Trains in Singapore

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John Bradshaw

Western Thunderer
As well as the MRT there are several LRT lines, these are basically like the people movers used in airports and are more like guided buses than trains. Operations are fully automated and they link with the MRT. They are now seen as a wrong turn, intended to be a lower cost alternative to new MRT lines for marginal routes the use of elevated lines and stations made them rather expensive with nothing like the capabilities of an MRT line.
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John Bradshaw

Western Thunderer
The newer MRT lines are driverless, as seen in this DT line train. The ends incorporate emergency doors and open out auxiliary train controls. Being a train geek I like to go in this part of the train and look forwards.

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John Bradshaw

Western Thunderer
As well as the MRT Singapore has a superb bus system. The routes are well integrated with the MRT, information is excellent and fares are very cheap. The 'permit to buy' system for car ownership here makes owning a car crazily expensive, and in a small city state with one of the best public transport systems in the world I can't see the point. As with the MRT the buses are air conditioned and kept immaculate (which says as much or in anything more about the passengers as the operator). The green livery is the new-ish standard livery for buses.

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Focalplane

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
John, you mentioned the permit to buy scheme for cars, so I will weigh in with a bit of history.

Back in the late 1970s I was Hon Sec of the Malaysia and Singapore Vintage Car Register. The Singapore section had a real problem with the government's desire to introduce a "scrap one to buy a new one" policy. We were told that there was no place for historic vehicles. I spent a lot of time with fellow members in meetings at the Registry of Vehicles discussing how exemptions could be made to preserve cars that had been in Singapore since the 1920s.

We had a second problem in that, to encourage new members (cars are the members of a Register) we needed to embrace post war classics. Those who had started the MSVCR considered post war to be unacceptable, but many were retiring back to the UK so eventually we were able to broaden the range of eligibility. After I left Singapore we received good news and today there are more vintage cars than when I left. And historical cars include many post war models.

Sadly I exported my 1952 MG TD to Texas and now know I probably should have left it behind. But I did leave a 1932 Riley Monaco and today it appears to have been lost "for ever" though one individual says it may be in Penang. I was able to sell the MG's paperwork to a new buyer before I left (the sum paid for the shipping) but when I tried to register the car in Texas I was asked for the old papers. I explained the story to the authorities and they could hardly believe in such a plan and so allowed the MG to be registered! It now has a good home in Houston.
 
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John Bradshaw

Western Thunderer
They have a different attitude to heritage here, which I find rather sad at times. They only recently gazetted Fort Siloso as a national monument, the last surviving coastal defence fort. I think at times we can be too obsessed with heritage and old stuff in the UK but Singapore and indeed much of Asia goes too far in the other direction. It's still very rare to see a classic car here, most cars are either current models or maybe one or at most two generations old.
I still want to walk the route of the old Jurong branch line while there are still tracks and structures visible. Much of the old line from Malaysia down to Tanjong Pagar is now a walking route with little sign it was once a railway. The Malaysia rail link is changing again, with a new light rapid transit link being built to connect Singapore and Johor Bahru and indications this will replace the KTM rail link. Given that the KTM link is now just a shuttle service to feed into Johor Bahru station and the old inter-city services being no more in Singapore it may not make any real difference and given it will provide a massive increase in service frequency will probably be a major improvement. The big question for the Malaysia rail link is whether the plan to build a high speed rail line will be brought back to life.
 
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John Bradshaw

Western Thunderer
Another interesting thing about the system is that the underground bits are bomb hardened and designed to be emergency shelters. Something many don't realise is that bomb shelters are normal in Singapore. Additionally there are civil defence days where they test the island alert system and sirens. My kids were taken aback when in the first week of term at their school they did a drill to practice going to the air raid shelter.
 
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icn500

New Member
John Bradshaw said:
Another interesting thing about the system is that the underground bits are bomb hardened and designed to be emergency shelters. Something many don't realise is that bomb shelters are normal in Singapore. Additionally there are civil defence days where they test the island alert system and sirens. My kids were taken aback when in the first week of term at their school they did a drill to practice going to the air raid shelter.
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That's not too uncommon I think, even in Europe. Netherlands and Switzerland both have siren systems - Netherlands go as far as having monthly tests (it's only yearly in Switzerland). Switzerland has enough air raid shelters to house the entire population (both under residential buildings, and some communal shelters elsewhere), Sweden and Finland also have extensive shelters but not enough to protect everyone. Mind you, those last 2 countries have good reason to maintain them.

