minds of most would be the incarnation that had many of us see red – as the “red dot Traffic Building” and the home of the Red Dot Design Museum. The museum open in 2005 and was housed in the building until it was acquired by MinLaw in 2017.

As the Red Dot Traffic Building, which housed the Red Dot Design Museum from 2005 to 2017.

Interestingly, it does seem that it wasn’t just as the Red Dot that the building may have attracted attention due to its colour scheme. The building’s conservation architect, Mr. Ho Weng Hin, in sharing about how the current colour scheme was selected also revealed that its initial coat was a mustard-like yellow with green accents. This may have been in keeping with the Art Deco influences of the day. The colours have certainly mellowed over the years and it is in keeping with the colour schemes of its latter years as a police building that its current colour scheme was selected.

Maxwell Chambers Suites has had its colour restored to reflect the colour scheme of the late 20th century Traffic Police Building.

As with several other urban street-side police barrack buildings of the era, Maxwell Chambers Suites’ façade displays an orderly array of wooden framed windows. These, along with the original cast iron gutters also on its face, have been painstakingly restored. A discovery that was made during the restoration pointed to the origin of the gutters, which was a well-established Glaswegian foundry named Walter MacFarlane and Co. With its openings now sealed with glass, the restored wooden windows have been left in an “opened” position. It will be interesting to note how air-conditioning intake vents have been quite creatively placed in the upper (top- opening) sections of the wooden windows – arranged to give the impression that some of the upper window sections have been opened quite randomly.

Vents are arranged to give an impression that the top opening sections of the exterior windows have been opened in a random manner.

Inside the building, offices, meeting rooms and an beautifully decorated business centre – for the use of visiting legal practitioners – now occupy spaces that had originally been the homes of policemen and their families or service spaces such as communal kitchens. These are laid out around an internal courtyard that had also been restored. Part of the courtyard was closed for use by the museum proper during the buildings Red Dot days. Courtyards are a feature of many of the civic buildings of the era and were used to maximise light and ventilation. In the case  urban police barrack buildings, they also provide privacy to the living spaces from the public streets.

The courtyard.

The opening of Maxwell Chambers Suites is timed to coincide with the Singapore Convention Week (3 – 9 August), the week when Singapore will witness the signing of the Singapore Convention on Mediation – the first United Nations treaty to be named after Singapore on 7 August. The Convention will provide for the cross-border enforcement of mediated settlement agreements and will give businesses greater certainty that mediated settlement agreements can be relied upon to resolve cross-border commercial disputes. More on Maxwell Chamber Suites can be found at this link.

Once barrack rooms.

A mural depicting the memories of a traffic policeman – of floods when the Singapore River spilled over.

Mr Ho Weng Hin pointing out the MacFarlane trademark on the cast iron gutter.

The Walter MacFarlane trademark.

A cornice-like feature – once part of an opened roof deck at the building’s rear and now part of an enclosed space.

A meeting room on an upper floor with a reflection of the office spaces across the courtyard.

An upward view from the courtyard.

Restored windows in the bulding’s rear seen in a new light.

Another look at the building’s front.

 

What would once have been communal kitchens in the building’s rear – with prefab plaster canopy hoods.

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Inside Maxwell Chambers (the Former Customs House)

The iconic Cavenagh Room under the dome of Maxwell Chambers (the former Customs House). Maxwell Chambers Suites has been linked to Maxwell Chambers by a link bridge.

Stairway to heaven.

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Maxwell Chambers Suites in its time as the Red Dot Traffic Building

Linda Black’s depiction of Venus – at Chairity, an event held at the Red Dot Design Museum in 2012 that was graced by the late Mr. S. R. Nathan in his capacity  as the President of Singapore.

 

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A journey through Tanjong Pagar in 1970

There is always and element of romance connected with train journeys, especially the leisurely paced journeys of the past with which one can take in the magical scenes along the way that one can only get from railway journeys. LIFE Magazine’s Carl Mydans, a legendary photograph whose work spans several decades and includes an extensive coverage of Singapore prior to the war (see “A glimpse of Singapore in 1941, the year before the darkness fell“), took one such journey out of an independent Singapore some 3 decades later, capturing a Singapore we can no longer see but through photographs of the era. The set, also includes scenes along the journey to Bangkok, along with those captured at stopovers made in West Malaysia’s main urban centres.

The photographs of Singapore are particularly interesting. There are some of the old harbour, and quite a few of the twakow decorated Singapore River along which much of Singapore’s trade passed through. There are also several street scenes, once familiar to us in the area of North Bridge Road. A couple of quite rare shots were also taken at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station including one showing a steam locomotive of a 1940s vintage, which the Malayan Railway operated until the early 1970s. There are also images of the steam locos captured during the journey.

The photographs of West Malaysia are also interesting. The replacement of rubber trees with oil palm as a crop, which had been taking place in parts of the peninsula from the 1960s to reduce Malaysia’s reliance on rubber and tin was in evidence. This is something that I well remember from the road trips to Malaysia of my early childhood. Another familiar scene from those trips were of the padi fields, which the trunk road passing through Malacca seemed to weave through. This is something Mr. Mydans also seemed to have captured quite a fair bit of.

The departure platform at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station with a prewar relic of a steam locomotive.

Malaysian Customs Inspection at the Departure Platform.

The Supreme Court and the Padang.

Hock Lam Street.

Corner of Hock Lam Street and North Bridge Road.

North Bridge Road.

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The old harbour (Marina Bay today)

View of Clifford Pier and the Inner Road, and Outer Roads beyond the Detached Mole. The view today would be towards Marina Bay Sands and Marina South.

Another view of the harbour – where Marina Bay Sands and Marina South is today. The Harbour Division of the Preventive Branch of the Department of Customs and Excise (Customs House today) can be seen at the lower right hand corner.

A rainbow over the harbour.

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Boat Quay and the Singapore River

Walking the plank. Coolies loaded and unloaded twakows by balancing items that were often bulkier than their tiny frames over narrow and rather flimsy planks that connected the boats to the quayside.

A view of the stepped sides of the river around where Central is today.

Boat Quay.

Coolies sliding crates that were too bulky and heavy along the plank.

Lorry cranes were sometimes used instead.

But more often than not manual labour was used.

A view of the “belly of the carp”.

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The Journey North

(with stops in Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Bangkok)

A steam locomotive at what looks like Gemas Railway Station.

More steam locomotives (at Gemas?).

Inside the train cabin.

Train along a shunt line.

Rubber estates and rubber tappers were a common sight – even along the roads up north.

So were water buffaloes and padi fields.

Padi field.

Another view of a padi field.

Oil palms taking root. A drive to reduce Malaysia’s dependence on rubber and tin from the 1960s would see oil palms colour a landscape once dominated by rubber trees.

Another cabin view.

A break in the journey – a view of the Stadthuys Malacca.

Jalan Kota in Malacca.

View of the Malacca River.

The Arthur Benison Hubback designed (old) KL Railway Station .

Another view of the south end of the KL Railway Station – with a view also of the KL Railway Administration Building.

A southward view down Jalan Sultan Hishamuddin (ex Victory Avenue) with the KL Railway Station on the left and the KL Railway Administration Building on the right, also designed by Arthur Bennison Hubback.

The Railway Administration Building and Masjid Negara.

A view down Jalan Raja in KL with the BagunanSultan Abdul Samad on the left.

Another view down Jalan Raja in KL with the BagunanSultan Abdul Samad on the left and Dataran Merdeka on the right.

Sungai Siput Railway Station.

The Penang Ferry from Butterworth.

A view of Butterworth.

George Town – with a view towards the clan jetties.

The Kek Lok Si Temple in Penang.

Air Itam and the Kek Lok Si Temple in Penang.

What looks like the Leong San Tong in the Khoo Kongsi in George Town.

The Penang Hill funicular railway.

More padi fields.

Possibly southern Thailand.

Bangkok.

Second stretch of Rail Corridor to be closed on 19 September

The second stretch of the Rail Corridor being affected by the Murnane Pipeline Project, which extends from Commonwealth Ave all the way southwards to Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, is being closed to the public from 19 September 2016.

A section within the stretch, from Jalan Kilang Bahru to Tanjong Pagar, will remain closed until the pipe laying project is completed. Its reopening is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2019.

Part the stretch to be closed at Tanglin Halt, seen in the days of the railway.

Work has already commenced in the initial  section that was closed. The final section affected, from Jalan Anak Bukit to Holland Road, will close later this year.

Beside the closures affecting the Rail Corridor, work on the final stretch of the MRT’s Circle Line will see Tanjong Pagar Railway Station closed from next year. The station, under which the MRT line is being run, will only reopen in 2025. Updates on the Murnane Pipeline Project, and on the closure and reopening of the affected stretches, kindly visit the PUB Facebook Page.

Schedule for closure of the southern stretch of the Rail Corridor (click to expand).

Parting glances: Tanjong Pagar Railway Station as it will never again be

The time has come to say goodbye, albeit a temporary one, to another old friend. The former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station is set to be closed come the new year so that the extension of the Circle Line MRT and the construction of a MRT station can go on beneath it. If all goes well, it will only be reopened in 2025, by which time it will have a feel that will be very different  that which has existed at the station through the grand art-deco inspired station’s 84 year history.

The famous façade of the station features four triumphal figures sculptured by Angelo Vannetti of the Raoul Bigazzi Studios in Florence that represent the then four pillars of the Malayan economy.

The former station holds the memories of many. The railway’s mostly Malaysian staff still speak fondly of their days in what has to be one of the grander stations to serve along the Malayan railway. There also are the memories of the numerous passengers who passed through its especially grand vaulted main hall; many depended on the railway not just for forays across the causeway, but also as a well used link for the thousands who commuted from the homes in southern Johor to Singapore for their work and even to attend school.

