For years, civil engineering enthusiast Nethaniel Foo has been religiously updating his blog about his thoughts, observations and reports on the construction of the Downtown Line and the Thomson Line.
It may seem that his enthusiasm for railway stations has run out though. According to the 18-year-old, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) had been showing “an averse attitude” towards him and his blog, and even begun “aggressively issuing legal threats” against the sub-contractors and workers who’ve supported him through contributing pictures.
Self-funding his efforts since 2013, Foo claims that his blog has since become an “authoritative portal” for folks to track the progress of the construction — and it shows. In the last post he made on his blog however, he announced his decision to shut it all down.
“Much considerations have been made into the decision to keep the blog updates going, however it has been increasingly difficult to sustain with the obstinate attitude of the LTA,” he says, noting that he’ll be focusing on his civil engineering studies at Singapore Polytechnic.
Responding to queries from TODAY however, LTA denied all the allegations, and said that they were not aware that Foo had reached out to them for requests on collaboration. “LTA is happy to work with the community on creating awareness for our projects,” a spokesperson said.
Foo has since been invited to the launch of the tunnel-boring machine for the Thomson Line’s Stevens Station, TODAY reports. LTA has even contacted him and offered a “direct line of communication” concerning all information pertaining to their projects. Foo has since decided not to close his blog after all and should be continuing his regular updates with photos and infographics.
