Rail Corridor

Twenty-four kilometres of former railway, and the good half is the unpaved one.

Go north. The Rail Corridor is 24 kilometres of former railway through the middle of the island, and the part worth your Saturday morning is the unpaved one around the old Bukit Timah Railway Station and its two 1932 truss bridges. The south is still a building site: the stretch between the Henderson Road and Spooner Road accesses is fully closed. Go early, wear shoes that can handle mud, and be out before dusk.

For most of the last century the strip carried KTM trains between Singapore and the Malay Peninsula, Woodlands down to Tanjong Pagar. A land swap returned it to Singapore, and from 2011 it became what NParks calls "a continuous open space through the heart of Singapore", for walkers, cyclists and the wildlife that uses it to move between bigger patches of forest. The Nature Society pitched it with New York's High Line in mind. What you get is rougher and greener than that, and better for it.

In the south, the trail is being rebuilt from the ground up, swapping the old granite base for a concrete foundation under a paved, porous surface. Phase 1, from Jalan Kilang Barat to Henderson Road, reopened in March 2026. Phase 2, between the Henderson Road and Spooner Road accesses, is closed to walkers, joggers and cyclists, with NParks citing both safety and the need to limit disturbance to “an important ecological corridor”. NParks expects it to reopen by 31 July 2027; check the official closure notice before you plan anything below Henderson Road.

The north is where the corridor still feels like a railway. The paths turn to grass and gravel, and the heritage pieces cluster around Bukit Timah Railway Station, now a community node. The Bukit Timah and Upper Bukit Timah truss bridges, both built in 1932, were conserved and reopened in 2020 and 2021. During the restoration every sleeper, clip and spike was put back exactly where it came from, which is the kind of fussiness a railway deserves. Botanic Gardens is the nearest MRT station for this stretch.

Plan the time, not the distance. The corridor is left dark at night on purpose, for nocturnal wildlife, with lights from 7am to 7pm only at certain access points and the station node, and NParks asks visitors to leave before dusk. A weekend morning gets you in ahead of the heat and the afternoon storms. Pick a section rather than a total, and choose your exit on the official access map before you choose your entrance; this is a linear walk, and the way back is the way you came unless you planned otherwise.

It suits a long walk with a friend, a family ramble with older children or a solo reset; it is less kind to a stroller on a wet day. More is on the way: a branch along the old Jurong line is due to open progressively from the end of 2026, and the former Tanjong Pagar station has been slated to reopen after Covid delays. Until then, the north is the corridor at its best, so let the trees set the pace.

Good to know Botanic Gardens MRT is the nearest station listed for the Bukit Timah stretch; use the official access map to plan both ends. The southern stretch between the Henderson Road and Spooner Road accesses is closed for trail works until around 31 July 2027; check the official closure notice and access map before you go, and leave before dark.

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Rail Corridor | Bukit Timah | Nearest MRT: Botanic Gardens