Hougang MRT Station (NE14) is an underground station on the North East MRT Line, Singapore. It is located in the central part of Hougang New Town which is connected to the bus interchange and surrounding HDB flats and shopping centres.

This station has distinctive artwork titled Hands Up for Hougang by Seck Yok Ying, featuring handprints of 3000 people, from babies to grandmothers, foreign workers to community leaders.This station sees relatively heavy usage during peak periods.

Before the station opened, the Singapore Civil Defence Force conducted the second ever Shelter Open House on Feb 15 and Feb 16 2003, together with Chinatown, Farrer Park and Serangoon stations.

Train Service

Destination	First Train				Last Train
	Mon - Sat		Sunday & Public Holiday		Daily
North East Line
to NE1 HarbourFront	5.49am		6.09am		11.34pm
to NE17 Punggol	6.25am		6.45am		12.20am

Bus Services Nearby

The following bus services is available at Hougang Central Bus Interchange and some bus services passes by the bus stops along Hougang Central:

Service	Between	And	Notes
SBS Transit Trunk Services
72	Yio Chu Kang Bus Terminal	Tampines Bus Interchange
80	Sengkang Bus Interchange	HarbourFront Bus Interchange
87	Sengkang Bus Interchange	Bedok Bus Interchange
101	Serangoon Bus Interchange	Buangkok Link (loop)
SBS Transit NiteOwl Services
6N	Marina Centre Bus Terminal	Punggol Central

The following bus services passes by the bus stops along Hougang Ave 10:

Service	Between	And	Notes
SBS Transit Trunk Services
27	Hougang Central Bus Interchange	Changi Airport PTB 1, 2 & 3 Bus Terminal
62	Punggol Bus Interchange	Geylang Lor 1 (Loop)
80	Sengkang Bus Interchange	HarbourFront Bus Interchange
82	Serangoon Bus Interchange	Punggol Road End (Loop)
87	Sengkang Bus Interchange	Bedok Bus Interchange
89	Hougang Central Bus Interchange	Changi Airport Cargo Complex (Loop)
113	Hougang Central Bus Interchange	Lor Ah Soo (Loop)
161	Hougang Central Bus Interchange	Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange
SBS Transit Freeder Services
325	Hougang Central Bus Interchange	Hougang Street 91 (Loop)
SBS Transit Fast Forward Services
89e	Hougang Central Bus Interchange	Changi Airport Cargo Complex	One-Directional Peak Hour Service
SBS Transit NiteOwl Services
6N	Marina Centre Bus Terminal	Punggol Central

Current Station Layout

L1	Street Level	Hougang Central Bus Interchange,Hougang Mall
B1	Concourse	Faregates, Ticketing Machines, Passenger Service Centre
B2	Platform A	towards  NE1  CC29  HarbourFront (→)
	Island platform, Doors will open on the right
	Platform B	towards  NE17  Punggol (←)

Bomb hoax

There was a bomb hoax at this station on August 12, 2005. Liu Tze Yuen, 42, a Chinese man was behind the Hougang bomb hoax which disrupted train services for hours on August 12, 2005. He was also accused of putting boxes in public buses on July 7 and August 12 - the latter on the same day he is accused of carrying out the hoax at the Hougang MRT station.

On July 7, he was said to have placed a white package in a bus that he was travelling in. He did it at about noon on route 151 as he was travelling along Hougang Avenue 3. Tacked on the package was a note which said: 'If you see it, please don't touch and leave this bus.'

More than a month later, on August 12, he allegedly left another package wrapped heavily with scotch tape on route 143 while he was travelling along Eu Tong Sen Street in Chinatown. He was said to have done it at about 1:30 pm - an hour after he allegedly left a similar package at the Hougang MRT station. The package was found to have only empty food cans and empty packets of instant noodles.

Liu allegedly intended the passengers on the two buses and the train station to believe that the packages contained explosive devices and was later sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail.

References