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Railway in Singapore

The Singapore Railway line is the southernmost segment in the West Coast Line of what first began as the Malayan Railway, now known as KTM (Keretapi Tanah Melayu) Berhad, a Malaysian corporation wholly-owned by the Malaysian Government. The terminus in Singapore is the Tanjong Pagar Station.

History
Early Developments
The Malayan railways were built initially to service the tin mining industry and later proved a boon to the rubber industry, boosting the economic growth of Malaya. The first lines opened in 1885 and traversed tin-rich Larut, transporting goods between Taiping and Port Weld.

Plans to build a railway line through Singapore primarily to service the New Harbour were tabled as early as 1869. The project, fraught with politics, only saw approval in 1899 after Sir Cecil Clementi Smith had raised the need in an 1889 Legislative council meeting. Works were initiated with the ceremony of cutting of the first sod in 16 April 1900. Mr C. E. Spooner, the General Manager of the Federated Malay States Railway, was appointed the supervisor of the project. Costing a total of $1,967,495, the Singapore-Kranji Railway line running from Tank Road to Kranji was finally completed in 1903. Opened in two phases, the first section was launched on 1 January 1903 whilst the second phase was opened on 10 April 1903. The first track had a tin shed as the main station, the Tank Road Railway Station.

Pre-War Developments
For 15 years, the railway line operated two ferry-boats, the Singapore and the Johore, which brought rail passengers across the Johor Straits. With the completion of the Causeway in 1923, trains could finally cross the peninsula into Singapore island. The heaviest passenger traffic was then always on Sundays as Johor's gambling farm proprietors paid the return fares for Singaporeans who travelled up.

There was a 4 mile, 4' 8 1/2" gauge railway built for the War Department by the F. M. S. R at Changi. It was named the Changi Railway and constructed for Singapore's defence, particularly to service the new Changi battery, cutting through Fairy Hill with a loop to the ammunition dump at Selarang. All except for the loop to Selarang, were completed by 1928. The locomotive was transported from the Singapore Harbour via a Chinese junk which berthed at Fairy Point pier. With the help of the local coolies, the engine was manually drawn out of the junk through several heart-stopping moments. It is not known when the railway line was removed but no trace of it remains.

The Tank Road station served as the only terminal for passenger trains until the completion of the Tanjong Pagar Station on 3 May 1932. Along with the station, lodgings known as the Kelantan Flats along Kampong Bahru Road were constructed to house the workers for the Malayan Railway and the Malaysian Customs. The workers constituted mainly Tamils and Malays and their privileges included free medical facilities for themselves and their families. The Tank Road line which stretched to Bukit Timah was dismantled some time between 1938 to 1939.

World War II Developments
During the Japanese Occupation, the rails to Port Weld along with 150 miles of the East Coast Line were used by the Japanese to build the Burma-Siam Railway. These were replaced after the war.

Later Developments
As late as 1965, the railway lines saw development with a line added from Bukit Timah into the new industrial estate, to Jurong Port Road. However, the line did not see extensive use and has since been abandoned. It now remains an interesting site for nature lovers and trekkers.

Description
The railway is typical of British colonial railway systems, built to the metre gauge. Singapore has KTM's only hydraulic buffer stops by Ransomes & Rapier. The Singapore station was also one of three major signal cabins along the West Coast Line until 1967 when a new station was opened in Butterworth. Singapore's was also only one of three stations with hotels, the other two being Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur.

The track ran along Cuppage Road, across Monk's Hill Road toward Newton Circus with a station at Newton where the Newton MRT Station now stands. The tracks then followed Bukit Timah Road with a stop at Cluny Station and Bukit Timah Station before heading through Bukit Timah village to Kranji and Woodlands. An extension for goods trains was opened between 1906 to 1907. This connected Tank Road Station to the dockyard going through People's Park area. It took about six hours to travel between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Before leaving Singapore, there would be slowdowns at Bukit Timah and Kranji for manual exchange of tokens.

Variant Names
It is also known as the Singapore Deviation, the Singapore-Kranji Line, the Singapore Government Railway.

