Botanic Gardens MRT station

Botanic Gardens MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the Downtown line and Circle line in Tanglin, Singapore, located at the junction of Bukit Timah Road and Cluny Park Road.

Not to be confused with Gardens by the Bay MRT station.
 CC19  DT9 
Botanic Gardens
植物园
பூ மலை
Kebun Bunga
Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station
Exit A of Botanic Gardens, showing the greenery surrounding the station and the entrance to the Botanic Gardens.
Location100 Cluny Park Road
Singapore 257494 (CCL)
491 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 259777 (DTL)
Coordinates1°19′21″N 103°48′55″E
Operated bySMRT Trains Ltd (SMRT Corporation) (Circle line)
SBS Transit DTL Pte Ltd (ComfortDelGro Corporation) (Downtown line)
Line(s)
  Circle Line
  Downtown Line
Platforms4 (2 island platforms)
Tracks4
ConnectionsBus, Taxi
Construction
Structure typeUnderground
Platform levels2
Disabled accessYes
History
Opened8 October 2011 (2011-10-08) (Circle line)
27 December 2015 (2015-12-27) (Downtown line)
ElectrifiedYes
Previous namesAdam, Old University, Cluny Road[1][2]
Services
Preceding station   Mass Rapid Transit   Following station
towards Dhoby Ghaut
Circle Line
towards HarbourFront
towards Dhoby Ghaut
Circle Line
Future service
towards Bukit Panjang
Downtown Line
towards Expo
Location
Botanic Gardens
Botanic Gardens station in Singapore

The station is located at the northwestern corner of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, where it was named after. It is the nearest MRT station to the Bukit Timah campus of the National University of Singapore. As Bukit Brown MRT station is currently non-operational, the section of tracks between Botanic Gardens station and Caldecott MRT station is the longest between any two stations on the Circle line. Botanic Gardens station is the only currently operational MRT station in Singapore to have an official Malay name.

History

Prior to the opening of the station, it was named Adam. The contract for the construction and completion of Adam and Farrer stations (including 6.3 kilometres (250,000,000 mils) of twin bored tunnels was awarded to Taisei Corporation for approximately S$391 million in July 2004.[3]

Public consultation of the station began in January 2006 and only two names were selected - Botanic Gardens and Cluny Road. Botanic Gardens was eventually selected because this station also connects to the popular UNESCO World Heritage Site. Cluny Road was also selected because it was around the location of a former railway station "Cluny Road" that closed down in 1930s. On 12 September that year, the final name is renamed to Botanic Gardens due to it being a popular offered choice by those who polled.[1]

Construction of the Circle line station began on 10 March 2005. It had acquired some of the Botanic Gardens, but restored on 10 March 2010.

Downtown line
Botanic Gardens DTL Platform

Construction of the Downtown line station began on 12 February that year. On 11 March 2012, a worker was killed at a site near the Botanic Gardens, beside the contractor's site office after a concrete slab fell on him. 35-year-old Masud al-Mamun was operating an excavator deep in the ground when the slab fell on him. Rescuers had to use a breaking tool kit to break a portion of the concrete slab. It took nearly five hours to reach the man lying motionless on the ground. This is the first casualty related case in the construction of the Downtown line.[4]

On the morning of 3 May 2017, Downtown line (DTL) train services towards Chinatown were disrupted for 7 hours due to a platform screen door (PSD) malfunction at Botanic Gardens MRT. This, as stated by SBS Transit, the line's operator, was due to a signalling-related fault. This resulted in the doors being unable to open automatically, which meant that staff had to manually operate them whenever a train arrived at the station, which took some time and thus caused delays in train services.[5]

SBS Transit sent out an alert on Twitter at 7.31am about the fault, advising commuters to expect additional travelling time of up to 10 minutes. However, many commuters complained that the travel time was more than 10 minutes. The decision was eventually made at 9.37am to close the platform for trains heading towards Chinatown to enable engineers to resolve the fault. As a result, station staff were stationed at Botanic Gardens, Stevens and Tan Kah Kee stations to advise passengers on how to get to their destinations.[6]

The fault was eventually rectified at 12.54pm and the platform was reopened for passenger service. However, two doors (#5 and #6) were closed for more in-depth repairs that night.

Art in Transit

The artwork featured in the Circle line section under the Art in Transit programme is Aquatic Fauna No. 1 by Kai Lam and Chua Chye Teck. The mural, displayed above the platform doors, contains symbolic imageries of water and aquatic animals using the Chinese paper cutting technique.[7] The "fauna" mural not only highlights the station's proximity to the Botanic Gardens, but also complements the 2-storey high water-cascading wall in the station, the first to have such a feature within the station.[8]

The Downtown line section features the artwork "What is a Tree?" by Shirley Soh. Various vistas of the Tembusu on the front lawn of the Botanic Gardens are created to pose the ontological questions.[8]

  • Circle Line Platform Botanic Gardens

References
  1. "FINALISED NAMES FOR CIRCLE LINE (CCL) STAGES 4&5 STATIONS". www.lta.gov.sg. Archived from the original on 18 December 2006.
  2. "Station Names For Circle Line Stages 4 And 5". www.lta.gov.sg. 7 November 2005. Archived from the original on 23 Apr 2010.
  3. "Award Of Contract For Construction And Completion Of Adam And Farrer Stations". www.lta.gov.sg. 1 July 2004. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012.
  4. Lim, Paul (11 March 2012). "Bangladeshi worker killed after concrete slab falls on him". AsiaOne. Archived from the original on 19 April 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  5. "Platform doors at Botanic Gardens MRT station malfunction, causing 7-hour disruption". ChannelNewsAsia. 3 May 2017. Archived from the original on 3 May 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  6. Wen Li, Toh; Ng WY, Abigail; Chee Siong, Kua (3 May 2017). "Downtown Line service resumes after delay caused by faulty platform doors at Botanic Gardens". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  7. "Annex B: Summary of CCL Art-in-Transit Concepts" (PDF). Land Transport Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 October 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  8. Massot, Gilles (2020-04-07). "Getting Around - Public Transport - A Better Public Transport Experience - Art in Transit". LTA. Archived from the original on 2020-04-21. Retrieved 2020-04-21.
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