Growing up in Ang Mo Kio: Here comes the MRT!

Photo credits: National Archives of Singapore, http://www.a2o.com.sg

MRT STATION AT ANG MO KIO
PhotoCD Number : 19990001354
Image Number : 0116

In 1987, as a resident of Ang Mo Kio, I was introduced to a totally new way of travelling about from one place to another. This was the year when the Mass Rapid Transit system became accessible to the people in Singapore. One of the first few stations that went into operation was the Ang Mo Kio MRT station.

I was a fairly young child back then, but I can still remember vaguely that my mother purchased the MRT Commemorative Tickets for the family to travel on the MRT on the first day of the operation of the train service. It was an exciting experience having to travel on the MRT, furthermore on the first day of its operation.

As each of the Commemorative tickets were meant for one round trip, my family would alight from the train at each station from Yio Chu Kang to Toa Payoh, but without going out of the stations through the fare-gates. This was so that we could see how different each station looked.

The Primary School that I studied in was located pretty nearby part of the MRT train tracks. Perhaps the MRT train was such a new mode of transport for me and my classmates back then in 1987, when the MRT system first started its operation, my classmates and I would have the tendencies to look out of the classroom windows to take a peep whenever we hear a MRT train passing by. Our teachers would have to remind us to pay attention in class. Soon after, the sense of novelty wore off.

The commemorative ticket issued in year 1987 for travel on the first day of operation of the SMRT train system. Thanks to my dear mother who has actually kept this ticket for twenty years!

MRT train approaching Ang Mo Kio MRT station. Taken in 2007.

Today, the SMRT train system has become my main mode of transport. Perhaps this is so because there is a MRT station right in Ang Mo Kio, very accessible from where I have been living for the past two decades and more.

What was it like for you when the MRT first started its operation in the year 1987? If you have a personal story to share on Yesterday.sg, do check this page to find out how you could do so.



First posted on Yesterday.sg