Transport and Travel #1: The Nerdiest Dissertation About Trains (Part 1)
The Earliest Memories on the Rails
It was an afternoon in the early 2000s Singapore. My mum and I had just sent my dad off at the airport and we took the train into town for a spot of shopping at the mall. The ride was a short one, less than half an hour, but in that time the 6 carriages passed quaint residential estates and apartment blocks at speed before descending into an echoey tunnel and arriving at the destination station, which was linked to the shopping mall by an underpass.
I Wanted to Ride Longer, But Thankfully Today I Do Not
At such a young age, I lamented how I did not get to spend as much time on the train as I would have wanted. But looking back it only seems right to acknowledge and attribute the speed, efficiency and seamlessness of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network to the improvement of public transport and mobility in a densely populated city like Singapore (LTA, 1996). You see, the mall I visited that day was in the Bugis area (see this blogpost for photos), which already had a well-used MRT station in the early 2000s. But 1.5 decades later, it would become an MRT interchange with a new line linking Bugis to the Central Business District (CBD), schools along the North-West corridor, and the industrial establishments in the Eastern region (Feng, 2017). Singapore recognises the MRT as a major asset in the transformation of its mobility landscape from passive to active and I personally believe this business model of the MRT has successfully garnered strong support from the public, including myself (LTA, 2019).
The first MRT map I remembered seeing on the trains had only 3 lines and under 70 stations; barely half the size of the network today. Since that earliest memory of the MRT, I have taken the liberty to study the layout of the network and each station’s location in relation to surrounding streets and landmarks. Still, learning the history of the MRT was not an interest back then, because I was only keen on exploring the network as it was and seeing the communities outside my neighbourhood. I was more focused on visiting the stations along the pioneering North-South (NS) and East-West (EW) lines that I completely glossed over the fact that the North-East (NE) line was the newest and most technologically advanced section of the network at the time with automated, driverless trains (LTA, 2008; SGTrains, 2020a).
Bringing The Rails Closer To Home
Speaking of the NE line, a notable MRT station that I must highlight is Dhoby Ghaut (see this blogpost for photos) because in time to come it was going to be the new ‘hub’ station for the network. The more dedicated trainspotters would remember a time when a section of a road collapsed (albeit sank) in 2004 during the construction of this new line (SGTrains, 2020b) while 8-year-old me just stared blankly at the newsreels totally clueless of the implications this had on the line’s completion; especially on the affected section between Dhoby Ghaut and Stadium (LTA, 2008; SGTrains, 2020b).
Nevertheless, when the phased openings of the Circle (CC) line started from Marymount in 2009, it eventually came to my attention that one of the future extensions would include a station next to the Singapore Botanical Gardens. This development was particularly significant as my home was a 10-minute walk from this planned station, and as an added bonus, just a 5-minute train ride followed by another 10-minute walk would take me to my high school. This was a welcomed alternative to my daily commute, which used to be a 30-minute wait and travel on an irregularly-scheduled and packed public bus. So when Botanic Gardens and Caldecott stations opened as part of the 4th phase of the CC line, you could imagine the joy I had of finally being able to experience having an MRT station in my neighbourhood and within the vicinity of my school (SGTrains, 2020b).
It is ironic to think that according to Ng (2020), the MRT map has not changed much visually aside from the addition of the CC line. I would beg to differ because I have come to appreciate the greater freedom of mobility and space that the MRT network and trains offer over the last few years. I would later learn that an orbital route like the CC is also applied to the Northern section of the NS line; by-passing densely populated residential estates while still offering a fast and mass-moving commuting option to better connect these estates to the CBD (LTA, 1996). However, the fact that I live and studied a short walking distance to an MRT station was a game-changer and it cemented my trust in Singapore’s transport planners and their plans for expanding the network to reach all Singaporeans (LTA, 2019). So you could imagine when one of the aims of the planners was to open more stations that will be a 10-minute walk from commuters’ homes (LTA, 2013), I was looking forward to the outcome.
And Then There Were 2, But Also a Different Look
For someone who has mostly memorised the entire MRT network, many ‘what if’ thoughts have floated around on new routes reaching areas of Singapore that needed more commuting options. Little did I realise that even as the CC line began to open up, another new line was already in the works and before I graduated from senior school, its 1st of 3 phases made its appearance on the network.
