The announcement came this morning, and although I haven't read the articles thoroughly yet, in a nutshell, what they're saying is that we're gonna going to be able to travel to JB via MRT come 2024. That's... 7 years from now.
Okay, cool. :)
One question though, does that mean that the rail train will no longer operate from the Woodlands Checkpoint that side?
Because that's where they are now.
Right now, if you wish to take a train from Singapore to Johor Bahru, you've gotta go all the way up to Woodlands and hop on a KTM shuttle train there which will then take you across the border. It doesn't sound troublesome, and neither does it sound that inconvenient, but it just isn't as fun as what it used to be.
There was a time when we all boarded our trains from the KTM Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. There was a time when we bought tickets from the counter to wherever our destination was, and after buying our tickets we either made our way to the seats and waited there with our baggage, or we went for breakfast at the little coffee shop at the back of the station.
Then one day, both countries made some sort of agreement and next thing we knew, we were left with an empty railway station, one long, long corridor of hacked-up rails that we call the Green Corridor, and natural foilage growing on either side.
We were also left with scenes like these.
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| teetered on the fence for this shot |
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| platform through the fence bars |
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| eastern & oriental: glamorous travel |
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| train schedules |
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| the boarding platform |
Twice I went to the Railway Station, once in the late afternoon, once in the late evening. This was early days, not too long after the announcement because I wanted to remember the place as she was, upon receiving the knowledge of her finality.
This is not a Station a mere decade old. Neither is this a Station designed in the modernity of architecture. This is a Station that has stood through at least one world war and through the Merger and Independence of Singapore. This is a Station that has seen countless people travel between the up country of Malaya and the township of Singapore.
All ages, all careers, all lifestyles, whether you be rich or poor, whether you be fluent in English or dialect, whether you work in the Government or amongst your own community, whether you be educated or uneducated, Singaporeans, young and old, would have more or less passed through the archways of the station and gone to the boarding platforms and taken our seats on the train.
How many of us have, or at least have known, of someone who traveled in and out of the country for reasons whatsoever? Certainly I know of one. My loved ones too have taken the train during the busiest period of the year- Lunar New Year- up to Johor and KL and Penang. I have taken the train with my loved ones up to Melaka, and I only wish that I'd gone on that backpacking train trip that I so wanted to do after graduation.
The vague idea had been that I'd train from Singapore to Gemas past all the little, little towns, write my observations as I went along, and then at Gemas, decide whether to continue up to Penang, or to switch and train to the east coast of Malaysia. But heck, I told no one, and as things go, the planning didn't even get to the real stage.
Still, I'm glad enough that I've taken the train from a platform as this.
I'm glad to have heard the whistle of the master and heard the chug-chug-chug of the train and seen the scenery pass my windows by. And as lonely and abandoned as she looks in these pictures, what matters to me is the one time when my loved ones and I made a decision (on impulse!) to forgo the long bus queues at Queen Street and take the train instead from this Station up to our destination.
Because not only do I remember the trip.
I also remember the journey getting there on that last train ride.