Singapore HeritageFest 2023: A Brief History of Transport Networks in Singapore’s Urban Landscape

On the evening of Friday 12 May, as part of this year’s Singapore HeritageFest, I gave a talk on 200 years of Singapore transport and urban history.

Like previous talks, it drew on material from my book Jalan Singapura: 700 Years of Movement in Singapore. This time, however, I included findings from ongoing research for my next book.

I also introduced audience engagement, inviting them to answer two questions on their mobile phones:

1. What is one enduring memory you have of Singapore land transport, which no longer exists?

Some answers:

- Riding Bendy Buses in eastern Singapore

The Bendy Bus used to run in Tampines as part of Bus Service 67. Credit: Shankar S.

- The “ding dong” speed limit warning in the old Crown / Cedric taxis

- The train from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands and beyond

Photo credit: EquatorialSky2.

- The first railway track! In one of the walking tours, I was brought to this underpass near the pinnacle hdb, I was told this was part of the first railway track. That was what led me to do my own reading up on it, and Eisen’s book shed useful insight in this area

- The old non-air-conditioned SBS buses with the sliding windows. If you didn’t close them on time or couldn’t close them when it rained, the rain will fall and collect on the tracks of the sliding windows and dribble onto the seat and onto the floor which I remember was the industrial aluminium flooring with the anti-slip pattern

2. What is your biggest wish for Singapore transport / urban development?

Some answers:

- Can eat (on public transport)

- To not further disrupt the nature for more roads and mrt networks

- 24 hour public transport

- magnetic levitation

- Bike path connecting each district

- More diverse rail transit modes like bringing back trams, use of monorails beyond Sentosa, etc…

- A wider variety of bus models please

- Abolishment of “Jaywalking” for more pedestrian friendly streets

- ...I would love to see a museum of transport in Singapore with life size vintage vehicles

I wish Tanjong Pagar Railway Station was converted into Singapore's very own museum of transport. Credit: Alicereneztay.

Hear, hear!

Urban renewal in Shenton Way and Tanjong Pagar

Urban renewal is taking place in Shenton Way and Tanjong Pagar, so I headed to the city to check out the buildings being torn down or constructed. 

The iconic AXA Tower at 8 Shenton Way was completed in 1986, which makes it younger than me (!), but has been doomed to redevelopment.

At the junction of Shenton Way and Prince Edward Road.

Looking up at the junction of Shenton Way and Straits Boulevard.

The 52-storey skyscraper once housed the offices of the Ministry of Finance as The Treasury. 

It will make way for Skywaters Residences, a private residential complex which will become Singapore’s tallest building, at 63 storeys and 1,000 feet in height, when it is completed in 2028.

Tanjong Pagar is a short walk away from Shenton Way. In the area between Cantonment Road in the west and Anson Road in the east, there are no fewer than five construction sites. The air hangs heavy with clouds of dust and the cacophony of drilling and pounding. My heart goes out to the residents of nearby Tanjong Pagar Plaza, who will have to endure this for years, with little to no benefit to them.

Below is a map of the five construction sites, coloured blue.

Base map credit: Singapore Land Authority.

1. Keppel Towers at 10 Hoe Chiang Road, a 27-storey building launched in 1991, and Keppel Towers 2 at 240 Tanjong Pagar Road, formerly known as GE Tower, a 13-storey building completed in 1993, have been torn down for Keppel South Central, a 33-storey, energy-efficient commercial tower with a community plaza. Keppel South Central should be ready late next year.

A Straits Times report on the launch of Keppel Towers in August 1991. Credit: SPH Media Trust.

2. Tower Fifteen at 15 Hoe Chiang Road, formerly known as Euro-Asia Centre, at 29 storeys, has been demolished. Fragrance Group had applied to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) for change of use for the site to full hotel usage, so a new hotel should rise on the spot. 

Tower Fifteen, sometime before 2003. Credit: Robert J Steiner.

3. Up to the 1980s, Bernam Street was nearly perpendicular to Anson Road. Between 1984 and 1986, it was realigned to run straight onto Lim Teck Kim Road. The realignment created an open field which laid fallow for more than three decades until recently, when work started on One Bernam, named after its address, 1 Bernam Street, a 34-storey luxury condominium tower to be completed by 2026.

Bernam Street in the 1984 street directory.

A realigned Bernam Street in the 1988 street directory.

4. Realty Centre, an 11-storey building at 15 Enggor Street first advertised in The Straits Times in 1970, was sold in 2019, and demolished after 2021. Its buyer The Place Holdings has obtained provisional permission from URA for a 37-storey mixed-use complex with a two-storey commercial podium and a 33-storey residential tower.

Realty Centre in July 2021.

5. Fuji Xerox Towers at 80 Anson Road, formerly known as IBM Towers, a 38-storey tower completed in 1987, is being demolished for Newport Plaza, a 47-storey mixed-use complex to be ready by 2027.

A Straits Times advertisement for IBM Towers as it neared completion in June 1986. Credit: SPH Media Trust.

Fuji Xerox Towers in July 2021.

The best view of the Tanjong Pagar construction sites is from the top floor of Block 1 Tanjong Pagar Plaza, as the common corridors open up to the south.

This is the southwest view of the sites for Keppel South Central and 15 Hoe Chiang Road.

This is the southeast view of the sites for One Bernam and 15 Enggor Street, and towering above them, Fuji Xerox Towers being torn down. The foreground will gradually rise while the background will slowly disappear.

I will be back in a year’s time.

The Cross Island Line on a hill

Work has started on the Cross Island Line, Singapore’s eighth Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line which will roll out from 2030. 

This is the construction site for the Cross Island Line section of Ang Mo Kio Station, which will become an interchange with the North South Line. The view is from the 12th and top storey of Block 424 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3. Its residents will have to endure the noise and dust from the works for the next eight years in exchange for an MRT interchange at their doorstep. 

A good part of Ang Mo Kio Town Garden East is being stripped away, and I hope it will be well restored when construction draws to a close. The garden, which sits on a hill, is reminiscent of the natural hills of Ang Mo Kio before the rural region was developed into a New Town in the 1970s. 

I will be coming back here multiple times over the next few years to check on the progress of the construction.