The Downtown (DT) line is that game-changer I never thought would happen so soon after Botanic Gardens first opened on the network. Already having an MRT station in the neighbourhood is a welcomed addition, but for it to be upgraded into an interchange at the end of 2015 as part of the DT line 2nd phase is the stuff of dreams (for transport nerds like myself I guess). Furthermore, the opening of the new DT line station of Stevens, one stop after, brought another new station to my neighbourhood and significantly added more commuting routes to the rest of Singapore. Aside from the aforementioned Bugis, these included connections from my neighbourhood stations to the North West and Eastern regions of Singapore (including some rather unnecessary loop in the CBD area, do not @ me) (Feng, 2017; SGTrains, 2020c). There is more in store for the coming years as Stevens will become a new interchange station for the new Thomson-East Coast (TE) line, providing another direct commute to Orchard, Gardens by the Bay and even Woodlands areas whilst potentially by-passing heavily used traffic corridors (LTA, 2019; SGTrains, 2020d).
Sadly, I feel compelled to share the other impact of this transformation of my neighbourhood with the addition of 2 new MRT stations over the past decade (yes, I know it is hard to believe all this happened so quickly). It is not the construction of the lines that I find myself lamenting over; these routes are introduced because they are essential towards the transport masterplans. However, where the DT line station entrance at Stevens now stands used to be a small patch of grass and trees that acted somewhat like a buffer between the residential estate and the main road next to it. And a section of the Singapore Botanical Gardens had to be cleared and reconfigured to accommodate for the Garden’s new Bukit Timah Gate leading to the then newly-constructed Botanic Gardens CC line entrance. Outside of my neighbourhood, I see similar patterns including the extensive clearing of trees to make way for Caldecott station or infilling the coastline to make room for Marina Bay and later Marina South Pier stations.
It is still hard to imagine that in roughly the same year I took the MRT from the airport to the shopping mall in Bugis, these features at Botanic Gardens and Stevens were still around and though subtle, they were etched in my memories as a child. Now, they have been replaced by modernist architecture to aid the facade of an increasingly comprehensive transportation network while my distinct childhood memories of my neighbourhood are left fading by the wayside. True, I really love the MRT and its role in revolutionising the transport network in Singapore, but every innovation comes with a cost, and for me, that might be the memories of what this city used to be like before its rapid urbanisation.
First Reflections: Is This About My Dissertation?
If you have reached this point and are still wondering why this post is titled ‘The Nerdiest Dissertation About Trains’, then you have just read a very experiential account of the reasons why I decided to write my university thesis/dissertation on sustainable railway networks. Some of the sources in this post were also used in my dissertation and now that I have the freedom to move beyond the academic confines of it, I felt this is an opportunity to ‘explain’ the thoughts behind its writing.
Personally, I celebrate with most Singaporeans when I hear that the MRT, in its current form and for the future, brings new benefits to the community and has established itself as an exemplary brand for the international market (Chow et al., 2018). It is not just because I love trains and metros like the MRT, because in the last few years this interest has evolved into a recognition that trains, and the people who operate them, are perhaps one of the most influential elements to the transport network and society.
Stay Tuned
So then, what brought about this renewed perspective of one of my favourite modes of transport? It involves me travelling 13 hours on a plane to the birthplace of railways and all metro systems…London. In Part 2, I intend to share my experience on the trains of the UK and how they influenced my dissertation writing.
Bibliography
Chow, C., Chia, J. & Zhan, M. (2018) Integrating Land Use & Mobility: Supporting Sustainable Growth, Singapore: Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC), 1–125.
Feng, Z. (2017) The Downtown Line — Soaring to New Heights, Edited by Land Transport Authority, Singapore: Straits Times Press.
Land Transport Authority (1996) White Paper — A World Class Land Transport System, Singapore: Land Transport Authority, 1–76.
Land Transport Authority (2013) Land Transport Masterplan 2013, Singapore: Land Transport Authority, 1–56.
Land Transport Authority (2019) Land Transport Masterplan 2040, Singapore: Land Transport Authority, 1–64.
Maxar Technologies (2020a) ‘Area Around Botanic Gardens MRT’, Singapore: Google Earth.
Maxar Technologies (2020b) ‘Area Around Stevens MRT’, Singapore: Google Earth.
Ng, M. (2020) ‘System Maps Over the Years’, A Train Of Thought, 15 June. Available at: https://blog.sgtrains.com/2020/06/system-maps-over-the-years/ (accessed June 2020).
SGTrains (2020a) ‘Alstom Metropolis C751A’, SGTrains. Available at: https://www.sgtrains.com/train-c751a.html (accessed June 2020).
SGTrains (2020b) ‘Circle Line’, SGTrains. Available at: https://www.sgtrains.com/network-ccl.html (accessed June 2020).
SGTrains (2020c) ‘Downtown Line’, SGTrains. Available at: https://www.sgtrains.com/network-dtl.html (accessed June 2020).
SGTrains (2020d) ‘Thomson-East Coast Line’, SGTrains. Available at: https://www.sgtrains.com/network-tel.html (accessed July 2020).