Murals decorate the main hall. The hall also features two booths made of teak wood that have since been painted over.

A view of the main hall without the clutter of the last days.

As part of the Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop a concept plan for the Rail Corridor, which was returned to Singapore on 1 July 2011, a concept design was sought for the adaptive reuse of the former station for an interim period of 20 years. During this period, the nearby port facility the station had been positioned to serve, will make a westward move, following which plans for the Greater Southern Waterfront, into which the former station will be incorporated, will be firmed up.

The end of the line. This year is the last year we get to take in this perspective. It is one that has greeted three generations of travellers coming by train to Singapore for some 79 years before the closure of the railway at the end of June 2011.

The completion of the Circle Line also dovetails into this and the tunnels for the line will run directly under the station to minimise the potential for uneven ground settlement and the risk of damage to the precious structure of the National Monument. A MRT station, Cantonment Station (its working name), is also being built under a part of the station’s platforms. For this, sections of the platforms, which had apparently been assembled in a modular manner, will be removed and stored to allow excavation work to be carried out for the MRT stations’s construction. The intention will be to reinstate the removed platform sections and refurbish them after the work for the MRT station is completed.

Gaps in the station’s platforms, said to be amongst the longest in the Malayan Railway’s stations, point to where the modular sections come together.

One of the things that is apparently being looked at by the winning team for the RFP’s adaptive reuse of the former station, is how, besides the use of the station as a gateway into the Rail Corridor as a community space, is the integration of the MRT station under its platforms into it. This may see an additional MRT station entrance between the platforms that will see traffic of passengers of the new train line over the platforms and through the former station’s main building.

An impression of the MRT station’s entrance between the platforms produced by MKPL. New platforms are shown in this impression as it was initially thought that the sections of the platforms in way of the MRT station would have to be demolished to allow excavation work.

The reverse view of the proposed MRT station’s entrance between the platforms. A canopy over it will be one of the interventions that will be necessary (MKPL).

While this may necessitate several interventions that will alter the feel the former station once provided, it will be a rather meaningful outcome for the former railway station that in the words of the winning team MKPL Architects Pte Ltd and Turenscape International Ltd, will have “the former station, connecting Singapore’s past, present and future”. Another thing being looked at is the beautifying of the space fronting the station currently used as a car park as a “Station Green” – a landscaped garden intended to allow a better appreciation of the station’s grand façade.

MKPL/Turenscape proposes to replace the car park, currently in front of the former station, with a landscaped garden.

For those who want to take a last look at the former station before it closes and is forever altered, only three opportunities possibly remain. These coincide with the anticipated open houses that will be held over the year’s three remaining public holidays. The last will be Christmas Day, a widely commemorated holiday that for the members of one of the larger religious communities here in Singapore, is one of promise. Built with a promise that could never be fulfilled, the grand old station will close after Christmas Day, with a new promise for its future.

The length of the platforms, said to be among the longest in the FMSR’s stations, were to accommodate the longest mail trains.

A look up what in the station’s last days, was the departure platform.

Immigration counters on the departure platform last used by Malaysian immigration officers. These will surely be removed.

One of two hydraulic stops at the end of the tracks – one was returned following the handover of the station.

Memories of teh tarik.

Rooms that were used by freight forwarders at the former station – these possibly will be converted for use by F&B or retail outlets in the future.

Another look into a freight forwarders’ storeroom.

A booth. Last used by the auxiliary police at the station, the booth had in its early days, been used by the convenience shop that operated at the station.

The inside of the former ticketing booth.

Beautiful soft light illuminates some of the rooms along the main hall.

A part of the platforms where one could watch the world go slowly by over a cup of teh tarik in the station’s last days.

Another view of the main hall. There are lots of stories related to the haunting of the third level (section under the letters FMSR at the far end), used previously by the Station Hotel.

The clutter of the main hall in the station’s last days.

The crowd witnessing Tanjong Pagar’s last moments as a station late on 30 June 2011.

Last journeys.

A final glance at the main hall.

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A look back at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station

Gazetted as a National Monument in its final days as the southern terminal of the Malayan Raliway, the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station was built in 1932 as a centrepiece that would underline Singapore’s growing importance as an economic centre in the British Far East. Its position was carefully considered for its envisaged role as a gateway from the southernmost point in continental Asia to the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Sir Cecil Clementi the Governor of Singapore, in his address at the station’s opening on 2 May 1932, made the observation that it was “a natural junction between land-borne and sea-borne traffic”, adding that it was “where every facility will be afforded for interchange between railway and ocean shipping”.

It was a promise that was not to be fulfilled. Sir Cecil could not have predicted that the railway’s importance as a means of transportation in the Malayan peninsula would diminish and just a little over 79 years since the 5.1.5 pm arrival of the first train from Bukit Panjang Station, the whistle of the last train to depart was heard late into the night of 30 June 2011. An agreement between the governments of Singapore and Malaysia (who through the administration of the railway, also owned the station and the land on which the railway operated through Ordinance 22 of 1918 or the Singapore Railway Transfer Ordinance 1918), which had taken two decades to sort out, saw to the move of the railway’s terminal to Woodlands and with that the transfer ownership  the station and much of the railway land on the island to the Singapore government on 1 July 2011.

Since its closure, the station fell into disuse with the odd event held in the space, and in more recent times, a series of open houses held during public holidays. The location of the former station in what will become the Greater Southern Waterfront has put permanent plans for it on hold. A concept plan for an interim use is however being developed as part of the Rail Corridor RFP by a team led by MKPL Architects and landscape designers Turenscape International. An MRT station for the final stretch of the Circle Line is also being constructed under a section of the platforms, together with the line being run under the station. The work being carried out means that the former station closed to the public for a substantial period of time with the completion of the MRT scheduled for 2025.

The station found use after its closure as an event space.

The rush by the staff at the station to leave on the last train at the end of the final day of operations.

A final journey on the Malayan Railway on 30 June 2011.

A last breakfast on 30 June 2011.

A reflection on the convenience store and the main hall in the last days.

The very hardworking last Station Master at the station, En. Ayub.

The arrival platform with its meal time crowd.

Coming home.

The welcome. One of the first things that would greet passengers after mid 1998 when the Singapore CIQ was relocated to Woodlands. Prior to the move, it would have been necessary to pass through Singapore Immigration, Customs and a narrow fenced passageway where dogs (behind the fence) would sniff passengers for narcotics.

The wait for a loved one.

Watching the world go slowly by over a cup of teh tarik.

The departure gate.

Leaving on the 8am.

The walk to Spooner Road.

Platform end.

Saying goodbye.

A welcome home.

The very friendly En. Azmi. He was posted to the station on 1st July 1990 and completed a full 21 years of service at the station when it ceased operations on 30th June 2011.

Mr Mahmoodul Hasan, the M. Hasan in the name of the station’s makan place. He ran the station’s two canteens before its closure.

Catwalk – one of the many cats the station played host to.

A view down the platform.

The ticketing counter.

An all too common occurrence at the ticketing counter.

The last Eastern and Oriental Express train to depart.

The Ramly Burger stand. Food was one of the draws of the station.

The day the music died. 12.45 pm on 24 June 2011, when the last plate of Briyani from the popular Ali Nacha stall at the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station was served.

The arrival.

The festive crowd – when queues formed for tickets in the lead up to Chinese New Year. Many with roots in Malaysian would return by train to their home towns for the important holiday (photo source: National Archives online).

The main hall of the station in its early days. The station was built in 1932 to serve as a gateway to the oceans, through the wharves at Tanjong Pagar.  Its opening on 2 May 1932 was marked by the 5.15 pm arrival of a train from Bukit Panjang. The first the public saw of it however, was several months prior to this, when it was used for a Manufacturer’s Exhibition in January 1932.

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The Rail Corridor, what will be

The header of a graphic produced by the Straits Times related to the winning concept master plan for the Rail Corridor Request for Proposal reads “On track for big changes”.  It isn’t a big change however that many who came out in support of the idea to keep the Rail Corridor, much of which had been untouched by development during the days of the railway, as a continuous and undeveloped green space, were hoping to see.

A new journey along the rail and hopefully still green corridor.

A panel at the ‘Rail Corridor – An Inspired and Extraordinary Community Space’ exhibition.

The long anticipated announcement of the winning entries for the RFP to develop a concept master plan and concept proposals for the entire 24 km stretch and two special interest areas, launched in March of this year, was made at yesterday’s opening of the ‘Rail Corridor – An Inspired and Extraordinary Community Space’ exhibition at the URA Centre, by Minister for National Development, Mr Lawrence Wong.

Minister for National Development announcing the awards for the RFP and opening the exhibition.

Among the five design teams shortlisted for Stage 2A, awards were made to two teams. One was made to the team led by Japanese architecture firm Nikken Sekkei Ltd and local landscape firm Tierra Design for the concept master plan and concept proposal for the entire stretch. Another two – for the concept designs of two special interest areas, namely the adaptive reuse of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station for 20 years and the integrated blue-green public housing development at Choa Chu Kang, was awarded to the team from MKPL Architects Pte Ltd and Turenscape International Ltd.

Faces from the winning team for the concept master plan and concept proposal.

The strength of Nikken Sekkei’s concept master plan and proposals, Lines of Life, seems not so much about big changes but interventions that many will argue is necessary to enhance the user experience and allow what really should be a community space to reach out to a wider group of users, many of whom will be from the estimated one million who live, work and go to school in the immediate vicinity of the disused rail corridor.

Viewing Nikken Sekkei’s proposals.

