In addition, local specialised light rail lines are in operation in places such as the Singapore Changi Airport and Sentosa.

Although Singapore is not a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC) given the nature of Singapore as a city-state and its lack of a national railway proper, SMRT Corporation, SBS Transit and the Land Transport Authority are members of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP).

[6] The tramway was operated using 16 (initially 14) 0-4-0ST steam tram engines from Kitson and Company and double-deck passenger trailer cars.

Plans to build a railway line through Singapore, primarily to service the New Harbour had been mooted as early as 1869 by Engineer W. J. du Port of the Tanjong Pagar Dock Company but the project to build a railway line was only approved by Governor Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell only in 1899 after then Governor Cecil Clementi Smith raised the need for it in an 1889 Legislative Council meeting.

Soon after, work began on the extension of the railway line from a point near Tank Road where a new through station was built in 1906/7 to the wharves at Pasir Panjang.

At a speed of 16 to 29 km/h, trains now took 54 to 55 minutes to reach Woodlands from the Town as opposed to two hours on other transport modes like the bullock cart, horse carriage or rickshaw.

Nonetheless, the reduction in tram fares increased ridership to 32,000 in 1909; at the end of that year, the company was in the black – albeit with an ultra-modest profit of £134.26.

The outbreak of the First World War restricted the overhauling efforts; by 1921, Singapore Electric Tramways was making losses of £50,000 annually.

It sought professional advice from the successful Shanghai Electric Construction Company, and then undertook a complete rehabilitation in a last-ditch effort to keep the system alive.

[6] On 1 October 1925, the electric tramways was taken over by the Singapore Traction Company (STC), which was tasked to convert from trams to trolley buses.

[11] The Changi Military Railway was a 4-mile long standard gauge line built by the FMSR for the War Department, for the protection of Singapore's new Naval Base at Sembawang.

In 1946, the FMSR closed Tanglin Halt, Bukit Panjang and Kranji to allow for faster travel between Woodlands and Tanjong Pagar.

In 1953, a proposal was made to convert the existing Malayan Railway line into a double-tracked electrified light rail transit system to resolve the congestion problem; diesel railcars could be used should this not be economic.

[7] In 1961 the Singapore Harbour Board had 16 miles of tracks in its 950-acre site, which were connected to the main line west of Tanjong Pagar station.

[5] Following full internal self-governance of Singapore in 1959, the new government under the People's Action Party pursued an aggressive industrialisation policy to resolve unemployment problems, one of which included building Jurong Industrial Estate in 1960.

Despite high expectations of having 2-3 million tons of good moved every year, a shaky merger with Malaysia from 1963 to 1965 led to under-utilisation of the line's potential.

[5] KTM trialled railbus services using experimental vehicles from BRE-Leyland and Ganz Mavag of Hungary between Singapore and Johor Bahru in 1988.

[12] In 1982, a closed loop monorail line commenced operations at the resort island of Sentosa following the approval of plans to build it in 1979.

[10] It was only in 2010 when an agreement was reached between the Prime Ministers Lee Hsien Loong and Najib Razak to close the loops in the POA.

Since the completion of the initial MRT system in 1990, the Singapore government has taken steps to further expand the city-state's urban rail network; said expansions have been highlighted in many plans such as the 1996 White Paper[13] and various Land Transport Master Plans, the latest of which intends to bring the length of the MRT network up to almost 400 km by 2040.

Following studies on the feasibility of urban applications of automated people mover systems as feeder transport in the 1990s, a Light Rail Transit (LRT) line was built between Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Panjang and was opened in 1999.

The metre-gauge single track previously ran all the way to the Tanjong Pagar railway station in southern Singapore, running through Kranji, Bukit Timah and Buona Vista.

In 2010 when the relocation of the KTM terminus to Woodlands was agreed, it was also announced that a rapid transit system would be built to enhance connectivity across the border and to relieve congestion on the Johor-Singapore Causeway.

[33] The two stations will each have combined Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facilities of both countries, similar to the current arrangement at Woodlands Train Checkpoint.

Passengers will clear both countries' border controls before boarding the RTS train, and need no further checks upon arrival at the other station.

The RTS link was planned to be operational by 2024, but the project was postponed under the request of the Malaysian government for review, and its completion was pushed to end-2026, with construction starting in 2021.

A proposal was brought up in 2006 by YTL Corporation Berhad, builder and operator of the Express Rail Link in Kuala Lumpur,[37] however it was not further acted upon due to the Malaysian government's lack of interest at that time.

[42] In May 2018, the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad initially announced that the line was to be cancelled, but later said that the project was merely delayed.

[44] However the two governments ultimately failed to reach an agreement to continue the project and terminated it on 1 January 2021 in a joint statement.

Developed by 17 working groups under a technical committee established in 2020, the standards would cover on asset management, maintenance, safety and security, and service.