Buangkok MRT station

Buangkok MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station on the North East Line (NEL) in Singapore. Located underneath Sengkang Central, near the junction with Compassvale Bow, the station serves the residential town of Buangkok. The station will also serve a future bus interchange and Sengkang Grand Residencies – an upcoming integrated development. The station is operated by SBS Transit.

First announced in March 1996 and beginning construction in April 1997, Buangkok station was one of two stations on the NEL to remain closed when the line began operations on 20 June 2003. After intense lobbying by grassroots leaders and residents, including a white elephant protest incident in 2005, the station opened on 15 January 2006. Buangkok station is a designated Civil Defence shelter. The two entrances of the station are enveloped by white Teflon sheets. An Art-in-Transit artwork by Vincent Leow, Water, Nature & Contemporary, is displayed at this station.

Construction
The North East Line (NEL) project, which was first proposed in 1984, received government approval in January 1996. Buangkok station was among the sixteen NEL stations announced by communications minister Mah Bow Tan that March.

The contract for the construction of Sengkang and Buangkok stations was awarded to a joint venture between Sato Kogyo and Hock Lian Seng Engineering on 26 April 1997. The S$166.4 million (US$ million) contract included the construction of 1.6 km connecting tunnels between the stations and 1.2 km reception tunnels to Sengkang Depot.

The station was constructed in a forested area proposed for redevelopment into a new town. After the forest was cleared and the vacated warehouses demolished, the station was constructed using the "open-cut" and "bottom-up" methods. The site was excavated to a depth of up to 20 m, and work on the station then proceeded from the bottom up. Following the station's construction, roads were built to connect the station with existing roads.

Delay in opening
Just days before the opening of the NEL, operator SBS Transit announced on 17 June 2003 that two stations on the line – Woodleigh and Buangkok – would not open along with the other stations. This was because of the lack of development in their respective areas. At the time, housing demand declined due to the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and the economic downturn following the September 11 attacks. Consequently, the Housing and Development Board cut back on its development plans in the Singapore northeast area. The operator said keeping the stations closed would reduce operating costs by S$2–3 million. They said the station would need a daily ridership of 5,000 for the station to be "commercially viable" and apologised for the "late notice", saying the decision to keep the stations close was only made in May when the NEL fare structure was approved. SBS Transit said the station's closure was not an "easy decision" and that they had deliberated on the matter for months.

Residents around the station were upset by the sudden decision to keep Buangkok station closed, as grassroots leaders had previously assured them that the station would be opened. A Member of Parliament (MP) for Pasir Ris–Punggol, Charles Chong, echoed the residents' sentiments. A poll of residents living within 700 m of the station showed that they were willing to walk the long distance to the station, contrary to SBS Transit's justification that very few commuters would be willing to walk at least 400 m to a station. Residents polled also said it would be more convenient for them to use Buangkok station than the adjacent stations of Sengkang and Hougang. However, SBS Transit said the poll, launched by Chong and conducted with academics from the National University of Singapore (NUS), was flawed and did not take into account the frequency of commuters' usage.

The government acknowledged SBS Transit had made mistakes in delaying the announcement of the station's closure but stood by the operator's decision and rationale due to low passenger demand in the area. At the official opening ceremony of the NEL on 28 August 2003, deputy prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said Buangkok station would open in 2006 after more residential flats were built in the area. In the meantime, the government provided more feeder bus services for residents in the area. In response to residents' plans to gift a white elephant statue to the operator, Lee quipped that Buangkok station would be a "bigger white elephant" if the station were to serve no passengers after its opening.

White elephant incidents and station opening
To address SBS Transit's doubts about whether commuters would be willing to make daily trips to a station 400 m away, Chong and other grassroots leaders launched another survey on 27 July 2005. The survey interviewed 495 residents near Punggol station, finding that 65% of the respondents who lived within 400 m from the station walked there seven times a week. SBS Transit was unconvinced by the polls, saying there needed to be enough people who were willing to walk the long distance to Buangkok station. Transport Minister Yeo Cheow Tong said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) would reevaluate the distance criteria and expand the catchment radius from 400 m to 500 m, as there were about 2,300 homes within 500 m of Buangkok station.

Youth minister Vivian Balakrishnan visited Punggol South on 28 August; during his visit, eight white cardboard elephants were erected along the road towards Buangkok station. This prompted the minister to visit the closed station. In a dialogue session with the residents, he assured them that the station's opening would be a "matter of time" following the construction of the 2,000 residential units. Dissatisfaction with the station's continued closure had increased after the announcement of transport fare hikes. After the minister's visit, the elephant cut-outs were removed.

On 1 September, the police launched an investigation into the cut-outs under the Public Entertainment and Meetings Act following a complaint. Residents and community leaders expressed shock at the investigation, saying there was no ill intent and that the cut-outs were a "creative way" to bring the issue up to the minister. The investigation was commented by sociologist Chua Beng Huat on The Straits Times forum as "paranoid", pointing out how the incident was treated by the press as a "national issue" due to Singapore's single-tier government. Chua had also called to distinguish between the varying degrees of importance of community matters in Singapore as he believed those who put up the cut-outs did not intend to challenge the government. On 6 October, the police closed the investigation without pressing charges, though they sternly warned one veteran grassroots leader. Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng clarified that the investigation was initiated because they could not selectively enforce legislation, or else the law would become "the real white elephant".

