A green track to a talent haven
Making a nature corridor of the soon-to-be-available railway land could have tangible economic benefits
By Richard Hartung ,Today Online, 20 Oct 10.
The narrow corridor of railway land that will become available once the train station shifts from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands seems almost too good to be true, and discussion about how to use the land is heating up.
On the one hand, developers are salivating over potential parcels of land for development all across the island. On the other, the Nature Society Singapore (NSS) has proposed turning the land into a green corridor, with its president Shawn Lum saying that “connecting green strips along the railway land” would have tremendous environmental benefits.
What both NSS and the developers may have missed, however, is the economic benefits that Singapore could gain from keeping the corridor as an urban greenway and turning Singapore into an even more attractive destination for top talent. The real question, then, may be whether Singapore can afford not to keep that corridor intact.
Source: Today Online via Wildsingapore
Retaining the corridor is essential given the railways important historic value to the the creation of Singapore as a premier port over the last century. Why no one has considered a heritage rail link running steam trains from Tanjong Pagar to the new Woodlands Terminus, creating tourist opportunities defeats me given such operations success in the UK and elswhere. Failing that keeping the strip of land for walking and cycle NPC network leavs a leagcy of a true environmental nature for generations to come…
apologies for spelling!