What I Discovered at Circle Line Discovery Open House

Having missed the two Circle Line Open House in 2009 and 2010, I told myself not to miss the next one in October 2011. This time round, the theme is Circle Line Discovery; from Caldecott to HabourFront, 12 new stations in all. The moment I got hold of the news, my mind started churning; the places outside the staton I can visit, for free; the photos I can shoot inside the station, no holds barred; and not least a meaningful way to spend the Sunday. Creative organizers and the unpredictable human nature made it all the more interesting.

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What I Never Knew About Our MRT (I) - Error and Gotcha Moments

As mentioned here, I take the MRT on an every day basis. It became my main mode of transport after I entered university. Before that, my lifestyle revolved around places in the east - my primary and secondary schools, my junior college, my military camp, even my old flat before we shifted to even further east. Life changed after I got matriculated - my university, now my workplace, even my reservist camp, are all in the west. I was not spared during my university internship and courtship even. To reach those places, the MRT was my choice, often my only choice.

As a loyal train passenger (8 years and counting), I have the honour to present some of the error and gotcha moments encountered during my commuting. If you are expecting gotcha moments that will set your hormones raging, you'd be disappointed because none of my fellow passengers' modesty was insulted in the course of recording. Neither will you find the accidental suicide photo because they belong to the Chinese tabloid papers; this blog does not encourage posting of traumatic pictures.

As a professional in the IT industry, I have an active interest in software systems. In fact, I'm constantly on the lookout for software error/gotcha moments in public. These sometimes 'malu' moments gave me a chance to peek into their system. Now I know that under the surface, their software is not much different from mine - buggy, cryptic and with the occasional crash.

So sorry that your hormones will not be raging, but do enjoy the pictures.

Picture 1: POST (Power-on-self-test) screen of the arrival display. (5 Dec 2007)

Picture 2: Service downtime. I'm not sure whether the system crashed or they were doing maintenance. The latter should not be done during train operating hours, right? (31 Dec 2007)

Picture 3: My first and only experience of a disrupted service. You can read about it here. Bus bridging services ferried passengers between the two stations. I kind of regretted taking the bridge service - it took ages to reach Tanah Merah! (21 Jan 2008)

Picture 4: Another POST screen. So they were using Pentium III, with 20GB hard disk and 128MB of memory. You do not need powerful hardware to run a static display. But I remember such static display can show video as well, hmm .... (11 April 2008)

Picture 5: Taken inside the train, maybe the NEL. Truly a 'malu' moment, but I don't really blame the developers. We know many things can go wrong. Maybe they use Windows and not Apple or Linux that's why, haha. (19 Jan 2009)

Picture 6: Another 'exception' message. The geek lingo implies that something has gone wrong. The message is, as usual, cryptic. (26 April 2009)

(I do not differentiate between lines run by SMRT and NEL by SBSTransit. They, including Circle Line, are just 'MRT' to me.)

From Boon Lay to Joo Koon: Games, Eye Candies and Oh, Where's my Goodie Bag?

While I enjoyed myself at the Open House as a non-paying passenger, that was not the purpose of my trip. A free train ride is nothing to shout about. My real purpose was to meet, for the first time, members from the forum and to score goodie bags from the Open House. Now, a goodie bag is something to shout about because you only get it during special occasions – like an Open House. I’m hoping I don’t sound cheapskate to you.

So call my mission Operation Goodie Bag(s). However I got more than what I bargained for, as you’d see….


Alarm bells started ringing before the official opening at 11am. You see, we reached Pioneer Station before 11am to beat the crowd even though I didn’t expect much of a crowd. For goodness sake, this is not the Singapore Flyer where you camp overnight to get free tickets. So imagine my surprise when I saw people ………… walking about in the station!

Worse, there were people already leaving the station! Most of them were elderly folks. I’m guessing this must be some smart aleck’s idea to work with the various Residents’ Committee and Elderly Groups in the event the marketing campaign fails to attract visitors. It’s show time! Picture the scene where you have happy elderly citizens walking about when the guest-of-honour makes his appearance….

I applaud whoever’s idea for some elderly/retiree cohesion and Saturday morning workout. However, the decision to present the elderly with the much-sought-after goodie bag was a bad one. I thought I saw a SMRT memorabilia when some elderly aunties inspected the content in the bag (above picture). Bad choice. Bad bad choice. They probably dumped the content to the garang-guni a week after.

When we finally travelled up the escalator, I realized we were not the early birds. There was already a crowd in front of us as well as in the station.


There was a intimidating welcoming party (wearing LTA polo tees) behind the fare gates left open specially for the Open House. They were standing about bua long long chattering with one another. I’d prefer if they formed a line screaming and shaking their pom pom on my arrival - 欢迎欢迎, 热烈欢迎!

