Singapore MRT LRT Vertex Trip

 I call myself a Mumbaikar even though I have been living in Bengaluru for the past 5 years. The way of life, the pace of life and everything about Mumbai can make me go Ga-Ga over it. I have lived 35 years in Mumbai and like very other Mumbaikar, commuter trains or Local Trains as we call them there are a part and parcel of our lives. The Local Trains are the reason, Mumbai remains the place of opportunities for millions of Indians. Nowhere else in the country can someone imagine to stay more than 60 kms away from their workplace and still use public transport to commute to work. The trains are extremely cheap and available for more than 20 hours in a day. They can be extremely crowded and the railway officials have coined a term called Super Dense Crush Load (SDCL) for the times the trains are filled beyond capacity. So, whether you love it or hate it, you can’t avoid it if you live in Mumbai.

 

Then there is a special breed of people like me who not only commute by trains but also call ourselves “railfans-fans of railways and everything related to trains”. The commuter network in Mumbai is quite extensive and I had twice attempted to cover each and every station of the network in a single service day and successfully completed this with my railfans. You can read about them in my blogs listed on the links below.

My Home Turf: A successful attempt to traverse all the local train stations of Mumbai in a Day.

My Home Turf: Mumbai Suburban Parikrama 2.0

Since, I shifted to Bengaluru in late 2017, I no longer get an opportunity to use the Metro trains or negligible commuter network of the city. God has been very kind to me. I work for Hilton Hotels as a Cluster IT Manager now but, have been a certified Hardware Deployment Engineer (HDE) for the organization since August 2014. This has given me opportunities to travel across our hotels in Asia Pacific Region. While a typical HDE task is 3-day job with a less hectic 3^rd day, giving me enough time to explore the place before I head back home. While most tourists head to the “Top 10 places to see”, I head to the local train station and explore the railway network in the limited time that I get.

 

I was been lucky to explore trains in Srilanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines and Singapore. For a Mumbaikar, Singapore is a dream city-state for commuting. Everything about it is so cool.

 

In Dec 2015, I had visited Singapore for a week and on the last day, I decided to explore all the lines in Singapore entering at Orchard and returning back after almost 7 hours getting onto each MRT line existing then. East-West line terminated at Joo Koon. Downtown line was short and ran between Chinatown and Bugis. There was no Thomson East Coast Line then. North-South Line ended at Marina Bay. I visited once again in 2018 but had little time to explore. This time, I was posted to Singapore for 4 weeks for a Training Project in one of our new hotels. This meant, I could use the weekend to follow my passion extensively.

I arrived on 18^th Dec 2022 and next one week while I was at the project site, daily commute was by Bus 36 which covers most 5 Star hotels enroute and the beautiful Orchard Road glittering in all its Christmas lighting. Finally, on 25^th Dec 2022, as Sunday dawned, so did the idea of trying to cover the end points(vertexes) of MRT and LRT stations in Singapore in one single day. I am not sure if any foreigner had attempted this ever, let alone fellow Singaporeans. To make a record of this task, I decided to take a Selfie at all the vertex points with the station name board behind me.  I was staying at Conrad Centennial Singapore, which is a 2-minute walk away from Promenade, the deepest MRT station in Singapore (as per Wikipedia). After a sumptuous breakfast, armed with my light backpack and passport, I headed to Promenade station to start the attempt around 11:00 am. This being an interchange for Circle Line (CC) and Downtown Line (DT), I decided to head to Bukit Panjang on DT Line first and reached there by 11:50 am.

Illustration of MRT and LRT Map as on Dec 2022 in Singapore(above)

DT line primarily runs underground and being a Christmas Sunday, there was no rush. Here comes the first selfie at Bukit Panjang, one of the vertexes (No 11) of Downtown Line. Incidentally, this is also a starting point for the Bukit Panjang LRT Loop.

First glimpse of the Bukit Panjang LRT run by SMRT outside the MRT Station (Below)

Here I start my LRT Loop at Bukit Panjang

The Typical LRT tracks which are actually utilizing rubber tyres with a guide rail for power as seen below. you can also see the track changer in the pictures below.

 

What an amazing ride which helps you take in all the sights of the LRT from the driverless frontage.

After I finish this section, I head to Choa Chu Kang which acts as the interchange for Bukit Panjang LRT's other end  point to North South Line's Choa Chu Kang MRT station. 

Featured below is Choa Chu Kang Interchange with traditional roof styled for LRT station.

The next target is to reach Jurong East which is one of the vertexes of the North South Line. I managed to reach Jurong East by 12:40 pm.

