We need to talk about Bahar
After 2 months across the border, we’re back. And so, our worst fears are confirmed.
With the award of Contract J105 we now have a better idea of what Bahar Junction station will look like, which largely fits what we saw as part of the Master Plan 2019. Frankly speaking, I am not amused.
I’m not sure whether it’s due to space constraints or what, but this will probably end up being the worst designed station in the history of the MRT. Yes, including the plenty of incidents such as the missed Downtown Line interchange at Rochor (which may or may not have its upsides, now that I think about it).
This single issue could very well doom the JRL long before it opens.
Why this matters
Back in 2018, the JRL Construction blog did a writeup on how Bahar Junction could potentially operate. Some assumptions were made since none of us have the proper track plan and station designed devised by LTA, but with the release of the Master Plan 2019 and corresponding station designs it may be time to update that.
Notably, as per the Master Plan, Gek Poh station will feature side platforms instead of an island platform. Consequently, to switch directions at Gek Poh, it will be necessary to go down to the concourse level, and then back up to the other platform. This is important, as we’ll see.
The operation mode of the JRL, where trains operate in round robin between Choa Chu Kang, Jurong Hill, and NTU, will thus force passengers who need to skip a branch to change trains at Bahar Junction — unlike what I previously mentioned, Gek Poh no longer becomes a viable choice to reduce crowding in Bahar Junction station itself.
The argument for this to work is that the trains are allowed to run so frequently that the transfer penalty incurred by having to alight, walk down the bridge if necessary, and wait for another train no longer becomes a problem.
But I feel it creates a perception issue. Why should I take the JRL when I can simply take a bus to Boon Lay bus interchange or Pioneer station for the same trouble, someone might ask. It’s what I’m doing anyway, they’d say. Furthermore, without a cross platform interchange at Gek Poh, passengers from Jurong Pier will have a choice of two bad options if heading towards Choa Chu Kang.
Even if our hypothetical commuter did choose to take the JRL, he was likely to have to deal with Bahar Junction at least once in the day. He would have a direct route in the morning, but have to make the interchange in the evening. Or vice versa. If this commuter was going to the Jurong Pier or NTU area from the north, would it be any much different than going by Jurong East, he asks?
Stopping to think if they should
The current arrangement sounds like the easy way out to the engineering problem of trying to squeeze a major interchange junction into such a small site.
However, I’m of the opinion that these factors combined would pretty much reduce the attractiveness of the JRL as a commuting method, and with bus demand likely not to move much, LTA may find themselves forced to maintain the frequency of buses while not so heavily used JRL trains run overhead. After all, the days of bus route rationalization are dead, in the name of rail reliability.
Capacity management would also be an issue, although this would be more acute when the full line opens. During NTU holidays when demand there is expected to drop, there will be no point sending a train every 2 minutes down the branch line there. Having some trains turn back at JW2 Tawas (to serve JID only) also makes the operation of the line less efficient.
Such a design also encourages backriding, especially with a short turn at Tawas as mentioned. I describe backriding as something like what happens at stations like Marina Bay and Tampines, where you go in the other direction than your actual direction of travel in order to get a seat or something.
This is likely to be more of an issue before opening of stage 3, since Boon Lay only being a 1 station detour would just be less than five more minutes to a lot of people. But I wouldn’t discount it continuing even after the full JRL opens.
In fact, there happens to be such an arrangement operating right now — service 976 and the Bukit Panjang LRT. In order to allow Service A to be shut down outside of peak hours to “reduce wear and tear”, service 976 was introduced for those that formerly would have chosen to rely on service A. Alas, due to low frequencies, many still choose to take service B the long way instead of 976, and in the other direction 976 is also almost completely duplicated by service B, so is really useful only in late nights when the LRT has stopped operating.
I look into the crystal ball…
Furthermore, the design of the line at Peng Kang Hill also allows for a further extension of the NTU branch towards Tuas should the military move out of the area between there and Joo Koon, and free it up for other uses. Such an extension could possibly go towards the Tuas Road/Gul Circle area, maybe even use the “Tuas South Extension” platforms at Gul Circle station and go further down into the developing Tuas South area.
If such an extension is built, it may also become desirable to split off the NTU branch from the mainline JRL, much like how the Jurong/West Coast branch is split off from the mainline JRL at Tengah. Perhaps these two lines could then be fully recognized as separate services from the JRL, with their own identities and colours on the system map.
That said, my inner pessimist wants to repeat that within 20 years after opening, I would expect a very difficult and very expensive modification project to provide a set of dedicated tracks to access Boon Lay from the NTU branch, allowing the NTU branch to be split from the CCK-Jurong Pier service of JRL.
Fixing the mess at Bahar will be long, and it will be hard, and the end result will not be very good looking, but it’s probably for the better in the long run. As seen in the picture to the left, threading in two additional tracks in the cramped environs of Streets 64/75 is likely not to look easy.
But in the name of the greater good, is there a need for such an expansive and expensive modification to the station and surroundings? I would guess so, especially as ridership increases further down the line with the developments at Cleantech Park/JID, and the situation at Bahar may get out of control, much like the Circle Line today.
Of course, I would hope that I’ve gotten this wrong, and that Bahar may work out to be a minor inconvenience at best.
