Bukit Timah railway station

Bukit Timah
Former KTM Intercity rail 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.
General information
Location	1 Blackmore Drive, Bukit Timah, Singapore.
Coordinates	1°20′03″N 103°46′52″E
Owned by	Singapore Land Authority
Line(s)	Formerly KTM Intercity
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	4
Construction
Parking	no
History
Opened	1903
Rebuilt	1932
Services
Preceding station   Keretapi Tanah Melayu (Intercity)   Following station Template:KTM Intercity stations toward Template:KTM Intercity stations Template:KTM Intercity lines (defunct) Template:KTM Intercity stations toward Template:KTM Intercity stations Template:KTM Intercity stations toward Template:KTM Intercity stations Template:KTM Intercity lines (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

History

The BTRS uses the style of traditional small town stations. Workers of the railways constituted of mainly Tamils and Malays from Malaysia, and were given much work privileges which include free medical facilities for themselves and their families. The BTRS serves as a commodities transport linkage for the then heavily industrialized Bukit Timah to other stations, allowing goods to be produced and transported efficiently. Numerous houses could be found along the vicinity of the railways. These houses ranges from typical metal sheds that provides services to your automobile needs to brick houses lived by residents.

After the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station was completed in 1932, the BTRS gradually lost its importance for passengers as the Tanjong pagar were effectively nearer to the town space. From 1940 onwards, the BTRS was solely used as a passing loop station for loading and unloading of goods and materials. Passengers then could no longer board at BTRS anymore.

It was the former terminus for the KTM Jurong Branch Line and the normal trunk line connector. It was planned to be electrified and double-tracked in the 1980s.

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 would then be taken by the station master and handed over to the awaiting train. That other train can then proceed into the sector previously passed through by the first train.

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.

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 consultation 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.

Following closure, the railway track between Tanjong Pagar and Woodlands was removed. 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, but no refurbishment or development has occurred since they were vacated by the KTM. The next nearest station is at King Albert Park MRT Station, which was opened on 27 December 2015.

Gallery

• 
  Bukit Timah Railway Station before closure
• 
  Bukit Timah railway station seen in July 2012, a year after closure
• 
  The manually operated signalling room at Bukit Timah Railway Station before closure.
• 
  The same location in July 2012 following closure and removal of most fixtures and fittings
• 
  Train driver dropping a key token for the northern section between Woodlands and Bukit Timah.
• 
  The moment the train driver picks up the next key token for the southern section between Bukit Timah and Tanjong Pagar.
• 
  One of the old stands for receiving the key token remains at Bukit Timah station in July 2012

See also

• Malaysia-Singapore Points of Agreement of 1990
• Rail transport in Singapore
• Tanjong Pagar railway station
• Woodlands Train Checkpoint

External links

• Description at National Heritage Board's website