Singapore's North-South Line in fifteen photographs, from Jurong East to Marina South Pier

The first section of the Singapore MRT, from Yio Chu Kang to Toa Payoh, opened on November 7, 1987. It was extended south to Raffles Place on December 12, 1987 and north to Yishun on December 20, 1988, and the extension to Marina Bay opened on November 4, 1989. The two ends of the line, Jurong East in the west and Marina South Pier in the south, came later. That first stretch is the North-South Line, the red line on the map.

In HelloSubway it has 27 stations, numbered NS1 to NS28. NS6 was never built, so the numbers skip from Yew Tee at NS5 to Kranji at NS7. Measured in straight lines between the stations, the line is about 41 kilometres long. The stops are closest in the city, where Somerset to Dhoby Ghaut is about 800 metres, and farthest apart in the north, where Khatib to Yio Chu Kang is about 4.2 kilometres. Nine of the 27 stations are shared with other lines, and Dhoby Ghaut and Marina Bay each have three. The whole line takes 248 keystrokes to type, level 2 of 7 for Singapore.

The cover photograph is Little Guilin, at Bukit Batok. It is a former granite quarry that has filled with water, in Bukit Batok Town Park, and the rock faces look like the hills of Guilin in China, which is where the name comes from. The park was created in 1984, when the Housing and Development Board decided to turn the quarry into a park instead of filling it in. Here is the rest of the ride, from west to south.

West and north: lakes, a memorial and the Causeway

The line begins at Jurong East, near Jurong Lake Gardens, the big lakeside park of the Jurong area. In the Lotus Pond, a pond covered in lotus leaves, the Chinese-style pavilions of the Stoneboat stand on the far bank.

Kranji is the stop for the war cemetery. Kranji War Cemetery overlooks the Straits of Johor, and the Singapore Memorial inside it bears the names of more than 24,000 Commonwealth casualties of the Second World War who have no known grave. It was unveiled in 1957. A stone wall carved with the cemetery's name bears the dates 1939 to 1945.

Woodlands is on the north shore of the island. The Johor-Singapore Causeway, 1,056 metres long, crosses the Straits of Johor from Woodlands to Johor Bahru in Malaysia. It was opened to goods trains in September 1923 and to passenger trains a month later, and officially opened in June 1924.

A few stops on, Sembawang has a hot spring, said to be the only one on the island, in Sembawang Hot Spring Park: a pool with steam rising from it and caution signs on the wall beside it. Then the line turns south through the heartland towns. Ang Mo Kio and Bishan share Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, which has wetland pond gardens with a boardwalk, and the Kallang River winds through it.

The heartland to Orchard Road

One of the estates in Toa Payoh has a dragon slide made of orange mosaic tiles, with a rainbow-coloured tube behind it. At Novena, Novena Church is a white building with a red tile roof and a tall bell tower, and inside it pointed arches and stained-glass windows run along the wall.

Newton Food Centre has red timber-framed roofs, and at night red lanterns hang over crowded tables.

At Orchard, Ngee Ann City has a pink granite front, with a fountain and sculptures at the entrance. One stop on, Somerset is the stop for Emerald Hill Road, where rows of terraced shophouses are painted in blue, white and brown, with shuttered upper windows.

The civic centre and the waterfront

At Dhoby Ghaut, where the North South, North East and Circle Lines meet, the white Istana stands behind a lawn and a circular fountain. It is the official residence and office of the President of Singapore.

At City Hall, St Andrew's Cathedral is white, with twin spires, and across the Padang stand the domed Old Supreme Court Building and City Hall.

At Raffles Place, Lau Pa Sat, also called Telok Ayer Market, stands among the glass towers of the business district. The market was completed in 1894 to a design by the municipal engineer James MacRitchie, its cast-iron frame was made in Glasgow, and it was gazetted a national monument in 1973. The Merlion statue stands nearby on the waterfront of Marina Bay.

At Marina Bay, where three lines meet, the red Helix Bridge crosses the bay, with the three towers of Marina Bay Sands behind it and the lotus-shaped ArtScience Museum at the right.

The line ends at Marina South Pier, the longest station name on the line at 17 letters. From here you can see the Marina Barrage, a long barrage across the channel with a grass-roofed building beside it, and the skyline of the bay across the water.

Type it yourself

The North-South Line is the second-lightest of Singapore's six lines. Names are typed in English, with spaces, and the shortest are Kranji, Yishun, Khatib, Bishan, Novena and Newton at 6 letters. The ranking of all six lines shows how it compares, and the Circle Line story covers the line that meets this one at Dhoby Ghaut and Marina Bay.