There are a lot of YouTube videos and Instagram photos on the newly open Rail Corridor Central, or The Central part of the Rail Corridor. I will just post my own few photos of my visit to the Rail Corridor Central.
What is the Rail Corridor
The Rail Corridor is used to describe the former railway line that stretches 24km north to south of Singapore.
At the southern end, it starts with Keppel Road railway station which is the former railway station located at Keppel Road. This station was the southern most railway station of the network operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), the main railway operator in Malaysia. At the northern end, it crosses the Causeway into Johor and from there, to all parts of Malaysia. The land on the KTM railway tracks stood was originally owned by KTM and over which Malaysia had partial sovereignty.
On 30 June 2011, the Keppel Road station ceased operations with relocation of the KTM station to Woodlands Train Checkpoint. The rail service to and from Keppel Road was ended and the land reverted to Singapore.
The Singapore Govt decided to not develop the land around the original railway tracks but instead will be undergoing trail enhancement works throughout the 24km Rail Corridor. This will enable the public to enjoy the greenery around the land on which the tracks originally stood.
You can see the whole line here in this picture.
Rail Corridor Central
The Rail Corridor (Central) is a highly accessible stretch of the Rail Corridor, with one end at the Hillview MRT and the other end at King Albert park Downtown Line MRT stations.
Assuming you start at the Hillview Bridge, you can walk down the 3.5km route through several bridges to reach the Bukit Timah Railway station.
You can see the detail here in this picture.
Parking at Rail Corridor Central
As a person who usually drives to a place to start a hike, I will share two places where I parked.
If you are starting from Hillview area of the Rail Corridor Central (ie. the northern most point), you can park at the Rail Mall. In fact you can park really close to the first entry point of the Rail Corridor Central by parking at the right hand side of Rail Mall open air car park.
Here’s the parking area on the left side of this photo…. you can turn into the parking area just before this building.
From the picture above, you can also see the Singapore Quarry which I will visit one day.
And from the parking area you can already see the Hillview Bridge.
And you can see the entrance to the Rail Corridor Central easily from the parking area too.
If you are planning to walk from the King Albert Park part of the Rail Corridor Central, then you might want to park at the KAP mall and then take a short walk towards King Albert Park MRT but turn right into a small lane to reach the Bukit Timah Railway Station. From there, you turn north to go to the Rail Corridor Central. If you walk south, you are walking through the Tanjong Pagar Keppel station. Which I will do another day 🙂
Length of Rail Corridor Central
It showed me 3.41 km on my Runkeeper app.
Photos of the Rail Corridor Central
With that, I can share photos of the pretty nice walk from Hillview to King Albert Park direction.
Once you enter the Rail Corridor Central, the first bridge you will see on the right side is the Hillview Bridge. It is the last part of the Rail Corridor that is opened as at April 2021. You can see it is blocked at the end of the bridge.
With that, you start walking southwards. You can walk about 13km to the Tanjong Pagar but not for this article. Also, I was told that each time you see this sign, it is an entry point to the Rail Corridor Central. There are supposedly 8 different places to enter the Rail Corridor Central but this is point 1 at the Hillview area.
And oh, in case you are wondering, don’t expect to see railway tracks all the way. Most have been removed and the original area is now enhanced to provide a better walk.
Another entry point.
Along the way, you can see how close some condos are to the Rail Corridor and envy their enjoyment of the nature.
Half way you can reach the Hindhede Bridge.
And tracks are still here..
After this, a short walk and you can see the Bukit Timah Plaza area. This is where the Rifle Range Nature Reserve is.
And further down, you will reach Bukit Timah Road Truss Bridge.
And the new Mayfair Condo being built.
And then you reach the end of the Rail Corridor Central as you have reached the old Bukit Timah Railway Station. Refurbishment are on going to this area.
There are more tracks here than in the rest of the Rail Corridor Central 🙂
A rustic signboard
That’s it. You have walked the Rail Corridor Central !!
Getting back to your car
You can take a grab from the KAP mall back to the Rail mall.
You can take a bus from the bus stop just outside the Bukit Timah Railway area to Rail Mall.
Or you can take the MRT downtown line from King Albert Park station to Hillview station.
Other Articles on Walking
I have also started to write more on my walks around Singapore. Specifically about the Park Connectors which I really enjoyed. The first ones I have written are about Kallang Park Connector.