What seems to be a plus point for the winning proposal is that it is built around core values of Space, Nature, Time and People. This with the aim to enhance the value of the space, build on its natural environment, remember the journey of the space through time and connect the various communities who will potentially use the space. The team sees nature being enhanced through four landscape strategies: a Grassland, a Rainforest, a Garden / Urban Park and a Wetland. Platforms – with a variety of amenities provided based on one of the four modular platform sizes are suggested to serve as much needed rest and comfort stops along the 24 km route.

An example of one of 21 modular platforms that perhaps resemble railway platforms to serve as a reminder of the corridor’s history.

One of the activity nodes of Nikken Sekkei’s proposal.

The team also suggests enhancing the flavour of what it sees as eight stretches with unique characters along the 24 km corridor, something that will allow a much more varied experience of the corridor that does following the departure of the railway, have the effect of leaving one with a feeling that it is more of the same.  Along with the themes, ten activity nodes are proposed. From the graphics on display, it does seem that large scale interventions are being proposed in and around the nodes. While this doesn’t seem to be in keeping with the hope some harbour for an undisturbed, natural and easy to maintain green corridor, it does have the desired effect of enhance the value of the space to the wider community.

The eight stretches and ten activity nodes that Nikken Sekkei sees.

One of the activity nodes proposed – The Community Cave under the PIE viaduct at Mayfair Park, includes a rock climbing wall that can be repurposed in the future.

The Cultural Valley at Buona Vista with the intention to cater to the working community at One North and the residential community at Queenstown.

A look out tower over the lush landscape at Bukit Timah Fire Station – The Green Connection, seems as a hub for eco-based activities.

The Station Garden at Bukit Timah Railway Station, which leverages on its idyllic setting. Amenities such a bicycle station and a cafe are envisaged for this node.

Plus points of the winning concept also include the introduction of much needed 122 access points along the corridor. The history and heritage of the corridor, sadly already minimised by the removal of much of the railway’s paraphernalia, will not be forgotten through adaptive reuse of former railway buildings and the restoration of its existing artefacts and structures. On this note, the railway line’s two very distinctive and iconic truss bridges will be gazetted for conservation – Minister for National Development Mr Lawrence Wong also announced yesterday that the process to have the bridges conserved has commenced. The bridges, constructed for the 1932 Railway Deviation that turned the trains to the new terminal at Tanjong Pagar, elevated the railway and minimised the number of railway level crossings, have long been a feature of the Bukit Timah area and has given the area much of its character.

The truss bridge at the 9th milestone – one of two that will be gazetted for conservation.

Besides the concept master plan and concept proposals for the 24 km corridor, visitors to the exhibition will also get to have a look at MKPL’s and Turenscape’s ideas for the adaptive reuse of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and the Choa Chu Kang development. The proposal for Tanjong Pagar Railway Station sees it re-purposed into a multi-functional community use building for an interim 20 year period before future plans can be made in relation to the intended Greater Southern Waterfront development that will take place after the lease expires at the port in 2027.

MKPL’s and Turenscape’s vision for Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.

Panels showing proposals for Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and the Lines of Life.

What is proposed will see art clubs, a railway gallery, exhibition space, auditorium, cafés and modular pop-up community kiosks placed along the platforms with a landscaped are in front of of the former station. Also proposed is the integration of the Circle Line’s Cantonment Station, which will be built under the platforms, with the former railway station (see also: Closing the Circle). The proposals – done up when it was thought that the portion of the platforms to be removed to allow the MRT station to be constructed had to be demolished – sees a new interpretation of the removed platform constructed and also the station exits opening up to the area where the tracks were. We do know from the joint SLA/LTA 29 October announcement that ways to reinstate the removed portions of the platforms are being looked into. What would certainly be good to also see is that the perspective provided along the platforms – among the longest along the Malayan Railway’s line to accommodate the longest mail trains and a testament to the importance of the former station, is not altered by the suggested interventions.

The platforms at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station were dimensioned to accommodate the longest mail trains and are among the longest found along the Malayan Railway’s lines – a testament to the station’s importance.

Minister for National Development , Mr Lawrence Wong viewing MKPL/ Turenscape’s winning proposal for Choa Chu Kang.

More information on the winning proposals can be found at the URA’s Rail Corridor RFP website. The proposals can also be viewed at the exhibition, which is being held at the URA Centre Atrium and runs from 9 to 28 November 2015. The master plan and design concepts, which have already incorporated many ideas from the consultation process, are not finalised proposals and there will be scope to have them be refined based on further feedback from stakeholders and the general public. This can be provided at the exhibition where one can provide feedback on forms in one of the four official languages, or online http://ura.sg/railrfp.

Feedback can be provided at the exhibition.

Feedback can also be made electronically.

Forms are provided in the four official languages.

The exhibitions will also be brought to neighbourhoods along the corridor in the first quarter of 2016, during which time feedback may also be provided, following which Stage 2B and 2C of the RFP exercise will be held, starting in the second quarter of 2016. The awarded teams will work with URA to refine the ConceptMaster Plan and Concept Proposals, taking into account the feedback received during stage 2B. A preliminary design and feasibility study for a selected four kilometre-long signature stretch of the Rail Corridor, covering the area from Bukit Timah Railway Station to Hillview Road area, will also be carried out by Nikken Sekkei in Stage 2C. This will be followed by a public exhibition of the proposals scheduled in June 2016.

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Around the exhibition

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Closing the Circle

One of the things the announcement identifying the sites of the Circle Line Stage 6 stations that will not go unnoticed is that parts of the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station’s platforms will have to be removed for the construction of Cantonment Station. This may come as a surprise to many as the former station, at which operations ceased on 30 June 2011, was gazetted as a National Monument in April of that same year. Currently unoccupied, it is the subject of a concept plan being developed under the Rail Corridor RFP, part of which seeks to identify a use in the interim prior to the development of the future Greater Southern Waterfront.

The final journey on the Malayan Railway on 30 June 2011.

The platforms of the former railway station are historically significant. They are amongst the longest found along the Malayan Railway’s lines, having been dimensioned to accommodate the longest mail trains. The platforms however, at least for the stretch that will be affected and based on the April 2011 gazette that accords the former railway station with National Monument status, have not been protected as part of the monument.

An extract of the Apr 2011 gazette showing the part of the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station protected as a National Monument.

The end of the former station’s platforms seen after its closure.

Considerations made in selecting the site of Cantonment Station (its working name) include the need to protect the National Monument from damage as well as the presence of existing structures in the vicinity such as the Keppel Viaduct to the immediate south and HDB flats to the immediate north. Construction would involve tunneling work deep under the former railway station and the excavation of part of the area where the platforms are to construct the station.

The platforms were constructed in a modular manner and LTA is looking at removing the platforms in way of the excavation site in sections and reinstating them.

The excavation work in way of the future MRT station will see sections of the platforms removed. It does seem that the intention is to dismantle the parts of the affected parts of the platforms, which were built in a modular manner, and restore and reinstate them once construction is complete. Other options that are being been considered include demolishing the platforms altogether and either reconstructing them in the same style or in a style that is in keeping with the former station’s intended use.

Work is scheduled to commence in 2017. As this will only be completed in 2025, it does mean that we will not get to see the platforms on which many memories have been made, for close to a decade.

Thinking about it, it does perhaps make perfect sense to have the new MRT station integrated into the former railway station, whatever its intended reuse in the future. While this may deviate from what had been intended in building the grand old dame, modelled some say after Helsinki Central to serve as the gateway to the oceans, it would be in keeping with its intended use as a transportation hub and serve as a fitting reminder of what once was.

Further information on Circle Line 6 can be found in the joint LTA / SLA Press Release found here.

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More of the platforms in forgotten times

Tanjong Pagar after dark

It has been a little more than four years since the lights went out on Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. Left to the ghosts that are said to haunt it, the former station sees the occasional return of the living, as it did on Tuesday evening, when I got to see it again after dark with its ghosts scared off by the lights, sounds and action of the first of a series of this year’s Singapore International Festival of Arts’ (SIFA) Dance Marathon nights being held at the station.

The evening, which had Japanese Ambassador Haruhisa Takeuchi hosting a small reception and introduce Archivist-Choreographer Mikuni Yaniahara as a Japan Cultural Envoy, saw two dance performances, starting with Yaniahara’s Real Reality at the main hall and followed by Yukio Suzuki’s Lay/ered on the tracks. The double-bill was the first of four dance evenings that are being held at the station. The three other evenings are on 28 August, 31 August and on 4 September.

The Ambassador of Japan, His Excellency Haruhisa Takeuchi.

Mikuni Yanaihara.

The former station, intended as a grand terminal and a gateway to oceans, was built in 1932 and is thought to have been modelled after Helsinki’s Central Station. Gazetted as a National Monument in April 2011, it has been left empty since the Malayan Railway’s moved its southern terminal to Woodlands in July of the same year. The building, once the property of the Malaysian government through the Malayan Railway or Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) in more recent times, bears many reminders of the links Singapore had to Malaya throughout much of its history.

The future of the well-loved monument, at least for an interim twenty year period before the port nearby begins a journey to the west (port operations are being moved to Pasir Panjang and eventually to Tuas), is now on the drawing board. As one of two special interest areas, for which a concept design proposal is being sought under Stage 2A of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Rail Corridor, the five teams shortlisted are required to suggest an interim re-purposing of the former station. The former station is seen as a gateway to the Rail Corridor, and it is a requirement of the RFP that any proposed reuse will allow the public to have “unfettered access so that they can appreciate the heritage of this building and its surroundings”.

