Outram Park MRT Station

EW16  NE3  Outram Park MRT Station 欧南园地铁站 ஊட்ரம் பார்க் Stesen MRT Outram Park rapid transit
East West Line platforms
Station statistics
Address	10 Outram Road 300 Eu Tong Sen Street Singapore 169037/059816
Coordinates	1°16′49″N 103°50′22″E / 1.280225°N 103.839486°E / 1.280225; 103.839486
Lines	East West Line   North East Line
Connections	bus, taxi
Levels	3
Platforms	Island
Tracks	4
Other information
Opened	12 December 1987 (East West) 20 June 2003 (North East)
Accessible
Code	EW16 / NE3
Operator	SMRT Trains (SMRT Corporation) - East West Line SBS Transit (ComfortDelGro Corporation) - North East Line
Services
Preceding station   Mass Rapid Transit   Following station Tanjong Pagar towards Pasir Ris East West Line Tiong Bahru towards Joo Koon HarbourFront Terminus North East Line Chinatown towards Punggol
Location
Outram Park MRT Station

Outram Park MRT Station (EW16/NE3) is an interchange station of the North East Line and the East West Line in Singapore. It is located in the Central Area, Singapore's central business district. Before Tiong Bahru MRT Station was refurbished in 2006, it was the last MRT Station that had Chinese characters on its station livery on the East West Line (heading to Joo Koon).

Location

One of the more prominent areas it serves (in addition to the district of Outram) is Chinatown. Although the present Chinatown MRT Station is now closer to Chinatown, this station was the closest MRT station within the vicinity of Chinatown before the North East line was built. It is just beside Pearl's Hill Reservoir and Pearl Bank Apartments. Its location in the Central Area puts the station in proximity to a number of public buildings. These include the Singapore General Hospital as well as multitude of public health buildings under Singapore Health Services (SingHealth), including the Singapore National Eye Centre, the National Heart Centre and the National Dental Centre. It also within walking distance to the Central Narcotics Bureau and the Police Cantonment Complex.

History

A plaque relating the history of the Outram Park prison can be found outside of the station. The prison no longer exists as residential blocks (HDB) have been built where the prison once stood.

In the initial stages of planning for the North East Line in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, this was initially planned to be the southern terminus of the line. But in 1993, the LTA decided to extend the NEL to HarbourFront Station (then called World Trade Centre Station), after noting that many people liked to go to the World Trade Centre (the present day HarbourFront Centre).

Train disruptions

This station was the centerpiece of train disruptions over the century.

On 24 July 2006 at 12.45pm, a southbound train heading towards HarbourFront was stalled 200 metres in the tunnel after it had left the station. There was no power for the train to move since a wire which provided traction power had come loose. People inside the train were evacuated. Shuttle bus services were provided to commuters between Clarke Quay and HarbourFront. Meanwhile, Dhoby Ghaut temporarily become the southwestern terminus. Services between Dhoby Ghaut and Punggol were not greatly affected, being delayed only by a few minutes. Fifty goodwill ambassadors were spread among the four affected station to guide commuters to bus stops for the free shuttle bus services instead of the closed down stations. During the evening peak hours, buses had to arrive every 2 – 3 minutes. This was one of the largest breakdowns in transit, after a train broke down previously in 1993 in Clementi MRT Station.^[1][2] Train services were resumed the following morning.^[3]

The LTA said on 23 April 2007 that the wire, which supplied electricity to the trains, had come loose because the dewirement was due to the poor quality of a piece of equipment called a porcelain insulator. These findings have been verified by an independent assessor.

Since then, SBS Transit has tightened its maintenance regime of the insulators and will continue with its inspections of the insulators on a two-monthly basis. The French supplier has also checked and certified that all its existing insulators are free of defects. LTA said the disruption was a one-off situation and that no action will be taken against the operator.