Next on the anvil is finding the western vertex of the East West Line at Tuas Link. This was  new place for me as the last time I came to Singapore the East West Line terminated at Joo Koon. Well I wasnt disappointed a bit as the MRT which I boarded was indeed terminating at Joo Koon.

I had to wait for another train headed further west at Joo Koon and this section pretty much is like the Harbour Line of Mumbai where you see the container docks, factories and sea shore can be seen at multiple points. Finally, one more target accomplished at Tuas Link by 13:15 hrs.

Having completed the western frontier, I had to traverse the same route back to reach other vertex. So the returned from Tuas Link to Jurong Easr and then headed on North South line to Woodlands in the north.

Woodlands is an interchange of North South Line and the relatively new Thomson East Coast Line(TEL). I had to take a short trip of station to Woodlands North on the TEL. As I said this is a new MRT line, it definitely looks much brighter,wider and more glamourous as compared to the older MRT lines. Glimpes of Woodlands North below.

Lowered my mask for a picture (for a second) with no commuters around. The station is well lit.

I love the flexibility of seats on Thomson East Coast Line as featured below.

That tciked off one more MRT vertex off my bucket list and next up on the horizon was to head to Punggol which is the vertex for North East Line. There were 2 options to reach there, either reach Woodlands, change to North South Line to get to Bishan and change to Circle Line to reach Serangoon or continue on TEL to Caldecott on Circle Line and then reach Serangoon. I settled for the latter to bask in the experience of new TEL.

 I reach Serangoon Interchange of Circle and North East line by 15:15 and then hop onto North East Line to head to Punggol, vertex of the North East Line and also the start of 2 LRT loops. I reach Punggol in 10 minutes.

The LRT at Punggol can be taken from the Elevated station and there are 2 loops which are listed a below, both accessible from 2 sides on Island Punggol LRT station.

Punggol is a major junction for MRT, LRT and Buses as you can see the Depot next to the station.

Here is a view from the driverless Punngol LRT.

A few more videos of Punggol LRT Loops to savour.

Then, we head to Sengkang to do the 2 LRT loops there as well.

This is identical to Punggol loops as seen below.

Some videos for Sengkang LRT loops below

Now was time to return back to Serangoon to take the Circle line again to reach the other vertex. This time we had to reach Pasir Ris on East West Line. Hence, after taking North East Line from Sengkang to Serangoon. I changed over to Circle Line here to head to Paya Lebar Interchange with East West Line.

From Paya Lebar, we take the East West Line to head to Pasir Ris.

One more off the list and now it was time to head to Tanah Merah and then Expo and Changi Airport. You can see a maze of new flyovers and lines being created around Tampines, Tanah Merah, where we can switch to the Changi Airport line . While Expo is the vertex for Downtown line and Changi Airport acts as a spur vertex for the East West Line. Didnt want to miss any, so covered both the points as seen below.

Expo roof as seen below.

Finally, Changi Airport we meet at 18:15 hrs.

Exhaustion has started trickling in but I was so close to completing the adventure and didnt want to give up. So, here we head from Changi Airport on Downtown line to Chinatown Interchange. I had to head to North East Line's vertex at Harbour Front.

From HarbourFront, you can take the Sentosa Express, a Monorail to cover the Sentosa Island.I did catch a glimpse of that as well above the Vivo City Mall.

I head back fast to Dhoby Ghaut which is a mega interchange for 3 lines of North South Lines, North East Lines and start of the Circle Line, thus helping me complete one more Vertex point off my list.

From Dhoby Ghaut, I head to  Marina Bay South which accomplishes the vertex for North South Line.

Now, the last one on my list is Gardens by the Bay on Thomson East Coast Line , for which, i head to Marina Bay interchange and then finally take TEL to reach the last point on the agenda for the day.

Its 20:25 by now and I had started around 11:00 am. While the commute was smooth and without a hitch but frequent changes  to achieve the target had already made me weak with hardly anything to eat during this entire trip.I didnt want to waste time in going for a break and miss out on the target.

Then I returned back to Promenade, by now the MRT was almost empty.I had to switch from TEL to Circle line at Marina Bay.

This the last selfie for the day after a successful completion of the MRT and LRT Vertex Trip of Singapore. 

I am sure many would call me crazy for attempting this, but personally, it felt like I am left with no place to see in Singapore after this marathon ride..

MRTs and LRTs had a mix of multiple manufacturers:

Bombardier

Alstom

Kawasaki

Nippon Sharayu

CRRC Kawasaki

Crystal Movers

Mitsubishi

Will come back to explore the new Jurong Line a few years later when it is opened for commuters. Till then, its Chao Singaporeans...! You have a beautiful and efficient MRT System which makes the world envious of your transport systems.