City Hall

City Hall

City Hall is an underground station on the North South Line and the East West Line. It's located near City Hall (where the name came from...). It is quite close to Esplanade.

### History

City Hall opened on the 12 of December, 1987. It was later an interchange with the East West Line. Along with Raffles Place, it was the first interchanges of the MRT. Before the construction, it was proposed to be named **St Andrew's** (from the St Andrew's Catholic Church. During the construction, they had many difficulties. One such issue was that they needed to cross the Singapore River. At that time, the river was polluted, making the soil acidic. The solution was to 'drain' parts of it and build an integral waterproofing tunnel.

Later on in 2014, the Land Transport Authority said that they're going to build a underpass from the station to the Capitol Singapore. Construction started in Q4 2014 and was completed in Q1 2015.

**Did you know**: During construction of the station, the nearby Christian community gathered to pray for the safety of the construction workers, the completion of the station and blessings for those who use it.

### Incidents

During the construction, on 26 May 1985, there was a landslide at the site due to the collapse of the 20-metre (66 ft) wall supporting the excavation. Those in the nearby St Andrew's Cathedral were evacuated as a safety precaution, as the Cathedral may risk collapse. The Cathedral was eventually declared safe for use and operations resumed on 2 June, while advising churchgoers not the use the half of the Cathedral close to the site. On 10 December, a Japanese foreman miner died at the construction site of the station, having fallen to his death. The man is the fourth fatality in the construction of the MRT network. Investigations revealed that it was entirely an accident, with all safety measures observed.

On 5 June 2008, 280 youths spent the night at City Hall to learn how to deal with an emergency in a train tunnel. There was a simulated bomb explosion during this exercise and they learn how to activate the detrainment ramps at both ends of the train, and evacuate to safety via an escape shaft. The students also used the items from their Ready Bags to "survive" the attack.

This station was part of the series of 2011 MRT train disruptions on 15 and 17 December 2011, caused by a misalignment between the trains' current collector shoes, which collect power from the third rail, and the third rail itself. These were Singapore's two largest MRT disruptions at the time of occurrence.

A power failure and blackout occurred at the station on 6 July 2012 at about 1.30 pm, causing the platforms for north and west-bound trains to turn pitch black. Air-conditioning and escalators also stopped functioning. Emergency lighting was turned on immediately after the incident occurred. However, train services were not affected by the incident. Lighting was progressively restored from 2 pm, and was back to normal by 3.15 pm.

### Exits

Here are the exits for the following station:

Exit A: **Raffles City** - Stamford Road / Beach Road, Bras Basah Complex, Carlton Hotel, Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, CHIJMES, Fairmont Singapore, National Library, National Museum of Singapore, NTUC Income Centre, Raffles Hotel, Raffles City Convention Centre, Raffles City Shopping Centre, Singapore Recreation Club, Singapore Management University (SMU), Swissotel The Stamford Singapore, NTUC Trade Union House, **Esplanade** CC3 (via Raffles City Basement 2)

* Exit B: **St Andrew's Catholic Church** - North Bridge Road / Stamford Road, Eden Residences Capitol, Armenian Church, City Hall Building, Funan Mall, Grand Park City Hall, National Gallery Singapore, Padang, Parliament House, Peninsula Excelsior Hotel, Peninsula Plaza, Peranakan Museum, SCCCI Building, Singapore Philatelic Museum, St Andrew’s Cathedral, The Adelphi Lifestyle Mall, The Arts House, The Substation, The Treasury
* Exit C: **Citylink Mall** - via Citylink Mall: Esplanade – Theatres On The Bay, Esplanade Park, Marina Square, One Raffles Link, Suntec City, Suntec City Convention, Exhibition Centre & **Esplanade**CC3
* Exit D: **Capitol Building** - Capitol Building, Capitol Piazza, Capitol Theatre, Eden Residences Capitol