Man found dead at Queenstown MRT

By yahoosingapore – November 29th, 2010

A Chinese man in his 40s was found dead on the MRT track at the Queenstown station on Monday evening.

Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) received an emergency call at 8.16pm about the incident.

SCDF said the Chinese man in his early 40s was lying on the track below the last carriage after being hit by a West-bound train heading for Joo Koon. He had extensive head injuries and was pronounced dead by paramedics.

Eyewitnesses said at about 8.15pm, the train was approaching the station when it came to a halt. Over 13,700 passengers were affected by the subsequent train disruption.

SMRT said bus bridging services were deployed to ferry passengers from Outram to Jurong East MRT stations during a delay that lasted about one hour. .

Normal service resumed at about 9.15 pm.

A woman in her 30s who lived in Queenstown and called herself Marai told Yahoo! Singapore she saw a huge commotion at the MRT station on her way home from work.

“There were a lot of people at the station. I saw a few police cars and an ambulance on standby. I heard people talking that someone had jumped down,” she said.

The apparent suicide also made news on Twitter, with many expressing shock and dismay.

User Ryaihoney (@ryaihoney) tweeted, “My sis just got home with a black face ‘cos apparently some loner decided to commit suicide around Queenstown…why man why?”

Several Twitter users also made a reference to a recent hit song called “Grenade” by American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars, in which one verse contains a line that said “I’d jump in front of a train for ya”.
By yahoosingapore – November 29th, 2010

This is not the first time such a tragedy has occurred at Queenstown. Another elderly man also ended his life at Blk 181, which is directly opposite the Queenstown MRT station. Stirling Road, which is a stone’s throw from the Queenstown MRT station, was also the site of a gruesome murder in 2007.

Twitter user missbouncy (@missbouncy) also tweeted, “I was wondering why all suicides (sic) choose Redhill/Queenstown.”

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Redhill station

This station will have barricades soon

Bras Basah Station

This station is part of the circle line.It makes extensive use of natural light that passes thru a layer of water and glass giving the station a simmering effect on a sunny day

Singapore Expo Station

This station was designed by Sir Norman Foster

SMRT Depot in the eastern part of Singapore

View of the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) depot in Tanah Merah from the air

China unveils 'world's fastest train link'

Sat Dec 26, 7:54 am ET
BEIJING (AFP) – China on Saturday unveiled what it billed as the fastest rail link in the world -- a train connecting the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan at an average speed of 350 kilometres (217 miles) an hour.

The super-high-speed train reduces the 1,069 kilometre journey to a three hour ride and cuts the previous journey time by more than seven and a half hours, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Work on the project began in 2005 as part of plans to expand a high-speed network aimed at eventually linking Guangzhou, a business hub in southern China near Hong Kong, with the capital Beijing, Xinhua added.

"The train can go 394.2 kilometres per hour, it's the fastest train in operation in the world," Zhang Shuguang, head of the transport bureau at the railways ministry, told Xinhua.

Test runs for the service began earlier in December and the link officially went into service when the first scheduled train left the eastern metropolis of Wuhan on Saturday.

By comparison, the average for high-speed trains in Japan was 243 kilometres per hour while in France it was 277 kilometres per hour, said Xu Fangliang, general engineer in charge of designing the link, according to Xinhua.

Beijing has an ambitious rail development programme aimed at increasing the national network from the current 86,000 kilometres to 120,000 kilometres, making it the most extensive rail system outside the United States.

China unveiled its first high-speed line at the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 -- a service linking the capital with the port city of Tianjin.

In September, officials said they planned to build 42 high-speed lines by 2012 in a massive system overhaul as part of efforts to spur economic growth amid the global downturn.

The network uses technology developed in co-operation with foreign firms such as Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom.

Bangkok BTS