Buangkok MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit station on the North East line in Sengkang, Singapore. Located underneath Sengkang Central near the junction with Compassvale Bow, Buangkok station is one of the two MRT stations located within the Sengkang planning area and serves the town of Buangkok. There are plans to build an "integrated development" next to Buangkok station, which will include residential units, commercial spaces and a future bus interchange. The residential units are now known as Sengkang Grand Residences, the commercial spaces are now known as Sengkang Grand Mall while the future bus interchange is now known as Buangkok Bus Interchange respectively. Buangkok station is near housing estates and Palm View Primary School.
History
When the North East line opened, it was one of the 2 completed MRT stations in the entire system that was non-operational, the other being Woodleigh which opened on 20 June 2011. Buangkok was originally planned to be opened with 15 other stations on the North East line. However, the operator SBS Transit decided not to open the station as the area around the station was relatively undeveloped and it was claimed that the number of passengers would be too low to cover operating costs. With the first development being ready at Compassvale Arcadia on April 2005, the station was opened on 15 January 2006. To prepare for the station's opening, the programming had to be updated to include Buangkok. Residents had said they would be willing to walk 400 metres to the station every day. The station opened with much fanfare on that day. SBS Transit had expected around 3,500 commuters using the station daily, which would be the lowest among all the stations along the line, resulting in the station making a loss. Even so, ridership on this station was much lower than expected on its opening week. It had an average of only 1,386 passenger trips per day. As a comparison, Clarke Quay station, the next lowest in terms of ridership, had already more than 6,000 commuter trips per day. However, Clarke Quay was located in the Central Business District with considerable development in the area. This was because the station was located over 400 metres from most residents' homes.
On 27 August 2005, during Minister Vivian Balakrishnan's visit to Punggol South, a resident, displeased with Buangkok's disuse, erected a series of white paper cut-outs of elephants, which were drawn in a cartoon-like style, symbolically calling the unopened Buangkok station a 'white elephant'. Soon after, police started an investigation on it as a case of a public display without permit, on the grounds that a complaint was received and that they may have been in violation of the Public Entertainment and Meetings Act, for which the maximum penalty is a fine not exceeding $10,000. It raised controversy because many people saw it as a harmless, trivial case not worthy of investigation. It also highlighted the general displeasure over the non-operation of the MRT station after it was built with public funds. It also raised questions on how much freedom of expression the government is willing to tolerate. On 6 October that year, police closed the investigation without pressing charges but issued a stern warning to the offender. This led then-Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng to comment to the media, "We cannot apply the law to some and turn a blind eye to others. If we do, then the law becomes the real white elephant."
Second white elephant incident
On 13 January 2006, during a carnival celebrating the opening of the MRT station, some 27 students from Raffles Girls' School were preparing to sell T-shirts bearing "Save the White Elephants" to raise funds for a charity Youth Guidance. This prompted a warning from the police that they needed a fund-raising permit and that "wearing of T-shirts en masse may be misconstrued by some as an offence under the Miscellaneous Offences Rules." The girls said that they had always taken a strong interest in current affairs and Buangkok incident inspired them to start what they called "Project White Elephant" aiming to "galvanise the youth of today to rise up from the apathy they are stereotyped with and take an active role in airing their views". Punggol South grassroots leaders were impressed by their "entrepreneurial spirit and derring-do", and invited them to set up a stall at the opening ceremony of the station to sell the T-shirts. On 21st of that month, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng apologised for the way the police had overreacted to the group of school girls' plan to sell and wear white elephant T-shirts at the opening of Buangkok station.
Incidents
On the morning of 29 July 2016, there was a train fault at this station, delaying train services between Punggol and Potong Pasir stations during the morning rush hour. On 27 February 2020, a power fault along the NEL resulted in service disruptions to the Punggol, Sengkang and Buangkok stations. At 5.36am, a shuttle train service was provided which operated on a single platform between the Punggol and Buangkok stations. In order to facilitate maintenance functions, the power source to the tracks between the Hougang and Punggol stations was switched off. Additionally, free regular and bridging bus services have been provided to serve these stations. The repair works were completed by 11.49am and usual service along the entire NEL resumed at 12.14pm. Investigations later revealed that a broken contact wire affected the power source to trains launching from Sengkang Depot, causing the service disruptions.
