Taiping was formerly the British administrative centre in the state during colonial times. The town was built after the feuds over the tin mines of Larut had been put down. In those days, tin mining was a lucrative business and exporting the ore out of state was a common activity.
The Taiping Railway Station was built in 1885 to facilitate the transfer of tin to Port Weld in Penang which was then the main point for shipping it out of the country. Before the “iron horse” came into service for this purpose, elephants were used to carry the ore along jungle trails. With the arrival of the locomotive in Malaya – this was the first train put into service here – travel time was greatly shortened to a few hours from two to three days.
The current site of the town’s railway station is not its original location. The old station formerly sat on the land which is today occupied by the King Edward VII Primary School. When the railway line was extended at the turn of the 20th century, the station was moved to accommodate the expansion.
From then till the 1980s, the tracks remained at the old site until they were removed, and the platforms dismantled to make way for roads.
Wahhh bestnya p bercuti! huhu bila la dpt peluang p kat taiping ni huhu
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