Stevens (and a bonus)

yuuka
yuuka
Jul 22, 2017 · 5 min read

Part 3 of my Downtown Line series.

This will be a short break from the usual negativity on the blog. After all, at FTRL, I don’t want to criticize all the time, I believe that credit must be given for a good job, and here’s one scenario where such credit should be given.

Stevens station, in my opinion, is a rare example of the foresight that can be demonstrated in a centrally-planned rail network like in Singapore. It is inconvenient to use, right now, but that’s because, technically, only half of the station has been built. The other half will open in 2021 with the Thomson Line.

An integrated complex

On both platform levels, at the end of the station, towards Botanic Gardens, one will find a glass door marked “Emergency Exit”, which I believe SBS Transit has since papered off. Two things are off about this door:

  • It is glass. That’s not unusual in itself, since some stations on the Circle Line also have glass-clad emergency escape stairs.
  • The passageway beyond it is finished, and not left as bare concrete like most MRT station service areas. See this picture:
An “emergency exit” at Stevens lower level (photo: me, circa 2015)

Emergency exits are usually left unfinished within the MRT network, like the employee-only service areas of most buildings. As should be the case — in day-to-day operation there shouldn’t be anyone in those areas, only when something happens, so money shouldn’t be spent on making these places look too good. But look in this passageway, and you’ll spot 3 things:

  1. The interior decoration is done along with the rest of the station
  2. Holders for informational signs have been put up
  3. What’s that white wall?

Come 2021, that white wall will be gone, and replaced with a passageway to the Thomson-East Coast Line station. Yes, it does look temporary, because it is. The door will also be removed, and this will form the interchange to the TEL station. A majority of work for Stevens station is being done as part of the TEL project, which will see the station expanded considerably in 2021.

To the left of the EXIT sign in the distance, there is a lift. This lift is currently not in use, but it goes to the street level entrance to the DTL station, directly opposite the escalators. In 2021, it will be possible to change between DTL platforms by using this lift, if not via the Thomson Line platforms.

Also, at the middle level between the two DTL platforms, there is a space for a walkway to connect to an exit on the other side of the road, past the canal and flyover. This walkway is now under construction, again as part of the TEL project.

If you want to get an idea of what it looks like, you can refer (here).

Why the trouble?

You might remember that the DTL station is crammed in a small site — between a private estate on one side, and Bukit Timah Road on the other. Beyond Bukit Timah Road is a canal, further complicating things, and the need to make sure the road is still usable while building the DTL station means that it can’t take too much space. Of course, better construction methods could have been used here (like the umbrella at Oxford Circus when they built the Victoria Line in London), but once again, site constraints and costs.

The other reason is likely to avoid another situation like Outram Park or Dhoby Ghaut, where long, relatively narrow passageways have to be traversed to transfer to the NEL stations there. At Stevens, it should be easy enough — go up for trains to downtown, down for trains to Bukit Panjang. Building this with a regular platform, with trains on both sides, would probably not have fit, nor would it have provided the needed passenger flow in such a small space.

After all, Stevens Road is a narrow road in that stretch, and if you’re in the area, or follow the Thomson Line blog (linked in the blogroll), you’ll know just how small it is.

A not so lucky twin

On the other hand, one station north, we have Botanic Gardens station, where there’s an interchange with the Circle Line. Instead of a canal at Stevens, there’s an underpass in the area for northbound traffic to pass the busy Farrer Road junction. However, unlike Stevens, south of the road is the Botanic Gardens, so some space can be taken from the Botanic Gardens to build the station. (of course, it must be, and was returned)

The platform at Botanic Gardens DTL is thus especially narrow and deep, mainly because the DTL tunnels must pass beside the CCL station, and the CCL tunnels have to sneak under the aforementioned underpass. Also, the connection to the CCL is rather long underground, due to the separation needed to have the DTL tunnels pass the CCL station, and the location of a future connection left at the time of the CCL station being at the far side of station structure.

However, in my opinion, perhaps building Botanic Gardens station on the DTL in a manner similar to Stevens may have helped as well. There’s a lot of space at CCL concourse level, that could easily have been expanded into the downtown-bound platform for the DTL, and the Bukit Panjang-bound platform below the Circle Line one.

That was not to be, mainly because of the circumstances surrounding the design of the DTL. The CCL station was built at a time where government spending had to be kept low, which is why the stations between Caldecott and Telok Blangah mostly look so bland. There would not have been time, or money, to build an expanded station that would have space for the DTL platforms, in addition to the CCL ones.

Furthermore, Botanic Gardens CCL is specified as a Civil Defense shelter station, which already drives up costs for the station itself. Such additions would have been viewed as unnecessary extravagance, especially since we were on the brink of a worldwide recession. The government was probably unsure of whether they could afford to build the Bukit Timah Line (now DTL) considering the poor economic outlook worldwide, so why go so far to leave so much space for it?

That should be all for this “special” coverage of two stations. North of here, the line becomes mostly homogenous, and there are only two things of note: what should have been Hume station, and any extension proposals north of Bukit Panjang.

See you next week, and comments welcome as usual.

)
yuuka

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yuuka

Sometimes I am who I am, but sometimes I am not who I am not.

From the Red Line

A blog on transport issues in the Garden City of Singapore. Posts can get technical!

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