On 13 February 2008 at about 6.34 pm, trains were briefly delayed from Outram Park to HarbourFront MRT Stations because of power trips. Trains were briefly delayed to check the rail line.^[4]

In a separate incident on 1 July 2009 at about 6.50 pm, eastbound trains between this station and City Hall were disrupted for 25 minutes when a train stalled due to a fault while at the station. The stations were told to alight and the following train was used to haul the stalled train back to the depot. 11000 people were affected by the disruption.^[5]

On 20 December 2011, train service on the North-East Line (NEL) between Outram Park and HarbourFront Stations were delayed from 7.45 am to 8.05 am due to a signalling fault. Operator SBS Transit said two trains stopped in the tunnel during that time as engineers worked to re-set the system. ^[6]

On 15 March 2012, North East Line train services between Dhoby Ghaut and HarbourFront stations is unavailable due to a power supply problem in the tunnel at Outram Park Station. During a regular nightly maintenance scheduled at 5 am, SBS Transit discovered that one of the connecting cables of the overhead power supply located south of Outram Park station had snapped. SBS Transit commenced repair work immediately, but as extensive work had to be done, normal service operations at the five stations between Dhoby Ghaut and HarbourFront had to be disrupted from opening hours at 6 am. SBS Transit resumed full services at 4.35 pm. 90000 people were affected by the disruption. It is one of the worst and longest disruptions in Singapore similar to the train disruptions along the North South Line on 15 and 17 December 2011.^[7]

Bomb hoaxes

2007 bomb hoax: A false bomb threat call was made in 17 August 2007 at 11.16 pm from a public phone located at the concourse of the MRT Station and the police arrested two suspects on 24 August 2007 when a 13-year old boy was turned in by the police while his 15-year old friend was arrested not long after.^[7] Upon consultation, the younger of the two was let off with a warning while the older of the two was charged in a Juvenile Court.

2008 bomb hoax: On 29 July 2008, a man made a phone call to the police about a false bomb threat at 1.07 pm at the concourse area of the station. The man is believed to be in his 40s and is of fair complexion. He was wearing a blue and white polo T-shirt, beige Bermudas and black slippers. He was seen leaving the MRT station with two plastic bags - one red and the other white.^[8]

Police shooting incident

Platform of the North East Line Outram Park station.

The North East Line sector of the station was the site of a rare police shooting incident, in which a 43-year-old Lim Bock Song, who had earlier fatally stabbed odd-job worker Tan Ah Chang at a coffeeshop at Jalan Kukoh, was shot by a police officer after threatening the officer with the knife on 6 March 2008 at 3:35 pm. Four platform screen doors in the centre in the direction of HarbourFront were affected due to the police cordon which lasted two hours and passengers had to use other doors to board and alight. However, train services were unaffected.^[9]

A coroner's inquiry conducted for the shooting of Lim Bock Song ruled on 12 January 2010 that the shooting was a case of justifiable homicide. The man was shot after charging at police officer Azli Othman with a knife. District Judge Yeo ruled the shooting was without any criminal intent.^[10]

Station Layout

Outram Park station is built directly underneath the convergence of three roads: Eu Tong Sen Street, Cantonment Road and Outram Road. The station has four basements and is not a cross platform interchange so commuters have to transfer from one platform to another via an underpass, since the North East Line was not built until much later.

This station features artwork from two different artists. The first, The Commuters by Teo Eng Seng, can be found at the linkway between the East West Line platform and the North East Line platforms. The second, Memories by Wang Lu Sheng, are placed at the entrances leading to the North East Line part of the station.

Exits

Although there is an underground connection between the paid areas of the East-West Line and the North-East Line parts of the station, there is no connection between their unpaid areas. Therefore, a passenger exiting from an East-West Line train going to a North-East Line exit should use the paid area connection to go to the North-East Line concourse and exit the fare gates there. Alternatively, the passenger can exit from the East-West Line exit and walk to his desired destination, crossing the traffic junction where necessary.

• East-West Line:

These East West Line had their main atria, Exit A is via the overhead bridge whereas Exit B is the one that come out from the MRT station.

• North-East Line
  • E - Pearl's Center
  • F - Singapore General Hospital, Health Science Authority (HSA)
  • G - Police Cantonment Complex (PCC) (Central Police Division Headquarters, Bukit Merah East Neighbourhood Police Centre, Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Commercial Affairs Department (CAD)), The Pinnacle@Duxton
  • H - Tai Sun Building

Transport Connections

Rail

On the North East Line, Outram Park is between the Chinatown and the HarbourFront stations. On the East West Line, it is located between the Tanjong Pagar and Tiong Bahru stations. On lunch time hours from 12pm to 2pm on weekdays except public holidays, there would be Lunchtime Xpress train services on the East West Line that start from this station and end at Aljunied MRT Station. Trains utilise a siding in between this station and Tiong Bahru station to make the reverse journey back to Aljunied. This service started on 20 May 2008.^[11]

Gallery

• 

  Entrance to Outram Park MRT Station at New Bridge Road.

• 

  Underpass link between the East-West and North-East line.

Notes