6 MRT Plans That Never Made It to the Tracks, Like Tuas MRT Extension & A New North Shore Line

Unfinished MRT plans in Singapore

Apart from new mall openings on the Little Red Dot, nothing quite stirs up a ruckus amongst Singaporeans like new additions to our MRT system. Crowds gathered en masse to board the first trains at the freshly commissioned Hume MRT station, while Punggol Coast generated its fair share of buzz earlier this year with its MRT station and accompanying mall.

But, not all of the LTA’s plans for our MRT network come to fruition despite their forward-looking vision. For a glimpse of what could have been, here are a couple of unfinished and unrealised MRT plans in Singapore, from trains servicing stations off the coast of mainland Singapore to extra LRT lines not many have heard about.

Table of Contents

Unfinished MRT plans in Singapore

1. Original Nicoll Highway MRT station

Relocated due to a construction site cave-in

Thankfully, no motorists were driving or riding along the stretch of the road that collapsed.
Image credit: GCG

Those born before the turn of the century will most likely be familiar with the tragic Nicoll Highway collapse that happened over 2 decades ago. In case you need more info to jog your memory, during the construction of the Nicoll Highway MRT station in 2004, the tunnels underground caved in, resulting in the death of 4 workers and injuring another 3.

Where the completed Nicoll Highway MRT station would be located, if the highway collapse had not happened.
Image credit: u/Unfair-Bike via Reddit

LTA then decided against rebuilding the station at its initial location, as it was costly to build around the debris left by the collapse. It was also unsafe to do so; after all, one of the bodies of a casualty from the collapse could not even be recovered. As such, they moved the station 100m south of the original site, and after a 3-year delay, the Nicoll Highway MRT station that we know today was finally opened to the public in April 2010.

An artist’s impression of what the original Nicoll Highway station would look like.
Image credit: u/Unfair-Bike via Reddit

Back to the original Nicoll Highway MRT station, it was projected to be a Downtown (DTL) and Circle Line (CCL) station, with a multi-level configuration like City Hall and Raffles Place MRT stations to be able to accommodate both lines. If these plans were put into motion, it could’ve been an interchange station, and we might not have that awkward loop in the middle of the DTL today.

2. Tuas extension

Plans to extend and branch out Gul Circle MRT station southwards

Not many of us take the train past Joo Koon MRT station, as the area is mostly frequented by those who work in the nearby industrial estate. However, LTA saw the need to improve public transport access in Tuas, and so we got an extension to the West end of the East-West line (EWL) in June 2017, in the form of 4 extra stations.

Image adapted from: LTA

In particular, the first station of the extended EWL, Gul Circle MRT station, is of note. If we take a look at LTA’s Master Plan 2008, there were plans to extend the EW in 2 directions. Right now, the current EWL only extends westwards and ends with the Tuas Link station.

Platform C of Gul Circle MRT station, which is currently not in operation.
Image credit: ZKang123 via Wikipedia

Interestingly, we can spot potential signs of LTA’s intentions to extend the EWL southwards too, by examining the layout of Gul Circle MRT station. If you didn’t know, it’s the tallest elevated MRT station in Singapore, standing at 33m high. It also houses extra train tracks and platforms that are currently not in use – possibly meant for a future Tuas South extension to the EWL.

Image credit: Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company Singapore

There are no plans to build a Tuas South extension just yet, due to the lack of development in the area. Rather than pouring money into building new MRT stations, the government has instead decided to increase accessibility to Tuas South with public buses for now.

3. Punggol LRT North branch

LRT north extension, with a station near Coney Island

As if Punggolites don’t have enough amenities already, there were plans for their trusty LRT to have an additional line that branched off from its West Loop.

Image adapted from: National Library Board, u/Unfair-Bike via Reddit

Plans for this “Punggol North” LRT line can be seen in a newspaper article from 1998 as well as maps of the area from the early 2000s, which plotted potential MRT stations that were part of this line. The line would’ve consisted of 4 stations, with one of them being right at Coney Island’s East entrance, which would’ve made travelling to the island a breeze.

Image credit: u/Unfair-Bike via Reddit

If you’d like to see remnants of the line, just take a closer look at Punggol LRT station’s platform. It’s unusually wide, and in between the East and West loops’ tracks, you can spot a third one running beneath the floor of the platform in the middle. These tracks could have been meant for the aforementioned additional LRT line.

Image credit: u/Unfair-Bike via Reddit

Another piece of evidence can be seen during a ride on Punggol LRT’s West loop. Keen-eyed commuters have noticed a branching track near Teck Lee LRT station that leads to a dead end; this was where trains would’ve deviated from the West loop and chug on the proposed Punggol North LRT line.

Again, this project was left unfinished, as there wasn’t much development work going on in Punggol North. Perhaps they’ll revisit this idea following the opening of Punggol Coast MRT, which might attract enough people to warrant more amenities to pop up in the area.