Submissions for the stage should have already been made. We should have some inkling of what the teams have in mind with a public exhibition of shortlisted submissions scheduled for October this year. More information on this can be found at the Rail Corridor RFP information site.

 

 

Another new journey along the Rail Corridor

It was three years ago on 30 June 2011 that we waved goodbye to the Malayan Railway and its 79 years of trains running through to Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. The cessation of train services freed up a 26 kilometre long corridor that cut a north-south path through Singapore, land which the Singapore government has committed to maintaining as a continuous green corridor for the benefit of the wider community.

We waved goodbye to the Malayan Railway trains through Singapore 3 years ago on 30 June 2011.

The Rail Corridor, which does have the potential to serve as a connector in more ways than one, including the provision of an unbroken link running down from the top of Singapore right into the heart of the city, as well as a green link for flora and fauna between the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Central Catchment Reserve with the green belt at the Southern Ridges; will now also see use as a connector for a new set of water pipes that will carry water from the Murnane Service Reservoir into the city area, required to be laid to meet future demands, as well as allowing for the replacement of an ageing set of pipes.

Murnane Service Reservoir, which was completed in 1956 and acts as a buffer to cater for the fluctuation in demand of water through the day.

Water pipelines at the Central Catchment Reserve.

The project, which was presented by the Public Utilities Board (PUB) to the members of the Rail Corridor Partnership (RCP) on Saturday and to members of the media today will involve a 11 kilometre stretch (about half of the total length of pipes to be laid) of the southern section of the corridor from Jalan Anak Bukit to Tanjong Pagar and is scheduled to commence shortly. The project will start with the PUB first carrying out a detailed engineering design from July 2014. This will be followed by an Environmental Impact Assessment that will take place from December 2014 to August 2015 as well as Soil Investigations.

Minister for Environment and Water Resources, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan along the rail corridor during Saturday’s briefing to the Rail Corridor Partnership.

The project’s construction phase will follow the calling of a tender in October 2015, with work starting in April 2016 at a section running from Holland Road to Commonwealth Avenue using a cut and cover method involving the digging of an open trench a rate of one length of pipe laid per day. This section is scheduled to be fully reopened in October 2017.

Disruption to users of the rail corridor such as walkers, joggers and cyclists, will be minimised throughout the construction period.

A Scaly-breasted Munia seen along the corridor on Saturday. Hopefully disruption to the rail corridor’s amazing wildlife will also be kept to a minimum.

A Oriental Pied Hornbill seen (and heard) during Saturday’s walk.

Construction is expected to be completed by September 2019 with work along the stretch from Jalan Anak Bukit to Holland Road scheduled for completion in March 2018, the stretch from Commonwealth Avenue to Jalan Kilang Barat completed by September 2018 and the last stretch from Jalan Kilang Barat to Tanjong Pagar completed by September 2019. Throughout the construction period, access to the rail corridor will be maintained, and alternative paths will be provided to allow users to continue with their activities where necessary.

Dr Balakrishnan with members of the RCP on Saturday.

Due consideration has also been paid to the historic features along the route of the intended pipeline such as Bukit Timah Railway Station (BTRS), the truss bridge over Bukit Timah / Dunearn Road as well as a brick culvert close to BTRS with pipe-jacking used in way of the bridge and culvert. In way of BTRS, the pipeline will be run in the area behind the station.

Bukit Timah Railway Station as seen when it was operational.

A red brick culvert.

Members of the RCP, including representatives of Nature Society (Singapore), are generally supportive of the project. It is worth taking note that as in the case of the Central Pipeline Reserve, the laying of the pipeline along a stretch of the corridor would provide for it being kept free from development and hence, the preservation of the stretch of the rail corridor as a uninterrupted green corridor following the completion of works. Plans for future use of the rail corridor has been the subject of much interest since the closure of the railway. As yet, the future use of the corridor has not been determined, although there is that commitment to preserve it as a continuous green space. A much anticipated design competition, expected to have some influence on its future use, is expected to be announced in the near future.

Motoring Heritage Day at Tanjong Pagar

Motoring Heritage Day is back once again at the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. This year’s event will be held on Sunday 15 September 2013 from 10 am to 5 pm. Besides a rare display of some 50 vintage cars, there will also be lots of other activities including guided tours of the station by volunteer guides from the Preservation of Monuments Board (PMB), an exhibition on the former railway station that I would be assisting the National Heritage Board (NHB) to put up, and talks (see programme below). The event is jointly organised by the Malaysia Singapore Vintage Car Register (MSVCR) and the NHB. More information can be found at the MSVCR’s site and at NHB’s website. I will also follow up with some further information soon.

A sunrise over the rail corridor

It was around the time of Sunday’s sunrise under the red lightening sky that a long train snaked its way out of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, a little more than a year and a half after the last train left the station. Sunday’s train wasn’t one that was pulled along by a locomotive of course – most of the railway tracks along the rail corridor have since been removed, but a human train of runners pulled along by a Kenyan who led from start to finish in what is the inaugural Green Corridor Run which is thought to have attracted as many as 6,000 runners. The race took runners along the rail corridor on a 10.5 km route from Tanjong Pagar to the former Bukit Railway Station – a distance which the trains would cover in about fifteen minutes. The race winner, Samson Tenai, 32, need just a little more than double that – he covered the distance in a time of 34 minutes 11 seconds.

7.09 am : Colours of sunrise.

7.14 am : A plane is seen over the container cranes against the sunrise coloured sky.

The entire rail corridor which stretches some 26 km from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands has been the subject of much interest since the agreement to handover the land on which the Malaysian Government owned railway, Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), operated a railway line, was announced in May 2010.

7.20 am : The first runners are seen already building up a lead over the chasing pack. Seen in the lead is Kenyan Samson Tenai, the eventual winner of the race who completed the 10.5 km course in about 34 minutes.

Relatively untouched by urban development for some 79 years of the rail’s operation through much of it, the corridor features large tracts of greenery. Interest groups and individuals have called for the preservation of the corridor for its heritage and potential for community use such as a running course, and as a unbroken bicycle path that takes one from the north of the island to an area close to the city with possible links to the park connector network. The Minister for National Development, Mr Khaw Boon Wan, announced plans to preserve the rail corridor in July 2011. Since then, a Rail Corridor Partnership has been formed with stakeholders from both Government Agencies, interest groups and members of the public involved. Plans are currently being formulated for future use of the rail corridor.

7.20 am : The rush of runners. Some 6000 runners are thought to have participated in the run.

7.22 am : The chasing pack makes it way past the former signal hut at Tanjong Pagar.

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More information on the former Railway and the Rail Corridor:

• Journeys through Tanjong Pagar (a collection of posts on journeys made through the rail corridor)
• Support The Green Corridor (a collection of posts related to the call to preserve the corridor’s greenery)

First Journeys, Last Goodbyes at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station

For anyone interested in visiting Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, you will be glad to know that it will be opened for a motoring heritage exhibition this weekend (8 / 9 September 2012). Beside the vintage car display that will be put up by the Malaysia Singapore Vintage Car Register (MSVCR), there will also be a chance to take rides on vintage mini-buses and scooters as well as revisit one of the main reasons why many visited the station before its closure – food. As part of the event, there will be an exhibition along the wider theme of transportation heritage for which the National Heritage Board (NHB) which has organised this event has invited me to help put together an exhibition of photographs from the community on the railway and the station. For this, I have got a group of various people that have an interest in the railway and the station to reflect on the journeys made and the last goodbyes that were said in a small exhibition ‘First Journeys, Last Goodbyes’. The exhibition will be opened from 10 am to 5 pm on both days and there will be free shuttle buses at half hour intervals from Tanjong Pagar MRT Station through the day. For those interested in learning more about the station’s history and architecture, guided tours of the station will also be conducted on both days.

A last goodbye on 30 June 2011.

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About First Journeys, Last Goodbyes

For close to five decades after Singapore’s independence, the Malaysian railway continued to operate through Singapore on a piece of Malaysia that cut a path into the heart of Singapore. It was perhaps one of the last physical reminders of the common history that the two countries shared.

The southern terminal at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station completed in 1932, was modelled after Helsinki’s Central Station to give it a grand appearance for its intended role. That role, the grand southern terminal of a pan-Asian railway and a gateway to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, was one it never got to play, serving instead as a focal point of any rail journey into or out of Singapore.

The station best remembered for the high vaulted ceiling with huge panels of batik styled mosaic murals of its main hall was one that saw many visitors over the years. That, the experience of the station, as well as the many personal journeys taken through the station would have left a deep impression.

First Journeys, Last Goodbyes brings a few travellers each with a personal story to share of their journeys, journeys on railway or through the station … journeys that will take a long time to be forgotten …

Contributors to the community photo exhibition are Zinkie Aw, Francis Siew, Loke Man Kai, Tan Geng Hui and myself.

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Information received on 7 Sep 2012 on the weekend public tours of the station:

The tours will be conducted by PMB’s Volunteer Guides. No sign-ups are required for the tours. Public tours will be:
• Sat, 8 Sep: 2pm, 3pm and 4pm.
• Sun, 9 Sep: 2pm and 3pm

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Tanjong Pagar: a promise that we now know would never be fulfilled

Standing silently and somewhat forgotten is a building that, only a year ago, attracted many people’s attention in Singapore. This building, the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, a magnificent architectural achievement once described as having a “palatial appearance”, recently joined Singapore’s list of National Monuments. Completed in 1932, the station was built as a centrepiece to underline Singapore’s growing importance as an economic centre in the British Far East, serving as a gateway for the southernmost point in continental Asia to the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Located opposite the docks at Tanjong Pagar, the station was one that had been well-considered. The then Governor of Singapore, Sir Cecil Clementi, in his address at the station’s opening on 2 May 1932, had made the observation that it was “a natural junction between land-borne and sea-borne traffic” and mentioned that it was “where every facility will be afforded for interchange between railway and ocean shipping”. The promise was, however, not fulfilled – Sir Cecil could not have predicted that the railway’s importance as a means of transportation in the Malayan peninsula would diminish.