Closer to Singapore, Taiwan also has extensive shelters - but the reasons for that are pretty obvious. Taipei's metro system also has significant similarities with the Singapore system (down to convenience stores all over the place).
 
daifly

daifly

Western Thunderer
John Bradshaw said:
Something slightly odd is that the whole system has check rails, it must add quite a bit to the PW cost.
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I’m happy to be corrected but on elevated or tunnel track, I believe they’re referred to as guard rails. The gap between the running rail and its adjacent guard rail is wide enough to allow a derailed wheel to be trapped and guided in a controlled direction. This would avoid e.g. tunnel wall contact or running off an elevated structure in the event of a derailment.
Dave
 
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John Bradshaw

Western Thunderer
Singapore is armed to the teeth, we live near the Tengah air force base and it is like a commercial airport with the amount of air activity. We have F16's flying around all day, it's weird given how loud F16's are (especially some of the manoeuvres) but after a while you stop noticing unless they do something spectacular. As well as F16's there's also a lot of AH64, S70 and G650 activity, and sometimes C130's. Sadly given that I am also an aircraft enthusiast the F15 squadrons are on the other side of the island at Paya Lebar.
 
Focalplane

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
John, I was told that the dual carriageway to Changi has a stretch that can be quickly turned into a temporary runway.

Paya Labar was our airport in the 1970s. When SIA rented one side of a BA Concorde they always parked the SIA side facing the terminal. We usually flew rig changes out of Seletar in those days, often using DC3s. Such memories come flooding back.
 
G

Genghis

Western Thunderer
daifly said:
I’m happy to be corrected but on elevated or tunnel track, I believe they’re referred to as guard rails. The gap between the running rail and its adjacent guard rail is wide enough to allow a derailed wheel to be trapped and guided in a controlled direction. This would avoid e.g. tunnel wall contact or running off an elevated structure in the event of a derailment.
Dave
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If you don't fit guard rails on elevated sections of MRT lines, good practice now is to include an upstand in the civil structure to contain a derailed train. Guard rails are likely a cheaper option!
David
 
J

John Bradshaw

Western Thunderer
Focalplane said:
John, I was told that the dual carriageway to Changi has a stretch that can be quickly turned into a temporary runway.

Paya Labar was our airport in the 1970s. When SIA rented one side of a BA Concorde they always parked the SIA side facing the terminal. We usually flew rig changes out of Seletar in those days, often using DC3s. Such memories come flooding back.
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I very vaguely remember the SIA/BA Concorde, though I was very young at the time my father worked for RR aero engines and he was always rather proud of the Concorde and the Olympus engines that powered it. Paya Lebar will be closing soon, I believe the entire combat force will be concentrated at Tengah. In conventional terms that would be considered risky but Singapore is so small that if an adversary was able to attack either of the two RSAF bases it could attack the other (they're only 30 minutes away from each other by car). They're short of land, a big reason for the massive new port at Tuas is to free up the land not only around Tanjong Pagar and Brani Island but also Pasir Panjang where the new container port is. That will mean Singapore is effectively bookended with Tuas Port at the extreme Western side of the island and Changi at the Eastern extreme and with Tengah in the Northwest as the big air force base.
There is some good footage on EBay of their fighter force practising deployments from some of the highways built to serve as emergency dispersal runways.
 
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John Bradshaw

Western Thunderer
An underground station on the North East Line, the newer lines tend to go for this open style which feels quite nice and not shut in. This line is the odd one out as it uses overhead catenary rather than the third rail under side contact power supply of the rest of the network.

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AJC

AJC

Western Thunderer
SimonT

SimonT

Western Thunderer
RR aero engines and he was always rather proud of the Concorde and the Olympus engines that powered it.
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While acknowledging that it was a Bristol engine! The names give the origin away. Bristol used a classical theme - Centaur, Olympus,
Pegasus. RR used and still use river names. Derwent, Avon, Spey, Adour. Derby lost their way with the RB211 although the development of that engine is the Trent. The Americans use a boring mix of letter and numbers - J57, AE2100 D3. They do the same with their aircraft but you find the nickname gets adopted in general use such as Albert, 'Vark, Hog, Eagle, Viper and Raptor. I suspect another name wil be found as an alternative to the Dave (F35).
 
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