In 1999, Singapore's first Light Rail Transit (LRT) system is in operation at Bukit Panjang.

Built at a cost of $285 million, the eight kilometre-long line links Bukit Panjang New Town to Choa Chu Kang MRT station. And more LRT systems are being developed in the other towns.

By the end of 2002, the north-east MRT line should be in place, as would the 12 kilometre-long underground Marina LRT line, running from Kallang to People's Park, via Marina Centre and the new Downtown. The line will also be linked to Dhoby Ghaut.

By 2010 the Kallang Expressway will be extended to Marina East.

By Year X, a LRT will link Pasir Panjang with Keppel. The LRT systems will cost $300 million each, which is about a quarter the cost of an equivalent MRT line.

Manpower and operating costs will also be lower than the MRT system because the trains will be driver-less.

An LRT system takes half the time (about four years) of an MRT line to build. Fares will tentatively be no higher than for air-conditioned buses. Each carriage has a capacity of 105 people (trains will comprise two carriages during peak hours), stops will be an average of about six hundred metres apart and the routes will be approximately ten kilometres long.

This compares to the MRT system which, including the new northeast MRT line, is 103 kilometres long. The network is targeted to grow to at least 160 kilometres.

Work started on the MRT in 1987, and about 675,000 passenger trips are made on it daily. Each train has a capacity of 1800 people.

While MRT trains run on steel wheels and tracks, the LRT will run on rubber wheels and concrete tracks, for a quieter ride. It will therefore be able to travel nearer to, and even within, buildings.

The LRT systems will be used first as a neighbourhood feeder system to take people from their apartments to the major transport systems, second as short distance links between office complexes, shopping centres and recreation centres, and third as a link between New Towns.

Nearby buildings will be linked to the stops by covered walkways. At each stop, there will be displays showing arrival times, closed-circuit television, telephones and ticket vending machines Buona Vista, Bishan, Serangoon and Marine Parade will each be developed into 'sub-regional centres, which will be the equivalent of four 'Centrepoint' shopping centres. They will each serve as many as 270,000 people.

It is in Bishan that the government has implemented the first of several moves to make Singapore more bicycle-friendly.

Singapore's first bicycle-crossing signal allows cyclists to cross roads without being obliged to dismount first. It is part of a plan to smoothen rides along the Park Connector Network (PCN), which will eventually link the major parks (such as Jurong Hill Park) through 360 kilometres of tree-lined jogging and cycling tracks.

The tracks will have rain-shelters and fitness stations. By 1997, four stretches in Kallang and Ulu Pandan, totalling 11.8 kilometres, have been completed. Perhaps the best news about the PCN is that, because the tracks are built above existing drainage sewers, there is no opportunity cost in terms of additional land being taken up.

Yachting marinas are also planned for the south coast of the Bukit Merah area.

Reproduced with permission from the site formerly known as 'No Place Like Home', © Kenneth Y T Lim 1995-9