The station’s opening that day was marked by the 5.15 pm arrival, from Bukit Panjang Station, of its first train. This train carried several dignitaries, including the Governor, the Sultan of Perak and Mr J Strachan, the General Manager of the Federated Malay States Railway. Several months prior to the opening (on 2 January 1932), the station had already made its public debut – by playing host to a Manufacturers’ Exhibition – an indication perhaps of its eventual destiny.

The station’s façade with the four large triumphal figures.

My first encounters with the station took place at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s. My parents often drove past, drawn by the hawker stalls which operated in the evenings in a car-park facing the station’s entrance. It was while sitting at the tables in the car-park that I would gaze across to the station’s façade and stare at the four large, triumphal figures that flanked the portico’s arches. The figures were the work of Angelo Vannetti of the Raoul Bigazzi Studios Florence and represented the pillars of the Malayan economy. These triumphal figures are evidence of the Art Deco style chosen by its architects, Swan and MacLaren. Thought to have been inspired by Helsinki’s Central Station, it is believed the station also shares some of Washington DC’s Union Station’s design features. In fact Tanjong Pagar Station’s architectural elements reveal both western and eastern influences; the green-tiled roof structures were inspired by the roofs of Chinese Temples.

The main hall of the station. Part of the vaulted ceiling and batik-style mosaic panels can be seen.

On the rare occasions when I found myself in the main hall, the high vaulted ceiling that rises some 22 metres above the ground caught my attention, as did the six sets of mosaic panels that resemble giant batik paintings. The mosaic panels, which contain a total of 9,000 tiles, looked very much like the batik prints hanging in my home. The panels depict scenes that represent the economies of the then Federated Malay States. At that time, the station had also housed a hotel on the upper floors, around the main hall. A huge sign in the north-east corner of the hall made sure this did not go unnoticed.

It was in the 1990s that I first took a train out of the station. Seemingly in defiance of its location, a huge blue “Welcome to Malaysia” sign stood above the station’s entrance. A Points of Agreement (POA) had been signed in 1990 between the Malaysian Government and their Singapore counterparts. This was to pave the way for the eventual moving of the station from Tanjong Pagar and would involve its handover along with the land the railway ran through (whose ownership was transferred to the railway administration through a 1918 ordinance – effectively making it part of Malaysia).

Two decades of protracted negotiations followed the 1990 POA before the differences in its interpretation resulted in a renegotiation of land swap arrangements between the two governments. The moving of the station from Tanjong Pagar and the handover of land was agreed on only in May 2010.

It was perhaps at the beginning of 2011 that interest in the station and in train journeys from Tanjong Pagar started to build. The realisation that the station was soon to close drew crowds not previously seen at the station. Many turned up for a final look, to make a last departure or to have a last meal at the station, joined by a frenzy of photographers and members of both the local and overseas media, who seemed intent on recording the station’s last days.

A few former food stall operators having a last breakfast on 30 June 2011.

The final day of operations at the station, 30 June 2011, came all too soon. It was an especially poignant day for the station’s railway staff and also for the food-stall operators – some were seen having a last breakfast in the almost empty room that only days before had been filled with food-stalls and tables filled with diners. Well before the first train was to depart, a crowd had already gathered in the main hall. Many had come to witness the final moments. Some had come to start a journey that would end with a final homecoming to the station on the very last train that evening.

The crowds grew as the day passed. As night fell, many more gathered to witness the historic departure of the last train out, to be driven by the Sultan of Johor. I had come on the very last in-bound train and was prepared for the reception at the station by the scenes I had seen along the way. Huge crowds had gathered at Bukit Timah Station and at each of the five level crossings, to bid goodbye. After the train finally pulled in following a long delay at Bukit Timah, I lingered a while before stepping out onto the platform. I turned back for a final glance at the platform, realising that would be the last of my many homecomings into Tanjong Pagar.

The crowd at Tanjong Pagar late on 30 June 2011 to witness the departure of the last train.

As I stepped through the barrier, a crowd of would-be passengers heading towards the same train that had pulled in (now the last train out) almost swept me along with them. I managed to squeeze my way out while a frenzy was developing in the public areas. Through the crowd I spotted the Sultan, dressed in a checked shirt and speaking to reporters with tears in his eyes. At the final hour a huge cheer could be heard as the train pulled out, driven by the Sultan. In a daze I stared after it as the train faded into the darkness. It was then that I heard the silence that was there despite the noise coming from the crowd. It was one that filled the air – a silence that after some 79 years would never again be broken by the once-familiar sounds, a silence that spoke of the promise that we now know would never be fulfilled.

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This article was written to coincide with the first anniversary of the closure of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and has been published as “Tanjong Pagar Railway Station” in the July / August issue of Passage, a bi-monthly magazine produced by the Friends of the Museums (FOM).

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Further information on Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and on the anniversary of the handover:

• Photographs of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station on the anniversary of its handover can be found at my post Tanjong Pagar One Year On.
• A complete series of posts related to my encounters with Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, the railway and the journeys I have made through the station can be found at my “Journeys Through Tanjong Pagar” page.
• Article (in Chinese) that may be of interest published in the Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao on the 1st of July in which some my views connected with the Rail Corridor were sought can be found at this link.

Faces from a forgotten place

This post features a selection of photographs intended to capture part of what had made the much loved Tanjong Pagar Railway Station what it was just prior to its closure, one to celebrate the many faces that provided the station with its heart and soul. The faces are ones that would be familiar, and are not just of the people who were part of the fabric the station, but also of the many that came and went and of the sights and sounds that gave the station its unique flavour, a flavour that, despite the conservation of the building as a National Monument, will fade as memories fade. The photographs are the same ones which were presented during a sharing session at the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station open house held on the afternoon of 1st July 2012 – the first anniversary of the handover of the station and the railway land to the Singapore government. The open house was held as part of the Rail Corridor Open Day and also included guided walks around Bukit Timah Railway Station.

While the building, now gazetted as a National Monument still stands, it is the memory of what had made the station what it was – the familiar sights, the people that came and went, and most of all the people who were very much a part of the fabric of the station that will with time fade.

Tanjong Pagar Railway Station as it was is a place that always will be dear to me. I have many fond memories of the station from my previous encounters, encounters that go back to the earliest days of my life. Then, it was the food stalls that magically appeared in the evenings at a car park the lights of which dimly illuminate the station’s grand façade and its four triumphal figures. That was in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was after the latter half of the 1970s that the station would become a feature in my Chinese New Year reunion dinners – my aunt who hosted the dinners moved to a flat in Spottiswoode Park just by the station and reunion dinners would not be the same without the accompaniment of the sounds of whistles and of the noisy diesel locomotives from the station. The 1990s brought me my many encounters with the station through which I made numerous trips up to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur and back – journeys that would forever be etched in my memory. These encounters with the station, and the memorable journeys I made through it, I have attempted to capture through a series of blog posts which many of you might have already read. However if they are of interest, the posts can be found through the page “Journeys through Tanjong Pagar“.

Once familiar sights

A car belonging to the Malayan Railway, KTM, parked in front of the building.

The main hall as it looked at eye level in its latter days – a Tourism Malaysia hut was placed right in the middle of the hall.

The ticket counter in quieter days – well before the madness of the last two months descended on the station.

Waiting to buy a ticket often required some patience.

Especially when the ticketing system is down – that in my experience often happened.

Another sign one might encounter ….

We were always reminded that we had to pay not the equivalent in the local currency for the price of a ticket but one unit of the local currency for every unit of the weaker Ringgit.

And when you did finally get your hands on the ticket, you could find a seat in the main hall to pass your time away …

… which provides many opportunities for people watching …

… or as I often do, have a cup of teh tarik at the platform – a popular spot for watching the coming and going of not just the trains and the locomotives.

Access to the departure platform was through a gate that would only be opened about half an hour prior to the scheduled departure of the trains to facilitate immigration clearance. On the commuter services on which seating is not assigned, passengers would often crowd at the gate prior to departure, ready to make a dash first for the Immigration counters. After clearing Immigration and Customs, the same thing would happen at a barrier which when opened will see a mad rush of passengers to the train carriages.

Tickets would be checked and punched at the departure gate.

From which one would proceed to the immigration counters.

With the shift of Singapore’s CIQ to Woodlands in mid 1998 and the Malaysian authorities maintaining their Immigration and Customs counters at the station, passengers would effectively enter Malaysia before leaving Singapore.

Passengers boarding the last luxury E&O train to depart from Tanjong Pagar posing next to Malaysian Immigration booths.

The last E&O train to depart at the platform.

Returning home, one of the first things that would greet you (post mid 1998) as you walked to the end of the platform was the barrier before you got into the public area. Prior to the move of the SIngapore CIQ, you would first have to pass through Singapore Immigration, Customs and a narrow passage through a fenced area where K9 unit dogs would sniff passengers for smuggled narcotics.

The next thing one would encounter would be the canteen / coffee shop at which one could stop to have a meal or a drink prior to leaving. I often picked up my breakfast from the canteen after coming in on the overnight train from KL.

The canteen would also be a great place to wait for returning members of the family and friends.

It was also a wonderful place to catch up with friends over a cup of tea ….

.. or to have dinner with the family.

It would be common to see passengers with large pieces of luggage leaving the station.