4. Original North-East Line plans

With stops at stations in Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong

Speaking of Punggol, long before the North-East Line (NEL) was built in 1997, diagrams that depicted how the line would look were ambitious to say the least. A newspaper article from 1991 reported intentions for the then-unbuilt NEL to sport stations at Outram Park, Serangoon, and Punggol – no surprises here.

Image adapted from: National Library Board

But, it’s the inclusion of possible stations that would’ve operated off the shores of mainland Singapore that really piqued our interest. We’re not sure about the logistics that would go into building MRT tunnels that run over the Straits of Johor, but just imagine a purple line that made stops at Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong.

Apart from rendering ferry rides to these islands obsolete, the question now is why were these plans not realised; surely recruits would’ve preferred this familiar mode of transport for their book ins, right?

The thing is, the URA had plans to build high-density housing on Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong in 1991 to accommodate a rising population in Singapore at that time. As such, extending the NEL to serve the potential residents on these islands made complete sense.

Image credit: Basic Military Training Centre via Facebook

As we clearly don’t have island-hopping MRT trains today, the plans to house Singaporeans on these islands were eventually shelved. In 1997, the URA proposed that Pulau Ubin would instead remain as a place for sports and recreation, while Pulau Tekong eventually went on to become a training base for the SAF in 1999. As a result, these offshore stations never came to be.

5. North Shore Line

Proposed MRT line that links Woodlands to Punggol & Pasir Ris

Image adapted from: National Library Board

We’ve talked about extensions to MRT and LRT lines, but what about an entirely new one? Well, a 1996 newspaper article wrote about a proposed North Shore Line, and like its name suggests, it operated along the northern coast of Singapore and linked Northies in Woodlands up with those residing in Pasir Ris and Punggol. Surprisingly, it was proposed for this new line to be equipped with an LRT system instead of an MRT one.

What the first LRT trains that operated in Bukit Panjang looked like.
Image credit: u/killmonger_v1 via Reddit

In fact, do a little digging, and you’ll notice that old plans for updates to our train system in Singapore favoured the use of LRTs instead. That’s because at that time, LRT systems featured driverless trains that were lighter and ran on rubber wheels, which made them quieter. Plus, they were also much cheaper to build and run.

However, it was stated that the line would only be built after towns on the Northern coast like Punggol and Simpang were completed, and if there was enough of a crowd to demand it. Seeing that areas like Simpang still remain largely undeveloped, it’s no wonder that the North Shore Line still remains a figment of the past.

6. City Link LRT system

LRT line that ran alongside the now-defunct KTM Line

The proposed LRT route was projected to be about 40km long.
Image adapted from: National Library Board

From one unconceived LRT system to another, we could’ve had one bisecting the city centre, running from Woodlands to Keppel and Jurong. This one was dubbed City Link, and wasn’t the brainchild of the LTA, but instead a locally established consultancy firm called Transit Systems.

A KTM train making a stop at the old Tanjong Pagar railway station.
Image credit: The Green Corridor

It was reported in a newspaper article from 1988, and the City Link LRT system was slated to run in tandem with the now-defunct Malayan Railways (KTM), a railway system that connected Singapore to Malaysia. It aimed to attract commuters by offering affordable rides that rivalled those of buses at that time, and had plans to link it with existing transport services.

It’s worth noting that the land on which the proposed LRT system would occupy was rightfully owned by the KTM and consequently, the Malaysian government. That would mean its operator would have to seek permission from the KTM to do its thing, and this could be the very reason why City Link did not make it past the planning stage.

Bonus: Bukit Brown MRT station

Pre-built infrastructure for a potential MRT station in the future

On the flipside, there are a couple of future inclusions to our existing MRT network that have already been built; you just need to know where to look out for them. Shell stations are one of the MRT design secrets that not many know about, and no, we’re not talking about the petrol kiosks.

Image credit: SBS Transit Ltd via Facebook

Shell stations are MRT stations built with only structural provisions, and if they’re on ground level, appear in the form of fenced-off boxes. They’re essentially half-constructed MRT stations that LTA has built ahead of time that require additional work to reach operational status. A good example of a shell station was Hume MRT station; it was built as a shell station in 2014, and only in 2025 did it finally welcome commuters.

The Bukit Brown MRT shell station.
Image credit: ZKang123 via Wikipedia

A shell station that you can catch a glimpse of today is the upcoming Bukit Brown MRT station on CCL. It has even been designated a station code, CC18, and will sit in the middle of Caldecott and Botanic Gardens MRT stations. It gets its name from the nearby Bukit Brown Cemetery, but as of 2025, its only visible facilities are ventilation and maintenance access shafts.

MRT plans in the past that never came to be

A reminder of what our MRT network map could look like in 2040.
Image credit: u/EconomicSanction

Looking back, some of the plans LTA had for our MRT network were pretty wild. In an alternate future, we would mostly be chugging along our train tracks in LRTs and easily seasick recruits needn’t fear booking in to Pulau Tekong via ferry.

But, with projects like the Cross Island and Jurong Region Lines already in the works, we’re probably not too far away from a glorious mess of interconnected train lines that would put these past plans to shame.

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Cover image adapted from: u/Unfair-Bike via Reddit, National Library Board