Enjoy a bike ride through Singapore on The Singapore Rail Corridor. Photo / Tamara Hinson
This is how botanists, historians and naturalists joined forces to turn a stretch of a disused Singapore-Malaysia railway into the world’s coolest bike lane, writes Tamara Hinson
2023 marks 120 years since the opening of the Singapore-Kranji railway, a feat of engineering which provided a vital artery for trains carrying goods from Singapore to Malaysia. By the 1990s certain sections had closed, and the final train journey took place in 2011. But while the sleepers and steam engines might be long gone, a brilliantly innovative bicycle and hiking route remains. The Rail Corridor is a revitalised bike path in Singapore, stretching from Spooner Rd to the Kranji MRT station in the north of the country. Spooner Rd is just a 15-minute pedal from downtown Singapore and makes an easy starting point, or you can take the MRT to Outram Park and hop on one of the Hello Ride bikes – armchair-like bicycles which can be unlocked through an app. The route pays homage to its former historic railway while turning the areas it passes through into a paradise for Singapore’s wildlife.
About 24 hours after I watched Carlos Sainz bag first place in an F1 race that saw Max Verstappen forced to take evasive action after a monitor lizard decided to take a leisurely stroll across Singapore’s legendary street circuit, I have my own near miss, albeit on Singapore’s most spectacular bicycle route, rather than an F1 circuit. But the reason for my near miss is the same – a huge monitor lizard which explodes out of the undergrowth before scrambling across the Rail Corridor.
Luckily for the lizard, this 24-kilometre hiking and cycling path is lined with thick tracts of greenery. The foliage doubles as the perfect home for creatures such as the straw-headed bulbul – a bird species which is in decline in almost every other country apart from Singapore - and some of the world’s rarest mammals. The Sunda pangolin, a critically endangered creature which has the unfortunate accolade of being the world’s most trafficked creature, has also been spotted here.
The team behind the Rail Corridor didn’t simply rewild the route by planting a few trees when they decided to transform the former railway into a cycling and hiking path. They lined it with thick clusters of native plants – ones which thrived here during the railway’s heyday. I spot huge clouds of bright yellow hibiscus – chosen because of their popularity here in the early 20th century – and fragrant white jasmine, a flower with a fabulously rich scent which once perfumed large parts of Singapore and Malaysia. In total, over 52,000 shrubs and trees were planted during the restoration project. On certain sections of the route, the greenery has been left untamed. At several points I cycle beneath weathered road bridges built during the railway’s heyday, many of which have triffid-like tendrils of greenery hanging from the sides, bringing to mind sci-fi movies about sprawling metropolises reclaimed by nature.
There are endless beautifully preserved reminders that the railway was a spectacular feat of engineering. Take the Bukit Timah Railway Station, built in 1932 and restored and reopened in 2022. In the mid-1900s, humans weren’t the only passengers disembarking here – Bukit Timah’s proximity to the nearby Turf Club meant it was an offloading point for racehorses. Much of the station’s original structure remained, but many of the rust-red roof tiles needed replacing. Builders went out of their way to source tiles of exactly the same colour and shape as the originals, using old photographs as reference points. Today, original features on display in the restored building include the track-switching levers and the tiny ticket hatch.
Nearby, I find the former Railway Staff Quarters, another restoration project that has turned this former accommodation unit into an antique-stuffed visitor centre and cafe. But reminders of the route’s history line the entire route. Accessibility was always a key focus (although at night time the route is unlit in order to let the wildlife roam undisturbed), and the Rail Corridor is easily broken down into smaller sections. Locations where cyclists or hikers can join or leave the route are clearly marked with railway crossing signs modelled on the original signage, and at various points the original wooden sleepers have been set into the concrete. There are numerous sections where the path splits in two, separating to frame sections of the original railway tracks, and many of the original rail bridges remain. When certain original steel truss bridges needed to be restored, great care was taken to ensure the refurbished structures resembled the originals as closely as possible, and if certain components – such as sleepers or railway clips – needed to be removed as part of the process, laser scanning technology was used to map their original location and ensure they were returned to the exact spot.
The route is fantastically diverse. Part of the Rail Corridor’s success as a wildlife haven is down to the way it allows wildlife to move between Singapore’s green spaces. It passes various nature reserves – including the 163-hectare Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, one of several areas of primary rainforest in Singapore - and skirts the Rifle Range Nature Park, a popular hangout for long-tailed macaques and Sunda colugos. It also passes Singapore Botanic Gardens, another hotspot for winged wonders. “Earlier this year, a great slaty woodpecker (Mulleripicus pulverulentus), one of the largest woodpecker species in the world, was sighted at the Singapore Botanic Gardens,” Amanda Ng, senior conservation manager at National Parks Board of Singapore, tells me later. “It had last been seen in Singapore in 2018, and had only been spotted twice before that, in 1899 and 1904. Its appearance at the Gardens caused quite a stir, and a groom who was getting married there and was a passionate birder left his wedding ceremony temporarily to get a shot of it!” Other species to keep an eye out for include changeable hawk eagles (Nisaetus cirrhatus) and Long-tailed parakeets.
There’s no need to go hungry – even if you’re cycling the entire route. While certain sections are fabulously wild, others pass through various neighbourhoods, and popular stop-offs for cyclists and hikers include Bukit Merah Lane’s Alexandra Village Food Centre, where you’ll find dozens of fantastic street food stalls - try the xiao long bao at the Xiao Ji Noodle House, washed down with a glass of Chinese red tea at Danger Close Beverage Co. The best bit? Its close proximity to the Rail Corridor means you’ll offset any over-indulgences in no time.
For me, the Rail Corridor isn’t just a great spot for pedal power. It’s a route that honours the history of the railway, and while you can no longer get from Singapore to Malaysia via the same track (you will need to get the MRT to a station near the border, then walk across the border into Johor Bahru), the experience provides a fantastic insight into the diversity of Singapore – not just the landscapes, but its wildlife, too.
Most of all, the Rail Corridor is a brilliant reminder of the innovation that has transformed Singapore into one of the world’s top destinations for cyclists. This is, after all, one of the places I feel safest in the saddle. There’s little congestion, due not only to the fact that Singapore is one of the most expensive places to own a car, but because of its slick, cheap MRT system. A special shout-out should go to its bus drivers, who typically give a polite double toot to alert cyclists to their presence.
The country’s bike lane network is vast, smooth and well-maintained, and a growing number of hotels are offering guests complimentary bike hire. My favourite hotel at which to saddle up will always be the Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen, which has a fleet of armchair-like Bamboo Bicycles (yes, they really are made mostly from bamboo). Hop on a bike here and you’ll have easy access to the bike paths looping around Marina Bay, although I’ve also cycled from this slick hotel, in the heart of downtown Singapore, to the start of routes such as the Rail Corridor. Just keep an eye out for those pesky pangolins….
For more things to do in Singapore, see visitsingapore.com/en
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