On Nov. 7, 1987, Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system began operations.

The first five MRT stations was on the North South Line and was merely 6km long. The first five stations that opened were Yio Chu Kang, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Braddell and Toa Payoh.

Today, we have 119 MRT stations and five lines.

Toa Payoh MRT was first station

The inaugural ceremony was attended by then Second Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong and then Minister for Communications and Information Yeo Ning Hong at the platform of Toa Payoh MRT station.

Nine more stations added

By Dec. 12 the same year, nine more stations were added, allowing commuters to travel from Novena to Raffles Place on the North-South Line, and from Outram Park to Raffles Place on the East-West Line.

On March 12 the following year, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew officially launched the MRT system, which saw the opening of another six stations from Tiong Bahru to Clementi on the East-West Line.

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120,000 people on first day

A specially-arranged train took the two ministers and about 400 guests on the first two-way ride from Toa Payoh to Yio Chu Kang and back before the service was opened to the public.

The inaugural service attracted some 120,000 passengers who had bought S$3 commemorative tickets, with the proceeds going to the fundraising organisation, Community Chest.

20 years in the making then

The MRT system was first proposed in 1967 by the planners of the State and City Planning Project, which had been initiated in the same year to guide the physical development of Singapore.

It aimed to serve as an island-wide public transport system to improve connectivity between the city centre and residential areas, as well as to ease traffic congestion and reduce pollution.