Bought a ticket at the Tanjong Pagar Railway station for a train ride to Kluang, Johor to experience the last rides from Tanjong Pagar Railway station before it closes on 1st July. A ticket there cost $16 SGD one-way.
Its May 31, and i reached there at 7.40 am and already was a crowd of people queuing either to try to get last minute tickets or is going through the Malaysian Immigration and Customs. This anomaly is something you will not see in the future, where the Malaysian Immigration is smack right in the middle of central Singapore !
At 8:05 am, whether you cleared Immigration & Customs or not, the Platform master blows his whistle and starts to rigorously wave his flag to indicate to passengers to get on board train 2 -Ekspress Rakyat (The People's Express).
It is a Tuesday morning and the start of the school holidays and probably that was one of the reasons for a good mixture of adults and youngsters. There was a family queuing behind me with their children. Onboard the train, there was several school children going for some excursion up north as well ! How wonderful.
By 8:10 am, with a couple of blows to its whistle, train no 2 is on the move ! The scenery was pretty boring until closer to Bukit Timah Railway Station, whereby we pass by Clementi Woods. I even saw a Caucasian jogger , running along a path in a wooded area as well as several black-and-white houses between the greenery.
I was very happy we stopped about 15 minutes to wait for a south-bound train to pass. Not just me of course ! A number of people, decided to use this opportunity to get down the train and take pictures as well.
With an authoritative blow of the station master whistle coupled by the train horn, its off again we go passing the fringe of Bukit Timah nature reserve before passing by roads which cars are temporarily inconvenienced by the passing of our train. The woody landscape eventually changes to grasslands and marshlands of Kranji. We have arrived at the Woodlands Immigration checkpoint. All passengers have to get down the train to clear the Singapore Immigration. Clearing it was a breeze and you could see signs that the new co-located Malaysian Immigration counters being set-up jointly in this building.
Before long, the landscape has changed and we are in the state of Johor passing through plantations. The land close to the tracks seem to be fully utilised and some of the crops i seen growing on the way to Kluang includes coffee trees with their ripen red seeds, dragon fruit trees, vegetables, guava and durians. The train stopped to pick up passengers in Kempas at 9:57 am and later Kulai. New passengers replaced the disembarking ones. A couple of swift hotels along the way caught my eye. This are easily recognised as buildings with no windows but pipe holes lining along the outer walls.
By 11.15 am, we arrived at Kluang. (45 minutes off the scheduled arrival time) .
To be continued.....
Previous post on Railway
Old Jurong Railway Track
Bukit Timah Railway Station
Singapore-Malaysia KTM Tanjong Pagar land swap
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| All ready to travel ! |
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| Morning pasengers waiting to clear Immigration |
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| Malaysian Immigration in Central Singapore ! A legacy of a past relationship |
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| 8:10 am and getting ready to board |
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| View of Tanjong Pagar departure platform from train |
It is a Tuesday morning and the start of the school holidays and probably that was one of the reasons for a good mixture of adults and youngsters. There was a family queuing behind me with their children. Onboard the train, there was several school children going for some excursion up north as well ! How wonderful.
By 8:10 am, with a couple of blows to its whistle, train no 2 is on the move ! The scenery was pretty boring until closer to Bukit Timah Railway Station, whereby we pass by Clementi Woods. I even saw a Caucasian jogger , running along a path in a wooded area as well as several black-and-white houses between the greenery.
I was very happy we stopped about 15 minutes to wait for a south-bound train to pass. Not just me of course ! A number of people, decided to use this opportunity to get down the train and take pictures as well.
 |
| Bukit Timah Railway station |
Before long, the landscape has changed and we are in the state of Johor passing through plantations. The land close to the tracks seem to be fully utilised and some of the crops i seen growing on the way to Kluang includes coffee trees with their ripen red seeds, dragon fruit trees, vegetables, guava and durians. The train stopped to pick up passengers in Kempas at 9:57 am and later Kulai. New passengers replaced the disembarking ones. A couple of swift hotels along the way caught my eye. This are easily recognised as buildings with no windows but pipe holes lining along the outer walls.
By 11.15 am, we arrived at Kluang. (45 minutes off the scheduled arrival time) .
To be continued.....
Previous post on Railway
Old Jurong Railway Track
Bukit Timah Railway Station
Singapore-Malaysia KTM Tanjong Pagar land swap
Most train horn car kits are mounted on the top of the cabin of the train. Most trains that use this train horn feature are those with sufficiently smaller locomotives as this is a sure spot
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