Time-line
1869 : The earliest proposals to build a railway through Singapore was put up by engineer W. J. du Port at an estimated cost of $200,000. However, a trade slump resulted in the project being shelved.
1871 : Another proposal by the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company was put forward to the Governor of the Straits Settlements but public opinion was against the use of public funds for private interests.
1874 : Sir Andrew Clarke announced his support for the construction of a railway for private use.
1 Jun 1885 : The first section of the Malayan railway was a seven and a half mile track, opened between Taiping and Port Weld, serving the main mining area in Larut. The effort took two divisions of Ceylon Pioneers.
Sep 1886 : The next section opened was the 21-mile run between Kuala Lumpur and Klang with an extension to Port Swettenham 3 years later.
1891 : Seremban was linked up with Port Dickson.
1896 : The creation of the Federated Malay States Railway, followed by the joining up of the initial four major lines built.
1900 : The main backbone of railway tracks linked Penang (Prai) to Seremban.
1 Jan 1903 : The Singapore-Kranji Railway line was announced completed. The section from Tank Road to Bukit Timah was opened.
10 Apr 1903 : The Woodlands extension was completed. The first passenger trains began transporting travellers to Bukit Timah Station.
1904 : Malacca was connected to Tampin. This line was removed during the Occupation and not reinstated.
1905 : Seremban was connected to Tampin.
1909 : The Johore Railway was completed delivering most of the surface mail from central and western Peninsular Malaya due for Singapore.
1 Jul 1918 : Singapore was linked to Bangkok through the launch of a train service with the mail service using this line commencing on 1 November of the same year.
1918 : The properties and estates previously under the Singapore Railway were sold to the Government of the Federated Malay States for $4,136,000 and the railway renamed the Federated Malay States Railway (F. M. S. R.).
1920s : Steam engines cease running on the FMS Railway tracks.
17 Sep 1923 : The first goods train travels via the causeway although the Causeway would officially be opened only a year later.
1 Oct 1923 : The first passenger train travels via the causeway.
1932 : The Tanjong Pagar Station was officially opened by Sir Cecil Clementi after completion of the extension of the Tank Road line to Pasir Panjang, works having started since the 1920s.
1936/1937 : The Tank Road to Bukit Timah line is dismantled.
1948 : The Malayan Railway Ordinance saw railways previously managed by the states under FMS Railway, now managed under the Malayan Railway Administration. This was later to become Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) Berhad.
11 Nov 1965 : A six mile-long branch was added to the Singapore line, spanning Jurong and Bukit Timah.
1 Aug 1992 : KTM Berhad is corporatised under the Malaysian Railway Act of 1991 although it remains wholly-owned by the Malaysian government.
Sep 1993 : The Eastern Oriental-Express becomes the first train service to take passengers from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok.



Author
Bonny Tan



References
Liu, G. (1999). Singapore: A pictorial history 1819-2000 (pp. 100-101). Singapore: Archipelago Press.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 LIU) 

Makepeace, W., Brooke, G. E., & Braddell, R. St. J. (Eds.). (1991). One hundred years of Singapore (Vol. 2, p. 121). Singapore: Oxford University Press.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 ONE)

Probert, H. A. (1970). History of Changi (pp. 16-21). Singapore: Prison Industries.
(Call no.: RSING 959.51 PRO)

Stanistreet, J. A. (1974). Keretapi Tanah Melayu: The Malayan Railway (pp. 5-6,10, 16-17, 42-43, 55). Lingfield: Oakwood Press.
(Call no.: RCLOS 385.09595 STA) 

The land transport of Singapore: From early times to the present (pp. 35-43). (1984). Singapore: Educational Publications Bureau.
(Call no.: RSING 779.9388095957 LAN) 

Wright, A. (Ed.). (1989). Twentieth century impressions of British Malaya: Its history, people, commerce, industries, and resources (pp.176-184). Singapore: G. Brash.
(Call no.: RSING 959.5 TWE) 

Abandoned rail line can be used for recreation (1995, January 27). The Straits Times, p. 36.

Asia's Orient Express - history. (n.d.) Eastern and Oriental Express. Retrieved June 30, 2003, from www.orient-express.com

KTM. (2001). Company profile. Keretapi Tanah Melayu. Retrieved June 30, 2003, from www.ktmb.com.my/section.cfm?id=143

Mal Soh. (2003). Singapore railways - history. Retrieved June 30, 2003, from singaporerailways.tripod.com/SRhistory.htm


Further Readings
Amarjit Kaur. (1985). Seabad keretapi di Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Persatuan Muzium.
(Call no.: RSEA 385.09595 AMA)

Amarjit Kaur. (1985). Bridge and barrier: Transport and communications in Colonial Malaya, 1870-1957 (pp. 38, 45). Singapore: Oxford University Press.
(Call no.: RSEA 380.309595 KAU) 

Goh, A., & Teo, I. (1995). Life along a forgotten railway [videotape]. Hey Singapore! Series 1, episode 7. Singapore: Television Corporation of Singapore.
(Call no.: RAV 959.57 HEY) 

Moore, D. (1969). The first 150 years of Singapore (pp. 375-387). Singapore: Donald Moore Press.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 MOO) 

Haji Shamsuddin. (1985). Malayan Railway, 1885-1985, locomotive centennial. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Hidayah.
(Call no.: RSING 625.2609595 SHA)

Tyers, R. K. (1993). Ray Tyers' Singapore: Then & now (p. 70). Singapore: Landmark Books.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 TYE) 

Accounts of the Malayan Railway Administration (1956 -1962). Kuala Lumpur: Government Press.
(Call no.: RCLOS 385.1595 MAGAMR)

Amarjit Kaur. (1978). Railways, roads and communications their contribution to asymmetrical economic development in Malaya 1870s-1940s [Microfilm: A00020631A]. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International.

Federated Malay States Railways. (1935). Fifty years of railways in Malaya, 1885-1935 [Microfilm: NL 25928]. Kuala Lumpur: F.M.S., Kyle, Palmer & Co.

The information in this article is valid as at 2000 and correct as far as we can ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.

Subject
Commerce and Industry>>Transportation
Railroads--Singapore
Railroad stations--Singapore
Business, finance and industry>>Industry>>Services>>Transportation and logistics

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