It was here that I met and shook MP for Pioneer Mr Cedric Foo’s hand. I think he looked a bit surprised when I addressed him Sir. If I’m not mistaken, he was the Minister of State for Defence before Assoc Prof Koo Tsai Kee. Old habits die hard when you were a conscript.


The Open House was that because you were allowed to walk around and take pictures indiscriminately. It was also a mini fun fair. You have balloons. You have joy rides. Not to forget games.

Game booths were manned by LTA staff where for no fee, you could win fantastic prizes like a sticky pad. The games were pretty creative (and I mean this from the bottom of my heart). I’m not showing any pictures, see if you can visualize the game from its pithy description:

• Pachinko
• Flip and Match
• Explore the New Boon Lay Extension
• What Is It?

Kudos to LTA for trying to create some ambience with their Live Performance Band available at Joo Koon Station only. A pity they had stopped playing when I was there. I guess the live entertainment was necessary to cheer the visitors up, who came from Pioneer Station and suddenly realized they were in the middle of nowhere. No visible entertainment or F&B outlet. Joo Koon, between PIE Pasir Laba Flyover and AYE Benoi Flyover, is an industrial area in Tuas.



The people factor was what kept the Open House alive. I don’t mean the crowd but the eye candies. The above are eye candies staff from LTA at Pioneer Station.


At Joon Koon Station, I had a bigger catch surprise in the form of a TV reporter for Mediacorp’s Channel 5 and CNA. I don’t know her name. Anyone can recognize her?


Nice dress but I’m more interested in the paper under her feet. No, she wasn’t littering. The litter paper was her script. I’m not sure whether this is a common trick employed by reporters to hide their script.

I spent a fruitful Saturday morning at the stations – taking joy rides, watching the games but not playing them, shooting eye candies etc. But oh, where’s my goodie bag?


Due to unfortunate circumstances, I did not get the official goodie bag with the SMRT memorabilia. Instead I got a paper goodie bag. Do you want to know its content?


There was a LTA keychain that looked like excess inventory from HDB. So much for a SMRT memorabilia.

The Open House would be a laughing stock if the paper bag contained only the keychain. So to make the bag heavier they added something else….

Want to know what’s the additional object? Please don’t laugh when you see this.

Kudos to the organizers!

From Boon Lay to Joo Koon: Station Open House and the New End of the West Line

It must have been during the annual conscription gathering at Jurong West more than a year ago that I saw new MRT tracks after Boon Lay. For many years Boon Lay marked the western end of the East West Line. Opened in 1990, it was the last station to do so, but its status as the western terminus had since been etched in my memory.

Imagine my surprise when I came to know about the completion of the Boon Lay MRT Extension, starting with Open House at Pioneer and Joo Koon Stations on 21st February. Amongst other things, this means Boon Lay will relinquish its western terminus status. A new end of the west line is born.

At the invitation of azmee, I joined the guys in Singapore Railway Forum for the Open House at Pioneer.

Boon Lay MRT Station Platform

On station platform at Boon Lay, arrangements were made to facilitate the transition. From 15 Feb, passengers were not allowed to board the train at platform B. As the western terminal station (MRT lingo: withdrawal station), trains would stop at either platform and continue the journey back (eastwards), assuming they were not withdrawn from service. This would change with new stations after Boon Lay.

Pioneer MRT Station

Entrance A

At Pioneer, I was surprised to see trains arriving at regular intervals. As it turned out, the trains first arrived at Boon Lay, passengers were evicted, and the empty trains continued their journey to Pioneer.

Open House Banner at Entrance A

Well-Wishers from the Kopitiam

The Open House must be a darn solid affair. There were banners shouting “come and visit us” as well as a congratulatory banner from the kopitiam below the station that said, “Congratulations on the opening of the new Pioneer MRT Station”. This is so fake, what they mean is “Let’s congratulate ourselves for the good business in the days ahead”.

EW 28 Pioneer

Pioneer MRT Station Platform

One of the highlights was the free train ride between Pioneer and Joo Koon. The fare gate was not in use. The empty trains from Boon Lay would pick up visitors at Pioneer and continued on to Joo Koon. That was my first time as a non-paying passenger.The MRT track was still in its pristine condition and it would be until somebody decided to soil it red with his blood. There is something distinctively different about the track at Pioneer, see if you can spot it (hint: colour).

Joo Koon MRT Station

At Joo Koon - the new end of the west line – I alighted and found myself in a similar station like Pioneer but surrounded by factories. Pioneer is surrounded by flats. The contrast is striking.

Privacy Measure at Pioneer

Indeed, the block outside the station is so near that a screen was constructed at the platform to stop prying eyes. There is a similar one at Marsiling MRT Station. It is ironic that the station was designed to provide “commuters with a panoramic view of the surrounding areas”.

