The new MPs for Buangkok?

Buangkokreans! Now you know who could help you. White elephants to be Buangkok MPs!

Buangkok MRT station may open in January

By Goh Chin Lian
Nov 11, 2005
The Straits Times

TWO years of lobbying by grassroots leaders in Punggol South may finally have paid off, with plans underway to open Buangkok MRT station in January.

The Straits Times understands that Transport Minister Yeo Cheow Tong could reveal the details officially tomorrow.

The station would have opened only in 2008, based on the Land Transport Authority's previous guideline that there must be 2,000 to 3,000 housing units within 400m of a station to justify opening it.

But Mr Yeo indicated in August that the guideline was not set in stone.

He said the 400m radius could be extended to 500m and the station could open as long as there were close to 2,000 units within that larger area.

Based on figures from Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council, there are already about 2,300 units within 500m of the station.

Asked to comment on the plans to open the station, the authorities, plus transport operator SBS Transit and even the usually vocal Pasir-Punggol GRC MP Charles Chong were keeping quiet.

But sources told The Straits Times the go-ahead has been given.

Before the station can open, operational trials have to be conducted, including ensuring that the trains stop properly at the station. When The Straits Times visited the station earlier this week, maintenance staff were working inside and the ticketing machines were switched on.

The opening of the station should bring an end to a two-year saga that started in June 2003, when SBS announced, four days before opening the $4.6 billion North-east Line, that Buangkok station would stay closed.

Many residents in the area felt cheated, particularly those who had bought a home in the belief that the station would open. Instead they have to walk, cycle or take a feeder bus to Hougang or Sengkang stations if they want to use the MRT.

Mr Chong and his grassroots leaders lobbied SBS to change its mind, producing polls which showed people were willing to walk more than 400m to the station, but SBS rejected the findings.

Several ministers spoke publicly on the issue and held out the promise that the station would open once more people moved in.

Unconvinced, someone placed eight cut-outs of white elephants on a road divider outside the station before a minister's visit in August, sparking a public debate about protesting and political expression, and ending with the culprit receiving a stern warning from the police.

So is the planned opening of the station a sweetener for the upcoming general election?

Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport, Mr Ong Kian Min, did not think so.

'It's coincidental,' he said. 'There's been a lot of pressure for them to open Buangkok station. The pressure has been piling up. It's good for them to review and make a decision.'