Jerome continues his exploration of the Singapore-Malaysia railway line by sharing his memories of crossroads and crossings, specifically railway crossings around Bukit Panjang.

Level crossings seem to me a refreshing window to the past to a time when the traffic stopped. Today, our transport systems are so efficient that we rarely have to wait more than five minutes while sitting on a vehicle. Those little halts in our transit times are usually times spent waiting for the traffic light to change, and even when there are jams, the traffic still moves, albeit at a slow pace. With railway crossings, things come to a complete stop altogether. Jerome writes:

I am not sure when I had first seen that particular crossing in operation, but it was something that I would look forward to seeing each time we were in the area. It always seemed surreal somehow how traffic would grind to a halt, as the man who manned the crossing, flag in hand, hurried about closing the wooden gates of the crossing, followed by the sight beyond the gate of a train zooming its way across the road …

There are still level crossings at the western part of Singapore, but they will soon be abandoned once the KTM station at Tanjong Pagar moves to Woodlands. In the meantime, you can read about them in Jerome’s post here.