The Rail Corridor

A piece of Singapore’s history: Plans for a railway line running from North of Singapore Island to its city centre began in 1869. Subsequently, the railway opened for operations in 1903. In 1923, The railway line connected to the Malayan Peninsular after the causeway was built. This strip of the railway line, managed by Malaysian Railway (KTM), was virtually untouched over the decades while the surrounding Singapore lands developed at breakneck speed. This reminded me of the movie The Time Machine (2002), one could stand still inside the railway land and look out at Singapore’s development.

In 2011, after some political manoeuvre, Singapore managed to negotiate for the Malaysians to cease operations and return the vast amount of precious lands back to Singapore. This unlocked scarce lands for development. However, since the strip of land has not been touched over the years other than the railway itself, it presented a great opportunity to preserve the heritage and the fauna and flora. There were public appeals to the authorities and followed by more public engagements. In the end, the  Government decided to preserve this strip and call it the Rail Corridor. For heritage, biodiversity and leisure.    

Visit the Nparks website to learn more here.

Corridor Central

The entire stretch is 24km cutting Singapore in two. The railway tracks have since been removed except at a few heritage points. The tracks were replaced by dirt and rocks. Hikers and mountain bikers alike are welcome. Some stretches are still under works to restore its lush natural landscapes. 

As I brought my whole family for this walk, we took the central portion of the corridor. From the entry point at Hill View to Bukit Timah Station, it was a manageable 4 km. And this portion is also one that passes through many heritage points. 

We started from Hill View. We were amazed at the untouched nature along the corridor contrasting with both sides that were developed into condominiums and busy main roads, merely tens of metres away. Just minutes after we began, we reached the first overhead crossing at Rail Mall. People come here for Instagram-able selfies.    

Bracing the mosquitoes, and complaints from my girls about mud on their shoes, we moved on. We passed streams, old crossings, funny plants and trees. 

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Sometimes the trail got disrupted by trees fell during previous thunderstorms but the path was cleared promptly. 

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We reached the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve overhead crossing. The road below is the only access road into the reserve. A relatively a short stretch becasue of the narrow road.

Halve way there and I have to constantly provide countdowns to the kids: “almost there, almost there”. We got to pass under the Pan Island Expressway.

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I told them: “see, you see that bridge there? after that, we shall head out for dinner”. And so the morale was raised again. 

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We came to where we wanted to conclude for this walk. The old Bukit Timah railway station. Still untouched and rather run down, but I am quite sure this place will be preserved and restored at a later date. The tracks are here are already preserved by the authorities.  This was where we flag off for the Compressport Rail Corridor Run in 2016. It’s another 10km southwards to the grand Tanjong Pagar Railway station in the city. 

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This was a nice heritage walk I have been wanting to do. Not too sure why was there a procrastination in the first place. Maybe it’s the challenge of getting the whole family out. Thanks to the Pokemon AR game, the boys werw willing to come out. The girls were reluctant but sporting enough to finish, but I need to get them into air-conditioned place for dinner if there would be a next time.  

gobassky