Buangkok MRT Station
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The interior of Buangkok MRT Station (NE15) |
Buangkok MRT Station (NE15) is an
underground station located on the
North East Line of the
Mass Rapid Transit in
Singapore. The station is in
Sengkang and near to
Hougang and serves residents in the vicinity.
It was supposed to be opened with the other of the 16 stations on the line in
2003. But a few days before the opening,
SBS Transit decided not to open the station as the area is relatively undeveloped and the company claimed that the number of passengers was too low to cover operating costs.
On
12 November 2005, Transport Minister
Yeo Cheow Tong announced that the station will open in mid January 2006[
1] to much approval from the public [
2], and on
29 December,
SBS Transit revealed the opening date to be
15 January 2006 [
3]. The station was well maintained like any other station throughout the time when it was not opened. To get ready for the station's opening, the programming had to be all updated to include Buangkok. Residents had said they would be willing to walk 400m to the station everyday.
The station opened with much fanfare on 15 January 2006. SBS Transit had expected around 3500 commuters using the station daily, which would be the lowest among all the NEL stations and result in the station making a loss.
Even so, ridership on this station was much lower than expected on its opening week. It had an average of only 1386 passenger trips per day, which was much worse than other NEL stations with low ridership. For example,
Clarke Quay MRT Station, the next lowest station in terms of ridership, had already more than 6000 commuter trips a day. However, Clarke Quay was located in the Central Business District with considerable development in the area.
SBS Transit has since said it is still too early to draw a conclusion on Buangkok Station's ridership and viability .
In
August 2005, during Minister
Vivian Balakrishnan's visit to Punggol South, a resident, displeased with Buangkok's disuse, erected a series of white paper cut-outs of elephants, which were drawn in a cartoon-like style, symbolically calling the unopened Buangkok station a '
white elephant'. Soon after, police started an
investigation on it as a case of a
public display without permit, on the grounds that a
complaint was received. It raised
controversy because many people saw it as a harmless, trivial case not worthy of investigation. It also highlighted the general displeasure over the non-operation of the MRT station after it was built with public funds. It also raised questions on how much
freedom of expression the government is willing to tolerate. A month later, police closed the investigation without pressing charges but issued a stern warning to the offender.
On the other hand, the cut-outs of white elephants were clearly in violation of the Public Entertainment and Meetings Act, for which the maximum penalty is a fine not exceeding $10,000. This led Deputy Prime Minister
Wong Kan Seng to explain to the media, "We cannot apply the law to some and turn a blind eye to others. If we do, then the law becomes the real white elephant."
On 13 January 2006, during a carnival celebrating the opening of the MRT Station, some 27 students from
Raffles Girls' School were preparing to sell T-shirts bearing "Save the White Elephants" to raise fund for a charity
Youth Guidance. This prompted a warning from the police that they needed a fund-raising permit and that "wearing of T-shirts en masse may be misconstrued by some as an offence under the Miscellaneous Offences (Public & Order & Nuisance) (Assemblies & Processions) Rules."
[ ]The girls said that they had always taken a strong interest in current affairs and Buangkok incident inspired them to start what they called "Project White Elephant" aiming to "galvanise the youth of today to rise up from the apathy they are stereotyped with and take an active role in airing their views". Punggol South grassroots leaders were impressed by their "entrepreneurial spirit and derring-do", and invited them to set up a stall at the opening ceremony of the station to sell the T-shirts.
On 21 January 2006, Deputy Prime Minister
Wong Kan Seng apologised for the way the police had overreacted to the group of school girls' plan to sell and wear white elephant T-shirts at the opening of Buangkok Station.
[ ]
