Three new Circle Line stations draw early morning crowds on opening day

SINGAPORE – Ten-year-old Leroy Lim woke up at about 4.40am on July 12, and his father drove them from their Changi home to hop on the very first train arriving at the newly opened Keppel MRT station.

The Primary 4 pupil at Mee Toh School said he was determined to get on the first train, which arrived at 6.14am.

His father Ben Lim, a 46-year-old civil servant, said he agreed to drive his son to Keppel if he finished all his homework the night before – a task that is usually difficult for the boy.

Leroy, a public transport enthusiast, kept his end of the bargain, his father said.

The father-son pair were among a trickle of early-morning commuters who wanted to get a feel of the new Circle Line MRT stations – Keppel, Cantonment and Prince Edward Road – that opened to the public at the crack of dawn.

The three stations close the loop of the Circle Line, marking the completion of a project more than 30 years in the making. The first stage of the Circle Line began operations in 2009.

Mother-and-son duo Kasper Greasley Breckenridge, 10, and Joan Greasley, 48, also turned up early at Keppel station, sporting matching black shirts featuring the MRT map, which they got at the public preview of the three new stations on July 4.

Kasper, a Tanglin Trust School pupil, said he woke up at 5am to catch the first train, so that he and his mother could take a ride covering the full loop of the now-complete Circle Line.

With the opening of the three stations, travel times for commuters will become shorter.

Marine industry consultant Kon Chee Kong, 74, boarded a train at Cantonment station at about 7.35am to go to the Botanic Gardens with his wife, his sister-in-law and his brother-in-law for his regular morning walk.

Before the station was launched, he would need to take a 15-minute walk to the bus stop and a 40-minute bus ride on service 174 from his home in Spottiswoode Park.

Today, it took him about five minutes to walk to Cantonment station, he said. The trip to Botanic Gardens station on the Circle Line will take about 35 minutes.

He added that Cantonment station will help him get easily and quickly to other scenic spots like Labrador Park and Marina Bay for his walks.

Administrative worker Dina Chan, 58, said the opening of Cantonment station will cut her travel time to VivoCity, where she goes for shopping jaunts.

In the past, she would walk for about 10 minutes from her home in Cantonment to Outram Park station and take the North East Line to HarbourFront station.

Now, it is a five-minute walk to Cantonment station, which connects to HarbourFront station on the Circle Line.

“Sometimes the waiting time for the buses can be quite long too. I prefer taking the MRT,” Chan said.

Singapore Institute of Management business undergraduate Loo Wei Yang, 20, who boarded a train at Prince Edward Road station at 6.27am, said it was a good idea for some of the new stations to feature old historical landmarks.

He said: “I used to take the KTM (Keretapi Tanah Melayu) rail from the old Tanjong Pagar railway station to Malaysia. Seeing the Circle Line trains run from here is special. It is history in the making.”

Cantonment station – located below ground where the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station sits – features a curved ceiling and 24 murals reminiscent of the railway station, along with a large analogue clock.

Tanjong Pagar Railway Station opened in 1932, and the last train run by Malaysian KTM left the station on June 30, 2011. Two months before that, the station was gazetted as a national monument, which means its form and facade must remain unchanged.

Keppel and Prince Edward Road stations also draw architectural inspiration from their past.

At Keppel station, passengers can admire sculptures of two endangered animals, a miniature version of a tunnel-boring machine used to excavate the ground for the CCL extension, and illustrations of Keppel’s past.

At Prince Edward Road station in Shenton Way, there is a passenger service centre modelled after a wooden ship’s hull, wave-like ceiling panels on the platform levels, and artwork with shimmering effects.

Muhammad Faizul, a station manager at Prince Edward Road station, said a team of 10 officers spent four months preparing for opening day.

“When I first came, there was totally nothing here. So, we had to prepare the paperwork and set up the station. We had to ensure the escalators and lifts were in working order,” he said.

Faizul was a station manager at Labrador Park station, but volunteered to transfer to Prince Edward Road station in March because he wanted to pick up new skills and help set up the new station.