Tuesday, January 15, 2008

New Passageway Opens At Orchard MRT Station

Source : Channel NewsAsia, 15 January 2008

The new passageway at Orchard MRT station took in its first commuters on Tuesday morning.

It was a 90-metre walk that was a bit out of the ordinary.

Dancing police officers were present at the station to help commuters out of the station, leading them towards Wisma Atria and Ngee Ann City.

Alex Loon, a dancing traffic cop, explained how useful their services were: "Because it's rush hour, a lot of the people are just doing their own stuff.

"Sometimes they ignore us but some of the crowd is actually quite responsive and they stop, look at us and when we direct them, they actually follow our directions."

The cop dancers will be strutting their stuff everyday from 1pm to 5pm until 18 January. This weekend, an all-girl group will take over with their own dance routine between 2pm and 6pm.

The passageway adds to the list of underground connectors for the more than 100,000 train commuters entering and leaving the station everyday.

While some like it, while others don't.

One commuter said: "So easy to go to the other buildings - short cut."

"I was quite lost just now because everytime I travel by the other side," said another.

As a special treat, refreshments were given out to commuters who had time for a quick drink before work.

The passageway will also link ION Orchard, when it opens in 2009, with the MRT station and its other underground passageways. - CNA/vm

No comments: