Outram Park MRT Station

Location

Despite its name, the station is not located entirely within Outram. Exits F and G of the North East Line section of the station are located in the easternmost portion of Bukit Merah, serving the precincts of Everton Park and Singapore General Hospital. The East West Line portion of the station however, is only accessible from ground level within Outram itself, serving the southernmost portion of Chinatown, Pearl's Hill and People's Park.

Although the present Chinatown station is now situated within Chinatown, this station was the closest MRT station within the vicinity of Chinatown before the North East Line was built.

History

A plaque relating the history of the Outram Park prison can be found outside of the station. The prison no longer exists as residential blocks (HDB) have been built where the prison once stood.

In the initial stages of planning for the North East Line in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, this was initially planned to be the southern terminus of the line. But in 1993, the LTA decided to extend the NEL to HarbourFront Station (then called World Trade Centre Station), after noting that many people liked to go to the World Trade Centre (the present day HarbourFront Centre), but it was redeveloped from 2000 to 2003, and Sentosa Island.

Train disruptions

On 15 March 2012, more than 117,000 commuters were affected during a peak hour train breakdown between Dhoby Ghaut and HarbourFront, caused by faulty overhead power cables at the tunnel of the Outram Park that had snapped. A second problem was discovered relating to electricity insulation, delaying the service further. Train services resumed at 4.35 pm after nearly 10 hours of disruption making it the third breakdown in 4 months. Subsequently, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) intends to impose financial penalties amounting to S$400,000 on SBS Transit for the train service disruption along the North East Line on 15 March 2012.

On 10 January 2013, train services in both directions on the North East Line was disrupted due to a power fault. At about 9.50 a.m., SBS Transit said no train service is available between HarbourFront and Outram Park. Train services fully resumed at 4.35 p.m.

Bomb hoaxes

A false bomb threat call was made on 17 August 2007 at 11.16 pm from a public phone located at the concourse of the MRT station and the police arrested two suspects on 24 August 2007 when a 13-year-old boy was turned in by the police while his 15-year-old friend was arrested not long after. Upon consultation, the younger of the two was let off with a warning while the older of the two was charged in a Juvenile Court.

On 29 July 2008, a man made a phone call to the police about a false bomb threat at 1.07 pm at the concourse area of the station. The man is believed to be in his 40s and is of fair complexion. He was wearing a blue and white polo T-shirt, beige Bermudas and black slippers. He was seen leaving the MRT station with two plastic bags – one red and the other white.

Police shooting incident

The North East Line sector of the station was the site of a rare police shooting incident, in which a 43-year-old Lim Bock Song, who had earlier fatally stabbed odd-job worker Tan Ah Chang at a coffeeshop at Jalan Kukoh, was shot by a police officer after threatening the officer with the knife on 6 March 2008 at 3:35 pm. Four platform screen doors in the centre in the direction of HarbourFront were affected due to the police cordon which lasted two hours and passengers had to use other doors to board and alight. However, train services were unaffected.

A coroner's inquiry conducted for the shooting of Lim Bock Song ruled on 12 January 2010 that the shooting was a case of justifiable homicide. The man was shot after charging at police officer Azli Othman with a knife. District Judge Yeo ruled the shooting was without any criminal intent.

Station layout

Outram Park is built directly underneath the convergence of four roads, New Bridge Road, Eu Tong Sen Street, Cantonment Road and Outram Road, the latter two of which lie directly on the Bukit Merah–Outram boundary. The station has four basements and is not a cross platform interchange so commuters have to transfer from one platform to another via an underpass, since the North East Line was not built until much later.

This station features artwork from two different artists. The first, The Commuters by Teo Eng Seng, can be found at the linkway between the East West Line platform and the North East Line platforms. The second, Memories by Wang Lu Sheng, are placed at the entrances leading to the North East Line part of the station.

Exits

Although there is an underground connection between the paid areas of the East West Line and the North East Line parts of the station, there is no connection between their unpaid areas. Therefore, a passenger exiting from an East-West Line train going to a North East Line exit should use the paid area connection to go to the North East Line concourse and exit the fare gates there. Alternatively, the passenger can exit from the East West Line exit and walk to his desired destination, crossing the traffic junction where necessary.

In the future, when the Thomson-East Coast Line is completed, an unpaid linkway will link the concourse levels of all 3 lines that call at this station, allowing passenger to exit the fare system and be able to access all exits of the station, regardless of its location.

East West Line

The East West Line had its main atria, Exit A is via the overhead bridge whereas Exit B is the one that come out from the MRT station.

North East Line