With the closure of the Tanjong Pagar Railway station much has been written about keeping the railway line snaking from south to north as a green corridor. But there’s also another old railway line that branches out westwards from the proposed green corridor that leads to Jurong, and steelwool blogs about the recent walk there.
steelwool writes about the old Jurong line, which was closed in 1990:
i learnt at the walk that the old jurong line was meant to provide transport for goods disembarking at jurong shipyard into malaysia because the market of the malaysia of 1963 (merger with singapore) was expected to be large. this economic plan however fell through upon singapore’s separation from malaysia rendering old jurong line not as highly utilised as originally intended.
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because of the starkly industrial nature of the jurong industrial area, dr lai chee kien of the department of architecture, nus said that it was a deliberate attempt to make the residential area in the vicinity more green and livable. such consideration resulted in the naming of the housing estates in the area pandan gardens, teban gardens and chinese garden (which is also an actual park unlike the former pseudo two). this is also why the jurong bird park is situated in this part of singapore. the choice of the bird park was made over a zoological gardens for the practical reason that birds are cheaper.
You can read about her walk through the Jurong railway line here.
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