SINGAPORE – Engineering undergraduate Ethan Chia spends most of his free time on MRT platforms, sometimes with a camera in hand, but does not always board the train.

On some days, he plays a little game of hide-and-seek with station officers, whose duties include ensuring commuter safety, and making sure trains run on time.

When officers approach him, Mr Chia – a Nanyang Technological University student – assures them they have no cause for concern.

He, like other train enthusiasts or trainspotters, likes waiting to see or take a snapshot of trains they like.

Trainspotting – which mainly involves watching trains pass through a station – is a hobby with roots in countries like the United States and Britain, with a history of about 200 years.

Trainspotters keep track of train schedules and look out for distinctive rail features, sometimes taking photos and videos to document their findings.

Mr Chia, 25, said one aim of trainspotters in Singapore is to document older train models before they are phased out. They also preserve a record of the experience of riding existing train models.

He said: “We can grow up with the same rail asset that operates and ages with us through the years. We develop memories and eras as the years pass, with rail assets being introduced, refurbished or scrapped altogether.

“When a train retires, about 15 to 20 years of your childhood is gone and never to be experienced again first hand. You’ll only have your own bank of memories.”

However, trainspotters have had to make sure they do not flout any rules or raise security concerns in the pursuit of their hobby.

Although taking photos and videos in MRT stations is allowed, station staff have discouraged them from doing so because of security risks.

One incident that sparked a discussion in the trainspotting community recently involved a secondary school student who was filming his MRT ride on the North-South Line.

In a YouTube community post in September 2023, he said he was approached by station staff, who told him he could not film on the premises.

Even after he told them that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) does not prohibit filming in public access areas of MRT stations, the staff escorted him to the passenger service centre in Raffles Place.

He was then questioned by three Public Transport Security Command (TransCom) officers, who asked why he was filming and if the station workers’ faces were filmed, too.

He was eventually let off after agreeing to blur out images of the employees.

The TransCom is a specialised Singapore Police Force unit that oversees all policing efforts throughout the public land transport network in Singapore.

Its officers perform high-visibility patrols at bus interchanges and MRT stations and are trained to spot suspicious people and behaviour.

In response to queries, an LTA spokesman said taking photos and videos at MRT stations, trains and bus interchanges is not prohibited, but people should “ensure that such activities do not interfere with operations, cause any inconvenience, or violate the privacy of other commuters”.

He added that transit staff may conduct interviews to ensure that photographs and videos taken are not malicious or intended for use in criminal activities.

“Our transit staff reserve the right to stop the activities and may ask for specific or whole photographs and video recordings to be deleted due to operational and security reasons,” he added.

SBS Transit spokeswoman Grace Wu echoed LTA’s concerns.

She said: “For this reason, interested parties are to write in to us with details of their activities for approval.”

Train operators did not respond to queries on when station staff get TransCom officers involved, but said information related to filming and photography in MRT stations is available on their websites.

TransCom officers are usually called in when commuters do not want to comply with instructions or become violent.

Information provided on the SMRT portal said photos and videos can be taken on SMRT premises for personal and non-commercial purposes, but if photos and video footage are meant for other uses, the operator’s written approval must be obtained.

But some train enthusiasts said getting approval can be tough because trainspotting is at times a spontaneous activity.

Institute of Technical Education student Dante Huang, 22, has been trainspotting for a decade and said trainspotters are sometimes pleasantly surprised by things like train motor sounds, and want to document them.

The trainspotting community has been around for over a decade, with one group on Facebook boasting 9,600 followers.

While previous generations of trainspotters would camp out to wait for trains, Mr Chia said the trainspotting scene has since evolved.

He said: “Instead, trainspotting is something more integrated within our daily commute to and from home, school, office and play”, which makes it particularly frustrating when station staff treat them as threats.

Mr Chia said station staff often take a “blanket” approach to trainspotters, instructing them to stop after saying photography and videography on the premises are not allowed. Even when some of them have good intentions, such as reporting railway-premises defects to SnapRep, SMRT’s technical defect reporting channel.

Mr Chia, who has been trainspotting for almost 13 years, said it was very hurtful to be treated as a suspicious person for doing something he loves.

To allay the staff’s concerns, Mr Chia and Mr Huang have e-mails from LTA and train operators to prove that they are within the boundaries of the law.

When asked, they show them the correspondence as proof that their activities are legal.

Still, not everyone buys the story.

Security experts The Straits Times spoke to said they were sympathetic to the trainspotters’ situation, but added that a security presence in MRT stations is vital as transnational terrorist groups have been known to target train stations and trains.

Mr Kalicharan Veera Singam, a senior analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), said: “Deterrent measures such as patrolling and the community’s role in reporting suspicious activities can play important functions in managing this threat.”

RSIS dean Kumar Ramakrishna – who holds the provost’s chair in national security studies – said photos and videos of the MRT system would offer useful intelligence to terror groups that are planning a mass casualty attack.

Associate Professor Bilveer Singh, from the National University of Singapore, agreed.

He said: “Photos and films provide terrorists planning such attacks with ready-made blueprints to plan, organise and coordinate their attacks, showing peak and off-peak hours, when and where security personnel can be distracted, are vulnerable and when best to time their attacks.”

Experts said terrorist groups have targeted MRT stations in the past, like the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, which attempted an attack on Yishun MRT in 2001.

They had filmed the station and used it to identify locations where bombs could be placed.

Mr Singam said loitering in stations can also hinder security efforts as suspects can easily take cover in crowds, making it harder to notice suspicious activities.

Professor Ramakrishna said trainspotters can take security checks in their stride, but added that train staff should also be trained to conduct spot checks in a “low-key, professional and unobtrusive way to minimise inconvenience” for genuine enthusiasts and also know how to detect genuinely suspicious individuals as well.

Prof Singh said more conversations promoting the trainspotting hobby and critical public safety and security are needed to arrive at a “win-win approach”.

While Mr Chia said he understands the need to remain vigilant against potential threats to the rail network, he also hopes staff will eventually be able to work out a balanced approach where trainspotting can continue to thrive.