Half an expressway

A semi-expressway is being built in the northern part of Punggol town, north of Punggol Waterway, connecting Seletar North Link in the west to the road named Punggol East in the east.

Punggol town. The semi-expressway is marked pink. Base picture credit: Streetdirectory.com.

Compared to an expressway, a semi-expressway has lower speed limits. Examples include West Coast Highway and Nicoll Highway with speed limits of 70km/h.

Here’s a shot of Punggol’s semi-expressway under construction, taken from the West Loop of the Punggol LRT Line.

The semi-expressway lies on a slope overlooking Punggol Waterway, which had been excavated out of the natural landscape.

The number one lamp post

Tuas South Boulevard is the southernmost public road in Singapore Island, and now, its southernmost lamp post - named Tuas Lamp Post 1 on Google Maps - has become the ONLY lamp post in Singapore on which stickers are officially allowed to be pasted. Ha!

Tuas Lamp Post 1 at the southern end of Tuas South Boulevard, facing south. Beyond is the worksite of the future Tuas Megaport. This Google Maps view was taken in July 2019; the lamp post looked clean then.

Search for “Tuas Lamp Post 1” on the Internet and you will find images of cyclists posing in front of a lamp post adorned with stickers.

Located about 13km from the Tuas Checkpoint, this street light has in recent years become a popular spot for cyclists, who leave stickers as an indication that they have visited among the westernmost points of Singapore.

However, photos circulating on social media on Christmas last year showed workers removing dozens of stickers that had been plastered on the lamp post.

But in a Facebook post on Thursday (Jan 7), Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung announced that changes will be made. Calling it a “special lamp post”, Mr Ong noted that many people were sad to see the stickers go.

“Urban folklore has it that cyclists on round-island trips will make a pit stop there, where they will take photos with the lamp post, and leave their favourite stickers behind,” said Mr Ong.

“I have discussed with (the) Land Transport Authority, who in (turn) discussed with JTC. We decided to make an exception for this lamp post, given that it's a far out location and a special spot to help cyclists find their way,” he said.

“These are little exceptions to the rule, which do not cause disamenities or pose safety hazards to the public, to brighten up life in Singapore,” he added, noting he hoped to visit the lamp post himself one day.

Cycling advocate Francis Chu, 60, welcomed the minister’s announcement as an endorsement of one of the ways the cycling community here expressed itself.

“It is a nice gesture from the authorities that they are willing to listen and be flexible when the situation allows. The stickers collected on that remote lamp post can be seen as a piece of ‘community art’, co-created by the cyclists and evolving as time goes,” said the co-founder of enthusiast group LoveCyclingSG...

I guess one lamp post on which organic expressions are allowed - located in one of the most far-flung, remote corners of Singapore - is better than none!

Credit: Tao Qin, via Google Maps.

Credit: Tao Qin, via Google Maps.

I will probably have to rely on cyclists to upload photos of Tuas Lamp Post 1 on Google Maps. The landmark is 4km from the nearest bus stop along Tuas South Avenue 5, and more than 10km from the nearest MRT station, Tuas West Road.

Credit: Reno Kho, via Google Maps.

High speed derailed

Nearly eight years of plans and negotiations down the drain, or should I say, derailed - the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) is no more, for now.

This could have been the Jurong East terminus of the High Speed Rail. Credit: Farrells.

The grand plan for a 350km high speed rail line was first hatched in 2013. Both nations signed a legally binding bilateral agreement to build the line in 2016, with a target to have trains running by the end of 2026.

The rail line was to have eight stations - Kuala Lumpur, Sepang-Putrajaya, Seremban, Ayer Keroh, Muar, Batu Pahat, Iskandar Puteri, and Singapore, in Jurong East. Travelling from terminus to terminus would have taken just 90 minutes, compared with over four hours by car and five hours end to end by air.

Credit: The Business Times.

An artist's impression of the planned Iskandar Puteri station in Johor. Credit: Edelman.

However, things began to unravel in 2018, when Malaysia’s long-standing Barisan Nasional government was toppled by the opposition Pakatan Harapan in a federal election. Fresh at the helm, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad dropped the bombshell that Malaysia would drop the HSR, claiming that it would cost the country too much - RM110 billion (S$36 billion) - with few returns. Then, he backtracked, clarifying that the project was not cancelled, but temporarily shelved.

So, the HSR was put on hold, officially suspended until May 2020, with the operationally ready date pushed from 2026 to 2031. When May arrived, Malaysia asked for another extension of the suspension, to the end of the year. As the 31 December deadline loomed, Malaysia and Singapore tried negotiating changes to the agreement which the former had proposed. Both sides could not reach a consensus by the deadline, so the agreement was allowed to lapse.

The dealbreaker was Malaysia’s proposal to remove the HSR’s systems supplier and network operator, known as the Assets Company (AssetsCo).

Singapore’s Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung told Parliament: “Because neither country has the expertise and experience in operating the HSR, we agreed under the HSR bilateral agreement to appoint a best-in-class industry player through an open and transparent international tender to assume the role of the AssetsCo.

“Once appointed, the AssetsCo will supply the train system, operate the network, ensure that appropriate priority is given to cross-border HSR service vis-a-vis Malaysia’s domestic service, and be accountable to both Singapore and Malaysia.

“To Singapore, the AssetsCo is the centrepiece of the HSR project and is necessary to ensure that the interests of both Singapore and Malaysia are protected.

“This will minimise the possibility of future disagreements and disputes over the long duration of the project, lasting decades.

“Singapore, therefore, informed Malaysia that the removal of the AssetsCo constituted a fundamental departure from the HSR bilateral agreement, and could not be accepted.”

It is only logical that since both nations have no experience in running a HSR, the company running the HSR should be appointed through a transparent, international tender. Malaysia did not want this anymore, and it was right of Singapore to reject this.

Some in Singapore had harsh words for this revelation. Straight-talking, retired diplomat Bilahari Kausikan posted on Facebook: “To put the core of the matter bluntly: Malaysia did not want any check on its ability to cream off money.”

***

I had been looking forward to an HSR in my backyard - all I had to do was take the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) to Jurong East, and then hop on a ride all the way to Kuala Lumpur. In terms of distance, it’s roughly equivalent to travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto.

I know the Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) train system will still be around in Malaysia, but an HSR feels... different. It’s a world away.

The Japanese shinkansen. Credit: Workinjapan.today.

But that’s how transport history flows, doesn’t it. As the author of Jalan Singapura, I should know. Transport history is never a straight, continuous, linear progression from primitive to advanced. There are starts and stops, unexpected twists and turns. In 19th-century Singapore, it took three decades for railway plans to come to fruition, and when it finally opened in 1903, no one expected it to be removed 108 years later in 2011, upstaged by the MRT system.

The KTM.

Same for the HSR. When the exciting concept was unveiled in 2013, I never expected the Malaysian government to be replaced in 2018, or COVID-19 to strike in 2020, dealing body blows to the economies of both Malaysia and Singapore. Now, it’s all about austerity and closed borders, and flashy, high-speed cross-border travel seems to be the last thing on everyone’s mind.

It’ll be many years before both governments discuss an HSR again, let alone the signing of a deal and the commencement of construction of billion-dollar infrastructure. Will it ever happen in my lifetime? We’ll see. Stranger things have happened in transport history.