Bukit Timah railway station

Bukit Timah Railway Station
Former KTM Intercity station
Conserved monument of URA

The Bukit Timah Railway Station when it was in operation, with the second version of the station building in centre. Together with Tanjong Pagar railway station, it closed on 1 July 2011.
Location 1 Blackmore Drive, Bukit Timah, Singapore.
Coordinates 1°20′03″N 103°46′52″E / 1.33417°N 103.78111°E
Owned by Singapore Land Authority
Line(s) Formerly KTM Intercity
Platforms 1 side platform.
Tracks 3
Construction
Parking None
History
Opened 1903
(original Tank Road line station)
16 September 2011
(reopened as conserved building)
Closed 1 July 2011
(as a railway station)
Rebuilt 1932
Services
Preceding station   Keretapi Tanah Melayu (Intercity)   Following station
towards Hat Yai
North-South Line
(defunct)
Terminus
towards Jurong Port
Jurong Freight Line
(defunct)
Terminus

Bukit Timah Railway Station was a railway station (now a conserved recreational building) and crossing loop in Singapore, owned by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), the main railway operator in Malaysia.

It opened on the dismantled Tank Road mainline in 1903, was rebuilt on the current Singapore–Johor Bahru KTM Intercity mainline in 1932, until the Jurong Line shut down and it was a crossing loop station in the late 1940s until closure.

The station was a freight interchange for the now defunct Jurong Line from 1965 to the early 1990s.

On 1 July 2011 the line closed following a historic land-swap agreement between the Singapore and Malaysia governments which saw rail service between Woodlands and Tanjong Pagar cease.

Current usage

This station was between Tanjong Pagar railway station at the southern end of Singapore island and Woodlands Train Checkpoint at the northern end. It was a crossing loop station and signalling control house.

The token which is dropped off by the driver of the first train (i.e. the moving train seen in the photo) would then be taken by the station master and handed over to the awaiting train (i.e. the one from where the photo is taken). That other train can then proceed into the sector previously passed through by the first train.

Closure on 1 July 2011

The station, along with the line between Woodlands at the northern edge of Singapore and Tanjong Pagar at the southern end, closed on 1 July 2011. The cessation was done without any public consulation and announced only after the decision had been taken. It is opposed and lamented by many as representing a great loss of heritage and travel convenience. Following the cessation, Singapore has only approximately a kilometre of main railway line, from Woodlands to Johor Bahru across the Straits of Johor.

The station was gazetted as a conserved building on 27 May 2011.[1]

2010 train derailment

The locomotive and two passenger coaches of a KTM train bound for Kuala Lumpur derailed near the Bukit Timah station just after 8am on 9 November 2010. None of the 60 passengers on board were injured. As a result of the derailment, all KTM train services from Singapore on the day of the incident were cancelled, southbound services terminated at JB Sentral and services the next day were rescheduled.[2]

The station following closure

Following closure, the railway track between Tanjong Pagar and Woodlands was quickly removed by the Singapore Land Authority and returned to Malaysia. A few metres of track have been left between the platforms at Bukit Timah, as well as the iron bridge across Bukit Timah Road, immediately to the north of the station. The rest of the trackbed has been turfed over and is now open to the public as a linear park, as part of Singapore's Nature Society and URA's "Rail Corridor" project.

The Bukit Timah station buildings were reopened to the public by the Singapore Land Authority on 16 September 2011. The buildings can be visited during daylight hours, however no refurbishment or development has occurred since they were vacated by the KTM.

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ "Bukit Timah Railway Station conserved". Urban Redevelopment Authority. 27 May 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  2. ↑ "KTM train services rescheduled after derailing". Channel NewsAsia. 9 November 2010.

External links