In Singapore’s Center, but a World Away

JUSTIN BERGMANAPRIL New York Times 2 Apr 14;

It’s not often that you can find yourself completely alone in densely developed Singapore, not a building or road in sight and the only sound the trilling of birds overhead.

Yet this kind of blissfully quiet and unhurried experience is possible in a stretch of nearly hidden parkland that runs for about 15 miles from north to south behind housing developments and highways, cutting through some of the island’s priciest real estate.

Known among residents as the Green Corridor, the new park takes its inspiration from the High Line in New York and the Promenade Plantée in Paris, repurposing land that had once been used for a railway to create an unlikely nature preserve in the urban heart of the city.

And echoing the grass-roots movement that saved the High Line, the Green Corridor may not have been possible were it not for the efforts of conservation- and heritage-minded residents who led a campaign to persuade the Singaporean government to leave it untouched.

The old railway’s complex history partly explains why the land stayed out of developers’ hands so long. Built during British colonial rule in the early 1900s to ferry tin and rubber from the Malay Peninsula to the Singapore port, the railway remained under Malaysian control as part of the separation agreement that came with the 1965 division of Singapore and Malaysia. It wasn’t until 2010 that the countries finalized a land swap in which the rail corridor was transferred back to Singapore.

That was when a group called the Nature Society (Singapore) stepped in with a proposal to preserve the land, citing New York and Paris as examples of how other cities made use of abandoned railway lines. “We were concerned because traditionally when Singapore takes over a piece of land, the first thing they want to do is parcel it out to developers,” said the society’s vice president, Leong Kwok Peng, who spearheaded the drive to create the nature preserve.

A lively social media campaign followed with a Green Corridor website, thegreencorridor.org, and a Facebook page aimed at galvanizing public support behind the project. Soon, residents were sharing their own photos, videos and downloadable maps of the verdant and untamed corridor online.

“We’re losing our natural spaces, and our shared memories are being erased quite rapidly, so it’s important to have a place where we can remember the past,” said Eugene Tay, an environmental activist who started the campaign and organized a series of public walks on the old railway line that drew some 600 curious residents.

The government proved receptive to the idea and agreed to preserve the Rail Corridor, as it calls the green space, in its entirety. After the tracks were removed (they had to be returned to Malaysia as part of the land-swap agreement), the trail was opened to the public in early 2012 and is now a popular spot on weekends for joggers, bikers, nature photographers and dog walkers. A 6.5-mile Green Corridor Run drew 6,000 participants last year and will be held again on May 18. And the National Heritage Board and a private company called Singapore History Consultants recently introduced a historical walking tour for students.

The trail itself, now just a dirt track fringed by towering rain trees, wild bamboo and banana plants, may receive a face-lift in coming years, too. The government is soliciting ideas from the public on how the corridor could be upgraded to make it more visitor-friendly. There are currently no toilets or rest areas and few signposts, and some cyclists and joggers would like to see it paved.

Others hope it remains unchanged. The trail offers a glimpse of a forgotten Singapore, winding its way through forests, community gardens, old steel railway bridges and graffiti-covered underpasses (yes, in squeaky-clean Singapore). On a walk with their dogs on a recent morning, two expatriates, Emma Chiang of Australia and Jessica Howell from Britain, said the beauty of the trail is how wild and unrestricted it is — they can take their dogs off their leashes, and locals can forage for edible greens.

“It’s so peaceful,” Ms. Howell said. “It’s my favorite place to walk in all of Singapore.”