Raffles Place MRT station (EW14/NS26) is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the East West Line and North South Line in Downtown Core, Singapore. It is located directly underneath Raffles Place, Singapore's financial district, south of the Singapore River. Due to its location, it is one of the busiest MRT stations on the MRT network. It is close to several points of attraction such as the Raffles Place Park, Merlion Park, the Downtown Core and the Fullerton Hotel.
Raffles Place station is one of the five MRT interchange stations in Singapore to feature a cross-platform interchange; the other stations are City Hall MRT station, Tanah Merah MRT station, Jurong East MRT station, Bayfront MRT station. It is within walking distances to Downtown MRT station and Telok Ayer MRT station on the Downtown Line.
History[]
Platform C of Raffles Place.
Platform D of Raffles Place, just opposite Platform C.
Platform B of Raffles Place which is opposite Platform A and on a different level from Platform C and D.
Raffles Xchange.
On 9 October 1983, local ventures had won the MRT job for the construction of the tunnel from City Hall to Raffles Place.[1] On the larger scale, on 4 May 1984, the contractor, Taisei-Shimizu-Marubeni had awarded the contract for the station, Contract 108. To make way for the construction of the station, the Chartered Bank Building was torn down. During the construction, massive rocks were blasted out of the way for the station, which shook several buildings near the station.[2] This station used to be the largest and deepest MRT station in Singapore,[3] but the record was broken by Dhoby Ghaut in 2003 and then by Bras Basah in 2010, by Promenade in 2013 and then by Bencoolen in 2017 which is 43 metres below ground. In 1998, some foreigners who could not find accommodation in Singapore were caught staying overnight in the station, and were regarded as loiterers.[4] It is also one of the four MRT stations to appear in "Uniquely Singapore Edition" of the board game Monopoly.
Land reclamation in the Marina Bay area has added more exits to additional buildings since 2000, which is Exit J towards the Marina Bay Link Mall.
The station is the only MRT station to ever participate in three terrorist exercises, which are Exercise Northstar IV on January 11, 2004, Exercise Northstar V on 9 January 2006 when it was one of four stations which participated in the exercise on January 8, 2006, as well as Exercise Northstar VII in 7 July 2009, together with Sentosa, VivoCity, Bedok, Tampines, Choa Chu Kang and Jurong East.
The faregates at this station were replaced in 2014. The oldest station entrances A and B were heavily renovated by 28 September 2017 with glass cladding.Template:Citation needed
On 7 October 2017, a small fire was spotted trackside in the tunnel between Marina Bay and this station, but it died out by itself. Its cause is unknown, but it may have been due to a short circuit.[5][6]
Due to the ongoing renovation works at Oxley @ Raffles, which is formerly Chevron House, barrier-free accessibility is restricted to Exit D instead.
Services[]
This station was opened on 12 December 1987 for the East West Line platforms of the station (Platform A and C)[7], whereas only the Platform B and D opens on 4 November 1989, when separate operations began for the North South Line to Marina Bay, as well as the East West Line to Pasir Ris.