Rail Corridor: A Morning at Bukit Timah

Bukit Timah Railway Station is a small 1932 station building beside the old tracks, with light coming down through the trees around it. It's the prettiest stop on the Rail Corridor, a 24-kilometre greenway along the old KTM line, the railway that once ran trains from Tanjong Pagar up to Woodlands. Your first decision is how much of it you want. With an hour, walk a kilometre of it from the station. With a morning, rent a bike near the hill and ride a longer slice.

The corridor is a line rather than a loop, so whatever distance you walk out, you'll walk back, unless you leave by a side road. That shapes the day more than any map. This corner of the island is also where the line brushes the rainforest of Bukit Timah, so a good morning here mixes forest and railway, with a museum nearby for when the heat comes up.

The southern stretch from Henderson Road to Spooner Road is closed for trail works until the end of July 2027, so the full 24 kilometres won't go as one ride before then. The stretch from Jalan Kilang Barat to Henderson Road has reopened. Around Bukit Timah the line is open, and that's where we'd spend the morning.

Hindhede and the hill

Beauty World MRT (DT5) on the Downtown Line is 10 to 15 minutes on foot from Hindhede Drive, which leads to both the hill and the station. No MRT station opens onto the tracks themselves, so you'll walk the last stretch in. Pack water, and keep any food zipped away out of sight, because the macaques around Bukit Timah will take it.

Hindhede Nature Park is the quarry lake at the foot of Bukit Timah, an easier walk than the summit road and the place to be while the early light is still soft on the water. Its trails from the carpark are closed for development works until 31 December, so come in along the boardwalk from the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Visitor Centre instead.

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve covers 163 hectares of rainforest. It's an ASEAN Heritage Park and holds Singapore's highest natural point, 163 metres up. Entry is free and it's open 7am to 7pm. Pets aren't allowed. Groups of more than 30 need a permit, applied for a month ahead. NParks has demolition works at the summit until March 2028, so check its park notices before you count on standing at the top. Whatever you decide, be off the summit road by 7pm, when the reserve closes.

If the summit is still a worksite, Dairy Farm Nature Park is the gentler hill next door, with the Wallace Trail and Singapore Quarry. The park is open 7am to 7pm and the quarry 8am to 6.30pm daily. The Wallace Education Centre opens 8.30am to 5pm from Tuesday to Sunday and closes on Mondays. From the Bukit Timah or Dairy Farm trails, look up at the Eco-Link@BKE, the wildlife bridge over the expressway. People can't walk on it, but animals cross it, which is the whole idea.

Bukit Timah Railway Station

Back on the corridor, give the station a good 20 minutes. Walk around the building and look along the tracks in both directions under the trees. Then keep going. It makes a lovely photo, and a better one once you've walked in along the tracks.

The corridor is open 24 hours, which gives it a second good hour after the reserve and the parks around it close at 7pm. At dusk the old station building catches the last light, and it's worth coming back for if you spent the morning somewhere else.

Rifle Range Nature Park has an entrance off the corridor. It covers 66 hectares around the old Sin Seng Quarry, with the Colugo Deck standing 31 metres above it. The park is open 7am to 7pm and pets aren't allowed, so treat it as a daytime walk and save the evening for the tracks.

The Former Ford Factory

When the heat arrives, go indoors. The Former Ford Factory at 351 Upper Bukit Timah Road is where the British surrender of Singapore was signed on 15 February 1942, and it's rarely crowded. It's open Tuesday to Sunday, 9am to 5.30pm with last admission at 5pm, and closed on Mondays and the first day of Chinese New Year. A tourist adult ticket is S$7.13 and payment is cashless. Bring a layer for the air-conditioned galleries.

The museum is a three-minute walk from Exit 1 of Hume MRT, one stop from Beauty World on the same line, so use Hume for the museum and Beauty World for the hill. English guided tours usually run on Saturdays and Sundays at 11am and 3.30pm. We'd do the forest first and save the museum for when the trails get too hot.

Bukit Brown Cemetery sits off the same ridge, with old graves under the forest and macaques about. It's a cemetery before it's a walk, so go quietly. Go with a guide if you can, since the history on the headstones is easier to follow with someone who knows it.

Beyond the ridge

If you have the kilometres, Zhenghua Park sits further north along the corridor, a quiet, shaded strip of forest beside the expressway. Bukit Batok Nature Park, linked to Hillview by a park connector, has a quarry lake of its own. It covers 36 hectares and stays open 24 hours. Pets are welcome on a leash, and there's a paid carpark with 99 lots on Bukit Batok East Avenue 2. NParks has closed the Lorong Sesuai stretch for trail maintenance, which is also where the WWII plaque stands, so check the notice map before you count on the stairs up to it.

Little Guilin sits in Bukit Batok Town Park, a separate park around a flooded granite quarry, five minutes from Exit B of Bukit Gombak MRT. It's the bigger of the two at 42 hectares, and pets aren't allowed. The names are easy to mix up, so check which park your route reaches before you set off, especially if you're bringing a dog.

For more of the old island, Kampong Lorong Buangkok, the last kampong, or village, on the mainland, is a taxi ride from Serangoon, with zinc roofs, dirt paths and families still living there. Walk the lane quietly and keep your camera on the path rather than on people's homes.

A morning on the rails

Here's the morning we'd do. Get to Beauty World around 7.30am and walk up Hindhede Drive and take the boardwalk from the Visitor Centre to the quarry while it's still cool. Cross to the corridor and give the station its 20 minutes, then walk a stretch of the line until you feel like turning back. Once it's too hot for the trails, walk back to Beauty World and ride one stop to Hume for the Ford Factory, which beats hunting for a taxi near the tracks. Finish with a kopi, the local coffee made with condensed milk, at Beauty World on the way out.

The summit and MacRitchie, with its bridge through the canopy, each want a morning of their own. So do the orchids and lawn concerts of the Botanic Gardens, best started slowly at Tanglin Gate at 7am. If the ridge wins you over to the slow west, Holland Village makes a good evening. All you need on the line is water and a sense of when to turn back.