The station had a hotel which closed in the 1980s. Towards the end of its life, it hosted a hostel with dormitory type double bunk bed accommodation which offered a cheap place to spend the night or even take a short rest – this closed in late 2010.

Trying to get a taxi home was always a challenge as many taxi drivers did not like to wait at the station as trains arrival times were unpredictable.

Once familiar faces

One of the first faces one would encounter driving to the station’s car park.

And if one needed to use the rest room.

One that you might have seen at the Habib Railway Book Store and Money Changer, Mr Syed Ahmad.

Mr Syed’s nephew – ‘Nazir’ would probably have been seen more frequently.

The hardworking last Station Master at Tanjong Pagar – En. Ayub.

A very helpful ticketing clerk, En. Azmi, who was posted to the station on 1st July 1990. He completed a full 21 years at the station when it ceased operations on 30th June 2011.

A few more of the familiar faces (and less familiar ones) …

Mr Mahmoodul Hasan who ran the two canteens in the station before its closure.

Some of those who assisted him at the drinks counter and the popular Ramly Burger stand.

One of the ladies from the food stall at the corner of M Hasan 2.

One of the stall assistants at the platform.

The chapati man at M Hasan 2.

One who is always ready with a smile – the Satay stall’s assistant at M Hasan 2.

And last of all one that should not be forgotten – one of the many cats the station was home to.

Tanjong Pagar one year on

I stepped into the eerie silence of a world that a little over a year ago, had been one that had seen the frenzy that accompanied the last moments of the old Malayan Railway’s operations through Singapore. The now silent world, Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, is now but an empty shell, abandoned by the trains that regularly punctured the air with the deafening roar of their diesel locomotives as well as by the people who made the station what it was – the hardworking staff of the railway, those who saw to providing it with essential services, and those who came and went with the comings and goings of the trains.

Tanjong Pagar Railway Station 1 year on.

The station was able to momentarily break out of its solitude due to a kind offer by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) to the Nature Society Singapore (NSS) and the Friends of the Rail Corridor to open up both Tanjong Pagar Railway Station to the public on the first anniversary of the handover of the station and the Rail Corridor to the Government of Singapore. As a result of this, a Rail Corridor Open Day was very quickly put together. This included a guided walk in the morning held at Bukit Timah Station which was followed by an open house at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station in the afternoon. The handful of people that did turn up at Tanjong Pagar, probably numbering about a hundred during the course of the afternoon comprising rail enthusiasts, familiar faces that I met during last year’s frenzy, the curious and some who hail from distant shores, got an opportunity to participate in a guided tour conducted by Dr Lai Chee Kien and learn more about the station and its and the railway’s history.

The main hall during the guided tour – now clear of the Tourism Malaysia hut that had got in the way of achieving a nice perspective in photographs that were taken before the handover.

The open house also allowed some to share some of what they have put together on the station. This included a poignant and very interesting documentary made in 2008, Project 1932, by Zinkie Aw that touches on some of the people who were part of the station’s history. I also had to opportunity to share a series of photographs that I had captured to help me reconnect with the station as it once had been. The series which I named ‘Faces from a forgotten place’ includes once common scenes and once familiar faces, ones that we see now only in the memories we have of a little over a year ago. It is these very memories that I tried to find as I took the opportunity that was presented to explore what I could of the silence. In its emptiness and abandonment, it was not the memories that I was able to find, but ironically, the beauty of the station that I would otherwise not have known – spaces previously occupied and closed to us that even in the state of the two decades of neglect during which time its status had been in limbo is still obvious.

The station in its solitude was able to reveal some of its otherwise hidden beauty.

This beauty that we can still see takes us back to a time when the world had been a different place, to a time when it was thought the station would take its place as the grand southern terminal of the Malayan Railway and the gateway to the Pacific and Indian oceans – a promise that a little over 79 years after it was opened has proven to be one that was never to be fulfilled. What will become of the former station we do not know, its possible second life will be explored in a Design Competition that aims to develop concepts for the future use of the station which has been gazetted as a National Monument, Bukit Timah Railway Station (which has conservation status), and the 26 kilometres of the former Rail Corridor. What I do hope to see would be a use that will not just preserve the memory of the role it was meant to assume and the memories we have of the railway, but also one that with minimum intervention will see it retain not just the beauty that we have seen but also the beauty that has until now been one that has been hidden.

Tanjong Pagar Railway Station in its solitude

The emptiness that now fills the station offers another perspective of its beauty.

Once hidden spaces that in the station’s abandonment can now be seen, reveal a side of the station that has until now has not been seen by many.

A view out of the window at the white iron fence that lines the station’s boundary with Keppel Road.

The writing on the wall … a memory in an otherwise hidden space of what the station once was …

Recent writings on the wall … collection of wishes for the station written by visitors to the open house.

View through what was a freight forwarder’s office.

A storage area that was used by the canteen operator.

Windows to a forgotten world.

The silence of a once busy space.

More silence ….

Signs of a forgotten time.

The silence of departure (photo taken with Sony Xperia S).

Last act of the day – security personnel trying to close a platform gate that just refused to be closed …

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Do visit my series of posts on my previous encounters with the station, the railway and the journeys I have made through the station which can be found at the “Journeys Through Tanjong Pagar” page on this site.

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An article of that may be of interest in the Chinese newspaper Zaobao published on the 1st of July in which some my views on the preservation of memories connected with the Rail Corridor were sought: http://www.zaobao.com.sg/sp/sp120701_020_2.shtml … I’ll try to get that translated and posted here for the benefit of those that don’t read Chinese.

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Re-imagining the Rail Corridor

The ‘Re-imagining the Rail Corridor’ exhibition, put together by the Friends of the Rail Corridor, in association with the Nature Society of Singapore, and supported by URA, opened this morning at the URA Centre. Visiting the exhibition was Minister of State (National Development) Mr Tan Chuan-Jin. Organised as part of a series of events to help increase awareness on the ongoing engagement on the use of the former railway land and also with the aim to explore, encourage and develop creative ideas for incorporation into the future of the Rail Corridor, the exhibition showcases some initial ideas from architecture and landscape students and design professionals on the future use of the Rail Corridor around six key themes: Ecology, Heritage, Recreation, Transport, Education and Community Gardening.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin speaking to Regina Koo, now of the URA, at the exhibition. Her final year thesis relating to the Velo-Park proposal on the railway land was mentioned by the Prime Minister in his National Day Rally Speech in August of this year.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin looking at an architectural model of the rail corridor.

The ideas being presented involve suggestions for the entire length of the former rail corridor, including one by NUS Architecture student Ng Pei Yun whose idea involves the conversion of the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station into a transportation museum. Other interesting ideas include the construction of housing that resemble train carriages over parts of the corridor and one that involves renaming the corridor as The Singapore Trail, installing a giant see-saw on one of the truss bridges and extending the use of the corridor as a continuous bicycle track. The exhibition is being held at The URA Centre Atrium, 45 Maxwell Road Singapore 069118 from 3 to 28 October 2011 (Mondays to Fridays, 8.30am to 7pm / Saturdays: 8.30am to 5pm / Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays). Admission is free.

The exhibition will be held at The URA Centre Atrium, 45 Maxwell Road Singapore 069118 from 3 to 28 October 2011 (Mondays to Fridays, 8.30am to 7pm / Saturdays: 8.30am to 5pm / Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays). Admission is free.

The initial ideas include those for the use of the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station - this proposal by Ng Pei Yun of NUS involves usage as a transportation museum.

Singapore Polytechnic Architecture students speaking to Mr Tan on their ideas - one which includes building housing over the corridor that resemble train carriages.

Another idea is to rename the corridor as The Singapore Trail.

At the exhibition, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin also made an announcement that the ‘Rail Corridor’ (铁道走廊) will be the final project name for development plans for the former railway land. The name which was used by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) as the working name when the former railway land was returned to Singapore on 1 July 2011, was chosen from a total of 158 suggestions received by the URA and was one of the top three suggested project names. The other two project names were ‘Rail Trail’ and ‘Green Corridor’. The suggested project names were discussed and deliberated at the Rail Corridor Consultation Group (RCCG) meeting where the members came to a consensus on the final project name being ‘Rail Corridor’.

An idea for a super see-saw on one of the truss bridges.

A model of the entire rail corridor.

A proposal with the fast growing cycling community in mind.

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Feedback sought by URA:

The URA continues to welcome feedback and ideas from the community in shaping the future development plans for the railway lands. The members of the public are invited to visit and provide their ideas at http://www.ura.gov.sg/railcorridor.

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URA Press Release

3 October 2011

‘Rail Corridor’ endorsed by consultation group to be final project name

Minister of State (MOS) for National Development Mr Tan Chuan-Jin announced today during a visit to the Re-imagining the Rail Corridor exhibition that the ‘Rail Corridor’ (铁道走廊) will be the final project name for development plans for the former railway land.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) had used ‘Rail Corridor’ as the working name for this project when the former railway land was returned to Singapore on 1 July 2011. A website was launched on the same day to gather feedback and ideas from the public in shaping the future development plans for the former railway land, including suggestions for a name for the project.

A total of 158 suggestions on the project name were received on the website as at the closing date on 31 July 2011. “Rail Corridor’ was one of the top three most suggested project names received. The other two project names were ‘Rail Trail’ and ‘Green Corridor’.

Final project name – ‘Rail Corridor’

The suggested project names were discussed and deliberated at the Rail Corridor Consultation Group (RCCG) meeting where the members came to a consensus on the final project name being ‘Rail Corridor’.

Mr Jerome Lim, a RCCG member and blogger is in fact amongst those who proposed to have ‘Rail Corridor’ as the project name, as it “reflects the history and heritage of the corridor”.