Following the incident, Yeo asked the LTA to re-examine whether there was adequate passenger demand to justify the station's opening. The expected opening date was further pushed to 2008, following projections for the housing development plans for the area. At the time, only 500 residential units had been completed within 400 m of the station. Nevertheless, the LTA continued to review the feasibility of opening the station sooner. On 11 November, Yeo announced that Buangkok station would open the following January after SBS Transit agreed to the opening due to reduced losses from its rail operations. Yeo denied pressuring the operator to open the station and said the opening was due to "tireless appeals" by Chong. In December, the opening date was scheduled for 15 January. Before the opening, SBS Transit staff tested the station's equipment and had the station cleaned up.



For the carnival at the station's opening event, students from Raffles Girls' School were invited by Punggol South grassroots to sell their remaining T-shirts bearing "Save the White Elephants". Following the white elephant incident, the students, taken an interest in current affairs, had formed a group called "Project White Elephant", aimed at galvanising the youth to take an active role in politics. The T-shirts were created and sold to raise funds for a charity, Youth Guidance. During the preparations for the carnival at the station's opening event, the police sent an advisory to the students and carnival organisers that a fund-raising permit was required for them to sell the shirts, while also warning the organisers that "wearing the T-shirts en masse may be misconstrued by some as an offence under the Miscellaneous Offences (Public & Order & Nuisance) (Assemblies & Processions) Rules". The police said they would make an "exception" to process the fund-raising permit in time for the event. No one, not even the girls selling them, ultimately wore the outfits at the station's opening, and the celebrations proceeded without any issues. Wong later apologised for the police's overreaction to the incident.

The station opened as scheduled "with much fanfare", beginning with a walk-a-jog to the station led by the event's guest-of-honour defence minister Teo Chee Hean. The station's opening was marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and station operations began at 12:55pm. After its opening, the station averaged only 1,386 daily riders instead of the expected 6,000. Many residents still travelled to the adjacent Sengkang and Hougang stations due to their amenities. SBS Transit, after saying that it was still "too early to draw a conclusion" about ridership, remained committed to keeping the station open to serve future developments nearby.

Details
Buangkok station serves the North East Line (NEL) of the Singapore MRT and is between the Hougang and Sengkang stations. The station code is NE15. Being part of the NEL, the station is operated by SBS Transit. The station operates daily from about 5:45   a.m. to 12:25    a.m. Train frequencies vary from 2.5 to 5 minutes.

Buangkok station is located in Sengkang along the road of Sengkang Central, near the junction with Compassvale Bow. The station has two entrances serving the surrounding HDB flats and two schools: Palm View Primary School and North Vista Primary School. The station also serves Sengkang Grand Residencies, an integrated development including a retail mall and an upcoming bus interchange.

The station was designed by Altoon + Porter Architects and 3HP Architects. Unlike the other NEL stations, the entrances of Buangkok station do not employ glass in their design; white Teflon sheets supported by metal frames envelop the entrances, resembling a circus tent. The station is designated as a Civil Defence (CD) shelter; it is designed to accommodate at least 7,500 people and withstand airstrikes and chemical attacks. Equipment essential for the operations in the CD shelter is mounted on shock absorbers to prevent damage during a bombing. When the electrical supply to the shelter is disrupted, there are backup generators to keep operations going. The shelter has dedicated built-in decontamination chambers and dry toilets with collection bins that will send human waste out of the shelter.

Like all other NEL stations, the platforms are wheelchair-accessible. A tactile system, consisting of tiles with rounded or elongated raised studs, guides visually impaired commuters through the station. Dedicated tactile routes connect the station entrances to the platforms.

Artwork
The artwork Water, Nature & Contemporary by Vincent Leow is displayed at this station as part of the Art-in-Transit programme, a showcase of public artworks on the MRT network. The station artwork consists of two image stripes, which are displayed across the open stair voids that link the concourse level to the platform. The 80 vitreous enamel panels were silkscreened with various black-and-white photographs reminiscent of cinematic stills or film strips, depicting people, activities, and natural landscapes in Singapore. The artwork's images were enlarged, resulting in an abstract appearance; when observed from a distance, the images come into clear focus. The images incorporate dots, graphic motifs, and bands to reflect the "vitality of Buangkok New Town".

Leow, typically known for his paintings and sculptures, saw the commission as "an opportunity to experiment" and decided to "push his artistic boundaries" by fusing art and photography for the commission, allowing him to express himself. The photographs, retrieved from the National Archives of Singapore, were selected to reflect the lifestyle of old Buangkok and other rural areas of Singapore and for commuters to connect the past and the future. The images double as a commentary on life in Singapore; for example, the photo of the soldier on parade is intended to remind many Singaporean men of National Service and their "rite of passage into adulthood".

The vibrant embellishments contrasted with the backdrop of black-and-white photographs, as the artist intended to capture the attention of commuters while creating "a bright and happy ambience" through "the explosion of colours". Leow drew parallels to the little dots and pixels of TV and computer images, which blur out certain images while creating a new image. Also incorporated within the artwork are auspicious symbols, including depictions of fishes and red or tangerine clouds interspersed throughout the images. These clouds draw inspiration from traditional Chinese art and street theatre, which were familiar to many Singaporeans.