Welcome to the Southern Ridges! The Ridges are a series of seven connected hill and coastal parks that span the length of Singapore’s south-western coastline. The full length of the hike from end-to-end is about 9 kilometres or about 3 – 5 hours walking time. Beginning with a hike up to Mount Faber Park, the path winds through Telok Blangah Hill Park before either turning south to Labrador Park via the Alexandra Floral Trail and Berlayer Creek Boardwalk, or continuing west to HortPark. After that, the route rises to cut across Kent Ridge Park and NUS Kent Ridge Campus before descending through Clementi Woods to West Coast Park.
The Southern Ridges can be traversed on foot or on bike, and are suitable for all ages and abilities. These parks feature both natural and urban beauty spots – ranging from serene forest walks through regenerating secondary forests to unique architectural gems. Most sections of the Southern Ridges are open 24 hours every day, except for HortPark which is open from 6 am – 11 pm daily.
This series of caches will highlight the various attractions you can find along the ridges, and help you learn more about these places and locales. Bring your family and camera along, and enjoy the hike through a scenic park of the island. We hope you will enjoy the walk as much as we did!
Stage 3: Singapore Cable Car
Welcome to the top of Mount Faber! I hope the views are enjoyable from up here, a fair reward for that hike. On your left, as you head West are two old cable cars that once plied the route from here to Harbourfront ad onwards to Sentosa.
The Singapore government came up with the idea of a cable car to Sentosa from Mount Faber in 1968 as part of its masterplan for tourism projects in the country. Four years later in 1972, construction on the S$5.8 million system commenced, and it was officially opened on 15 February 1974 by then Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Goh Keng Swee.
The system's cabins were replaced in 1994 at a cost of over S$11 million. The new cabins totalled 80, and effectively doubled the system's capacity to 1400 passengers per hour in either direction from 700 passengers previously. The upgrade took 25 days to complete, during which time the system suspended operations.
In November 1999, the Singapore cable car system did another world's first with its glass-bottomed cabins at a cost of S$30,000 each. 6 more of these popular cabins were added in December 2000, giving the system a total of 81 cabins today.
A S$36 million rebuild of the entire system as a modern monocable detachable gondola started on 14 September 2009, and it re-opened on 21 July 2010. All the cabins are now metallic black cars with chrome trimming. There are 67 bigger cabins, including World's First 7* VIP Cabin. The two cables were raised by 30 m to facilitate the bigger cabins, to stand 120 m above sea level. Seating capacity was also increased to eight passengers per cabin from six. There are also new flip-up seats and a new music system
At the coordinates, you will find two old cable cars from before the most recent rebuild. Have seat in the left one (as seen from the road) and have a little hunt within. Once you're done, proceed towards Faber Point for yet more breathtaking views.