Another RCCG member, Mr Ho Weng Hin, member of Singapore Heritage Society agreed and noted that the ‘Rail Corridor’ is apt as “it encapsulates the history, heritage and social memories, and also connotes the conceptual and spatial continuity of the former railway land”.

Mr Leong Kwok Peng, Vice President of Nature Society (Singapore) had preferred to keep the name as Green Corridor which was the name given by NSS for its proposals for the former KTM land. However, he is supportive of ‘Rail Corridor’ as the project name, adding that “I am interested to see how the future development plans for the rail corridor pan out eventually, especially in areas where development can co-exist with greenery”.

MOS Tan who chairs the RCCG, reiterates the collaborative nature of the group: “We are all part of this effort and the selected project name is endorsed by the RCCG members. I am glad that our engagement with the members has been very good so far, and everyone has contributed useful inputs and ideas during our regular meetings.”

Re-imagining the Rail Corridor exhibition

The Re-imagining the Rail Corridor exhibition was put together by the Friends of the Rail Corridor, in association with the Nature Society of Singapore, and supported by URA.

The exhibition is envisioned as part of a series of events dedicated to increasing public awareness and deepening understanding of the tract of KTM railway land recently returned to Singapore. It intends to explore, encourage and develop creative ideas for incorporation into the future of the Rail Corridor. Revolving around six key themes: Ecology, Heritage, Recreation, Transport, Education and Community Gardening, the exhibition aims to shape the public’s understanding of and give insight to a rare piece of Singapore’s cultural and natural heritage amidst the urban landscape, and to spark interest in the protection and preservation of this heritage as an extension of our national identity.

The exhibition will showcase some early ideas from architecture and landscape students as well as design professionals on what the future of the Rail Corridor could become. Through these initial ideas, the organisers hope to inspire more Singaporeans to recognise their stake in their surroundings and to engage the public in jointly envisioning the development of spaces around us.

The exhibition will be held at The URA Centre Atrium, 45 Maxwell Road Singapore 069118 from 3 to 28 October 2011 (Mondays to Fridays, 8.30am to 7pm / Saturdays: 8.30am to 5pm / Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays). Admission is free.

Future plans for rail corridor

The URA continues to welcome feedback and ideas from the community in shaping the future development plans for the railway lands. The members of the public are invited to visit and provide their ideas at www.ura.gov.sg/railcorridor.

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Plans for public engagement on the rail corridor

A press briefing was held at the Ministry of National Development (MND) yesterday during which thoughts on the way ahead for the use of the former railway corridor were shared by the Minister of State (National Development) BG Tan Chuan-Jin. BG Tan spoke of the conviction that the MND and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) had in engaging stakeholders, interest groups and members of the public in setting up channels to allow public consultation and feedback. At the briefing, BG Tan also introduced some members of a Rail Corridor Consultation Group which has been formed with members from NGOs, interest groups and individuals representing the various aspects of the rail corridor including the environment, flora and fauna, and areas such as history and heritage. The group would be consulted on ideas, feedback and proposals submitted to the URA and will be expanded to include other interest groups and parties along the way.

A Rail Corridor Consultation Group has been formed to take into consideration feedback from the public and various groups on development plans for the former rail corridor.

BG Tan also mentioned that the public engagement would include various channels for engagement including exhibitions (one of which is being planned by the Nature Society (Singapore) or NSS), and will include a design competition to allow architects and planners to submit proposals, leading up to the development of a concept masterplan in 2013. Some of the stakeholders that would be engaged in an active public engagement phase will also include the 1.2 million residents who populate the areas adjoining the corridor, and also some 98 schools and institutions along the corridor. The MND is also looking at the use of various social media platforms and channels to obtain feedback from the public and make it more interactive to allow online discussions and also provide feedback to the public.

The former rail corridor would be a subject of in concept masterplan to be unveiled in 2013.

BG Tan spoke also of the desire to maintain the corridor as a continuous stretch and the MND is looking at how this can be integrated with the development of the areas around corridor, at the same time reiterating that there was also the need to also serve the needs of land scarce Singapore. The case for a continuous stretch is a key component of the NSS’s proposal which the NSS hopes would serve as a channel for the movement of flora and fauna through the island, for example from the Central Catchment Nature Reserve to the Southern Ridges.

The idea for a continuous corridor to allow movement of flora and fauna across Singapore is something that the NSS would like to see.

On the Jurong extension built in the mid 1960s and has been disused since the 1990s, BG Tan mentioned that this would not be part of the rail corridor development plans. As such areas of the Jurong line for which development plans are already in place, will be developed accordingly. BG Tan spoke also of concerns raised on the fate of the truss bridge and the girder bridges over the Sungei Ulu Pandan and Sungei Pandan respectively. These would not be demolished and have been hoarded up for public safety reasons as the structures are currently in a state of disrepair.

The truss bridge on the Jurong Line over Sungei Ulu Pandan.

On concerns raised over the removal of the tracks, BG Tan reiterated that the tracks would be returned to Malaysia under the terms of the agreement and that the SLA is under intense pressure to meet the deadline set for the removal of the 26 km of tracks and return them by 31 December 2011 as per the agreement. While the most of the tracks would be returned, the good news for heritage groups and railway enthusiasts is that parts would be retained in way of the platforms at Tanjong Pagar and Bukit Timah Stations, and also on the bridges that are being retained which include the two iconic truss bridges along the Bukit Timah stretch of the corridor.

The tracks will be removed as part of the agreement and returned by 31 December 2011. Short stretches will be retained at the station platforms and the rail bridges being retained.

Responding to a question on public access to the corridor, BG Tan replied that parts of the corridor would be opened up as tracks are removed. He also mentioned that with the exception of specific areas which will be hoarded up to facilitate work, a large part of the corridor would be accessible and should members of the public wish to walk in the areas, they should be exercise caution as removal work is being carried out in some areas. On the question of Tanjong Pagar, BG Tan mentioned that there are no immediate plans to open it up, stating that the building needs to be refurbished first. Members of the Singapore Heritage Society have suggested that intermediate uses be found for the building before plans are drawn up for the National Monument’s eventual use.

Stretches of the corridor will opened for public access once removal works are completed.

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Public feedback sought:

The URA welcomes feedback and ideas from the community in shaping the future development plans for the railway lands. The members of the public are invited to visit and provide their ideas at www.ura.gov.sg/railcorridor/.

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Posts on the Railway through Singapore and on the proposal on the Green Corridor:

I have also put together a collection of experiences and memories of the railway in Singapore and of my journeys through the grand old station which can be found through this page: “Journeys through Tanjong Pagar“.

Do also take a look at the proposal by the Nature Society (Singapore) to retain the green areas that have been preserved by the existence of the railway through Singapore and maintain it as a Green Corridor, at the Green Corridor’s website and show your support by liking the Green Corridor’s Facebook page. My own series of posts on the Green Corridor are at: “Support the Green Corridor“.

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Fading faces from a once familiar place

Those who frequented Tanjong Pagar Railway Station would probably remember the many faces that were associated with the station in one way or another. The people behind the once familiar faces are the ones who brought life and activity to the old station and with the station’s closure, may soon be forgotten. This is my attempt to capture some of the faces in the days that led up to the 30th of June 2011 just to help with the memory of what made Tanjong Pagar Railway Station a station that will forever be in our hearts.

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Posts on the Railway through Singapore and on the Green Corridor:

I have also put together a collection of experiences and memories of the railway in Singapore and of my journeys through the grand old station which can be found through this page: “Journeys through Tanjong Pagar“.

Do also take a look at the proposal by the Nature Society (Singapore) to retain the green areas that have been preserved by the existence of the railway through Singapore and maintain it as a Green Corridor, at the Green Corridor’s website and show your support by liking the Green Corridor’s Facebook page. My own series of posts on the Green Corridor are at: “Support the Green Corridor“.

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A walk around the yard

In the days that led up to the closure of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station, I was able to meet many people who were in some way connected to the station and to the Malayan Railway or what is KTM in its current incarnation. That allowed me to not just hear the wonderful stories some had to share, but also to be brought around places that would have otherwise been hidden to me. One of the places I did get to see was the train yard at Tanjong Pagar, sandwiched in between what was the KTM flats at Spooner Road in Kampong Bahru and the Malaysian Customs yard, and the lead up to the station itself.

A walk around the yard took me back to a time we have forgotten. The highlight was the turntable which was installed in 1932.

The end of the line … the yard closed together with the station on the 30th of June 2011.

The yard is a wonderful place to discover, one on which I had heard many stories about from friends who went to school in the area at a time when perhaps access to the area was much less controlled. One of those that I met in and around the neighbourhood who was actually a son of a signalman with the Malayan Railway and lived in Spooner Road in the 1960s spoke of how the children growing-up in and around the area would see the yard as a huge playground, one which provided a host of hiding places when playing hide-and-seek. Many were oblivious to the danger playing in the yard posed, and there were several occasions during which unfortunate incidents involving a moving locomotive and a child did occur.

The yard was a playground for many who grew -up in and around it.

A general view around the train yard.

The yard is also where the most wonderful of railway implements could be found, one that was used to turn a locomotive of more than a hundred tonnes around with only the strength exerted by a single person. The turntable which according to a caption on a wonderful aerial photograph of it published in The Straits Times 2nd July 2011’s edition (a scan of which can be found at this link), was built in 1892, and installed in the yard when the station was built in 1932.

The locomotive turntable which was installed in 1932.

A view of one of the girders and wheels of the turntable which supports weights of well over 100 tonnes.

The lever (in a vertical locked position) which can be lowered to turn a locomotive on the table through the effort of just one person.

As with much of the former railway land around Singapore, stepping into the yard seems like a step back in time … one which takes one back to the softer and gentler Singapore that we have somehow lost in trying to catch up with the developed world, not just in the setting one finds oneself in, but in the many people that one meets. It is in meeting the wonderful folks who kept things running behind the scenes at Tanjong Pagar that I have come to understand the attachment many have for the places these folks have not just worked in, but which has become very much a part of their lives – some having worked and lived around the yard for over a quarter of a century. Some expressed a sense of loss. Loss for a life that they would soon leave behind as they prepared to make that big move out of Tanjong Pagar.

Spanners in the works ….

Scenes that we have lost in the modernisation of our island nation.

Familiar scenes for many who lived and work around the yard which is now lost with the big move out. Many workers at the yard have worked there for many years.

A reflection we will no longer see …

Even as the move out wasn’t quite complete, there were signs that some of the structures in the area were already being dismantled. Walking past the carriage washing and maintenance sheds and the locomotive shops and sheds, and turning around the corner, I could see that the maintenance shed for the luxury E&O Trains, the last of which departed from Tanjong Pagar on that very wet Sunday in June when the flood waters rose, was already being taken down.

The locomotive shop and shed.

The loco shop.

The loco workshop.

A locomotive in the shop.

Coming to a halt.

The E&O maintenance shed being dismantled.

Continuing on past the yard on the approach to the station – a route that is taken by the staff at the station on a daily basis, there is a cluster of buildings, some which were meant to house senior officers at the station, and one that served as the Railway Sports and Recreation clubhouse. Further along, we come to the final stretch that leads to Tanjong Pagar … one that goes past the section of tracks to and from the station’s platforms, and past the new and old signalling houses, which for many who would have seen it everyday on the way into the station, would be on a road that will never again be taken.

The railway sports and recreation club house.

The railway inspector’s shed.

A daily walk down a road that as of the 1st of July for many who worked at the station, will never again be taken.

A last glance down the road.

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Posts on the Railway through Singapore and on the proposal on the Green Corridor:

I have also put together a collection of experiences and memories of the railway in Singapore and of my journeys through the grand old station which can be found through this page: “Journeys through Tanjong Pagar“.

Do also take a look at the proposal by the Nature Society (Singapore) to retain the green areas that have been preserved by the existence of the railway through Singapore and maintain it as a Green Corridor, at the Green Corridor’s website and show your support by liking the Green Corridor’s Facebook page. My own series of posts on the Green Corridor are at: “Support the Green Corridor“.

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A final journey: the last passage to the north

From where I left off on the previous post, the 0800 Ekspres Rakyat left Tanjong Pagar late at 0838. The train then continued its passage to the north, a passage that I would be able to take in for the very last time from the vantage point of a train – the final homecoming on The Last Train into Tanjong Pagar coming in the dark of night. The passage has been one that I have especially been fond of, taking a passenger on the train past sights of a charming and green Singapore that is hidden from most, sights which in entirety can only taken in from the train. This last passage in the dim light of the rainy morning was one that was especially poignant for me, knowing that it would be one that I would take accompanied by the groan of the straining diesel locomotive, the rumbling of the carriages over the tracks, and the occasional toot of the whistle.

The morning train offered passengers a last glance at the passage through the rail corridor in Singapore.

The short passage takes all but half an hour, taking the train from the greyer built-up south of the island around where Tanjong Pagar Station is, to the greener north of the island. The passage takes the train first out from the platform and through an expansive area where the view of the familiar train yard is mixed with the familiar sights of the Spottiswoode Park flats, the old and new signal houses, and the Spooner Road flats, before it goes under the Kampong Bahru Bridge towards the corridor proper. The initial 10 minutes of the passage is one that brings the train past Kampong Bahru, along the AYE for a distance, before coming to the first bit of greenery as it swings past Alexandra Hospital and up the Wessex Estate area towards the flats to the right at the Commonwealth Drive / Tanglin Halt areas – an area I am acquainted with from spending the first three and the half years of my life in. It is just after this, close to where the actual train stop which gave its name to Tanglin Halt first encounters a newer and more desired railway line, passing under the East-West MRT lines at Buona Vista.

The Spooner Road KTM flats on the left and the Spottiswoode Park flats in the background as well as the expansive train yard provided the backdrop for many a journey out of Tanjong Pagar.

It is soon after that the anticipation builds as the train passes by the Ghim Moh flats towards Henry Park. Just north of this is the area with arguably the prettiest bit of greenery along the entire stretch of the green corridor. We come to that the train passes under the concrete road bridge at Holland Road. The sight of the bridge also means that the train is just a minute or so away from what used to be the branch-off for the Jurong Line which served the huge industrial estate, and then what is perhaps the jewel in the crown along the corridor, the quaint old station at Bukit Timah. At Bukit Timah Station the old fashioned practice of changing the key token to hand back and over authority for the two sections of the single track through Singapore is undertaken, a practice replaced by technology along the rest of the Malayan Railway line. Beyond Bukit Timah is the rather scenic passage to the north through whichtwo truss bridges, four girder bridges and five level crossings are crossed before reaching the cold and unfriendly train checkpoint at Woodlands. That offered the passenger the last fifteen minutes to savour the passage through Singapore and some of the sights that will not be seen again. The level crossing are one of those sights – something that is always special with the sight of cars waiting behind the barriers or gates, yielding to the passing train – a rare sight that I for one have always been fond of seeing. All too soon it had to end … the rain washed morning provided an appropriate setting for what now seems like a distant dream, one of a forgotten time and certainly one of a forgotten place.

The 30th of June saw the last time the exchange of key tokens being carried out along the KTM line. Bukit Timah Station was the last place where the old fashioned practice of handing authority to the trains using a single track was carried out on the Malayan Railway.

II

the last passage to the north

0839: A last glance at Tanjong Pagar Station as the Ekspres Rakyat pulls out.

0839: A quick glance the other way at teh old signalling house ...

0839: The train pulls past the cluster of houses before the train yard comes into sight.

0839: The new signalling house comes into sight.

0840: The train passes a locomotive being moved from the train yard.

0840: A ast glance at where the Spooner Road flats which housed the railway staff and their families.

0843: A passenger Gen smiles in the passageway of the train carriage. Gen was the last to decide to join the group, deciding only to do so the previous day.

0848: The train passes under the new railway, the MRT line at Buona Vista. Hoardings around seem to indicate that the area would soon be redeveloped.

0848: The Ghim Moh flats come into view.

0851: Through the greenest area of the Green Corridor - the Ulu Pandan area close to where the Jurong Line branched off.

0853: Bukit Timah Station comes into view ...

0853: Key tokens are exchanged as a small crowd looks on ... the train slows down but doesn't stop.

0853: The train crosses the first of two truss bridges over the Bukit Timah Road ...

0854: A look back towards the bridge and Dunearn Road ....

0854: The train speeds past Rifle Range Road and the strip of land next to what was the Yeo Hiap Seng factory .... this is one area that I well remember on my first train journey in 1991 when the narrow strip of land hosted the small wooden shacks of many squatters who occupied this stretch of railway land.

0854: A glance at to the right at Rifle Range Road

0854: Passing over the danger spot close to where the short cut many take to Jalan Anak Bukit is.

0854: The train passes under the road bridges at Anak Bukit ...

0855: The bridges at Anak Bukit are left behind ...

0855: Over the girder bridge at Hindhede Drive

0856: The very green corridor near Hindhede Quarry ...

0856: Into the mist at the foot of Bukit Timah Hill towards the second truss bridge.

0857: A passenger Angie, sticks her head out to have a better look at the amazing greenery.

0858: The train continues on its way after crossing the second truss bridge.

0858: Through the Hillview pass.

0859: A lone man greets the train with an umbrella near the Dairy Farm Road area.

0859: The greenery greets the train around the Bukit Gombak area.

0859: The closed gate and waiting cars at the first of five level crossings at Gombak Drive.

0900: Towards the second and widest level crossing at Choa Chu Kang Road ... Ten Mile Junction comes into view.

0900: A small group of people gathered at the Choa Chu Kang Road level crossing to greet the passing train. The signal hut marks the location of what was Bukit Panjang Railway Station from where the first train to pull into Tanjong Pagar Station departed on 2nd May 1932 at 4.30 pm.

0901: Across the Bukit Panjang (or Choa Chu Kang Road) level crossing and under another new railway line - the Bukit Panjang LRT.

0902: Past an area I became acquainted with through my days in National Service ... the Stagmont Hill area.

0903: Across the third level crossing at Stagmont Ring Road.

0904: The fourth level crossing the Mandai crossing at Sungei Kadut Avenue.

0904: Past the KTM houses at Sungei Kadut Avenue and onward towards Kranji.

0907: Across the last (and narrowest) of the level crossings at Kranji Road and on towards Woodlands Train Checkpoint.

0907: Looking back at the Kranji level crossing and at the last of the rail corridor through Singapore ... time to get left to disembark the train for immigration clearance out for the very last time.

0908: Arrival at Woodlands Train Checkpoint - no photo taking allowed.

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Posts on the Railway through Singapore and on the Green Corridor:

I have also put together a collection of experiences and memories of the railway in Singapore and of my journeys through the grand old station which can be found through this page: “Journeys through Tanjong Pagar“.

Do also take a look at the proposal by the Nature Society (Singapore) to retain the green areas that have been preserved by the existence of the railway through Singapore and maintain it as a Green Corridor, at the Green Corridor’s website and show your support by liking the Green Corridor’s Facebook page. My own series of posts on the Green Corridor are at: “Support the Green Corridor“.

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