Woodlands railway station was opened to the public on 10 April 1903 as the new northern terminus of the line, as part of the extension of the railway from Bukit Timah railway station, which also included a station at Bukit Panjang, which had not yet finished construction by the time the extension had opened.

[1] The station allowed for quicker and more convenient access to ferries, which were bound for Johor.

[1] Despite being in close proximity to the nearby village of Kranji, there was no road connecting the station to the village, thus rendering it impossible for residents of Kranji to utilise the station.

When the station first opened, many of the employees caught a severe illness and had to be sent to the hospital.

[6] The site of the former station was one of several possible locations for a railbus station for the railbus line that the Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) planned to build in Singapore.