Fire Escape Route

Security Cameras (left and right of entrance)

Pioneer MRT Station registered a few firsts in my mind. The escape route outside the station connects the platform to the ground floor. I don’t remember any station with such design. SMRT has also deployed an overwhelming number of security cameras outside the station entrance, a fact I still find amusing.

As you read this, the Boon Lay MRT Extension would have opened officially (official launch on 28 Feb). These few days, you may have noticed Boon Lay ‘disappearing’ from signs and notices. What was once Boon Lay is now Joo Koon – the new end of the west line.

There will be a change in the ‘train habit’ of commuters. To secure a seat, the more ‘kiasu’ folks from Boon Lay will take the train to Pioneer or even Joo Koon, so that they will be sitting comfortably when the train returns to Boon Lay. Woe to the folks from Lakeside who used to play the same trick.

The following SMRT map, taken during Open House, is antique now. Boon Lay has made way for Joo Koon, which is destined to escape the attention showered on her more ‘happening’ cousins like Pasir Ris, Marina View, Punggol and HarbourFront.


(Edit: Part 2 of the series - about games, babes and goodie bag - is up)

Marina Bay Countdown 2009 .. How I Squeezed and got Squeezed

I'm not a sucker for crowded event, but last night I made my way to Marina Bay for Countdown 2009.

After an enjoyable steamboat session with my subordinate and ex-subordinates colleagues from the Mainland, we trooped to the Bay area.

We stopped for photo-shoot along the way. My Mainland subordinate colleague touched down less than a week ago, so he was trying to capture some night shots of our city. This was my attempt on Raffles Hotel.



As we turned left into Bras Basah Road from Beach Road, I could see pockets of people making their way to Suntec City. We saw the 'chopstick' across the junction. I'm not sure whether Mainlanders understand sook-ching, so I told him that is a memorial for massacre victims and I added - "like Nanking Massacre".

We took the CityLink to the Esplanade and the first sign of what was to come greeted me. The police closed the underground entrance to the building. So everybody was made to exit on the side of Esplanade Park, across the road from the Esplanade.

Since our main purpose was to enjoy the fireworks and not the crowd, we continued along Esplanade Drive to find a suitable spot. The whole Esplanade Bridge was infested abound with people.



The police had blocked access to the road before the bridge. There was no way to get to the Esplanade side and once you're on the bridge, there's no way to cross-over to the other side.

Esplanade Drive was closed from 8pm to 2am for the countdown event. I was on the bridge around 11pm.



The bridge was infested crowded all right, but looking back on what happened last night after the bridge, it wasn't too bad. At least we could still move.

Many people settled down on the bridge. They might had thought the bridge was the best location for the fireworks. Or they might had given up.



I thought the crowd situation at Merlion Park or One Fullerton would be better, given the countdown epicentre was at Marina Bay Floating platform.

Bleah, what a miscalculation.

The monster was after the Esplanade Bridge. Just before Esplanade Drive and Fullerton Drive converge, there's a pedestrian crossing. Two human streams - from Esplanade Bridge and The Fullerton Hotel - flowed, or tried to flow, into Marina Bay One Fullerton.

It was a terrifying sight and experience. The human stream became stagnant here. You couldn't advance or retreat. In the distance a policeman was gesticulating wildly for people to move back from One Fullerton.

Moments before crowd moment stopped completely, I was actually relishing the experience of squeezing people and getting squeezed. There was no violent shoving. In fact I do not remember any skin contact or anybody breathing on my neck. It helped that a girl was constantly in front - and not some burly male dripping with sweat.



When moment got frozen, I imagined having to countdown from this uncomfortable position in the middle of the road. Unforgettable, but no thanks. Luckily the gesticulating policeman was successful. The group in front was persuaded to return.

Amazingly, when they turned back, our moment resumed! We were on the One Fullerton side in no time. Those people were foreign nationals and I suppose you can find them at construction sites. I'm inclined to blame them for the inconvenience. Even my Mainlander subordinate colleague was surprised at their number in Singapore.

One Fullerton was another public viewing location for the fireworks and the whole area had been cordoned off by the police, who thought it unwise to allow more people into the area. Standing outside, I looked at the crowd behind the cordon and in the restaurants.

My eyes were green with envy.

**********

After the fireworks display, there was an exodus to the MRT station. I was like huh, why's everybody so pragmatic? There was no public celebration, nobody's dancing and before 12:10am, the exodus had began. The fireworks was 7 minutes long and everybody was there just for the fireworks.

Train service was extended into the wee-hours. At 12:20am, I was in Raffles Place Station together with other, ahem, revelers.



It was then I witnessed the true operational capability of our SMRT. You didn't know they can be that efficient until you witnessed the countdown for their train. Trains were practically queuing up to ferry the revelers home.

You feel cheated during normal peak hours, don't you?