Everybody look forward to the weekend, but the coming weekend is one the commuters who will travel to town along Bukit Batok MRT Station of the North South Line will not be looking forward to because there is yet another train disruption. Fortunately this time round it only affects that little stretch between Jurong East and Bukit Batok but not Clementi MRT or else people like me who stayed in Jurong West will suffer again.

I doubt those travelling from Bukit Batok to Jurong East this weekend will get a worse experience than those who stayed further west of Jurong East along the East West Line 2 week ago. While no one can probably say the resources committed on the ground between Clementi and Jurong East stations were insufficient, the route taken by the shuttle buses from Jurong East to Clementi (and vice versa) took up more time than necessary. I believe it took up at least 10 ~ 12 minutes of travelling time when it would have taken maybe just 2 ~ 4 minutes on the trains?

But that wasn’t all! If one is going from Joo Koon to town, one has to first get off at Lakeside and cross the platform to the other side to head to Jurong East. If there’s a train waiting when this happens, it wouldn’t be so bad. Unfortunately, the connecting train is nowhere to be seen and it will only appear like 5 minutes later. That is the same if one is travelling in the other direction. It gives people the impression that there is just one train serving between Joo Koon and Lakeside, and another serving between Lakeside and Jurong East. One has to ask why these two trains aren’t running on to-and-fro on each track between Jurong East and Joo Koon instead.

Either way, I choose to believe such an arrangement is made because trains cannot enter the east bound platform of Jurong East MRT station while the works are underway. Yet, I wondered why the shuttle bus service didn’t just run between Lakeside and Clementi MRT stations. In fact, why didn’t SMRT just run the shuttle buses all the way between Joo Koon and Clementi?

On deeper thought, the answer is self evident. SMRT under CEO Saw Phiak Hwa ‘Phiak Phiak’ has never been (in my opinion) a commuter-centric company. The company has always cared only about the bottom line and thus trains are run at ridiculous intervals like 4 ~ 5 mins even during peak hours which I defined as between 730 ~ 930aam and 5pm ~ 8pm (since I can’t find any indication anywhere in the stations to tell me what the peak hours are!) Don’t forget that this is the company that refused to put platform doors on the open air station in spite of the spate of suicides on the tracks causing great disruptions to our lives if we are unfortunately enough to be travelling when that happens.

Simply put, if SMRT is to run trains all the way between Clementi and Joo Koon, it would then have to put up more logistics to deal with the passenger flow along each of those stations on both sides of the road. That would be a no-no and thus it is simply ‘common sense’ commuters are put through an agonising triple transfer at Lakeside, Jurong East and Clementi – turning a 15 minute trip from Joo Koon to Clementi into a trip that can take up to 45mins.

There is no point to complain because in typical Tali-PAP fashion, the members of the Public Transport Council [PTC] (which serve no better function other than to rubber stamp fare raises or put into effect ludicrous fare structure modifications that allegedly cost less for 2/3 of commuters which few commuters can agree with), the LTA, the Mini$try of Transport and the Transport Mini$ter Raymond Lemon Lim would have asked those who complained whether they have any ‘better ideas’ to make this work.

As such, it was better for one to stay home (and save himself from the agony and some money) that weekend because the train disruption also put a strain on the other modes of transport in the whole of Jurong. If one is thinking about taxis he is also out of luck, since there was a ridiculous long queue at the Jurong Point taxi stand (at least the one facing Jurong Central Park). Hapless people who are in the HDB heartland areas like Jurong West Streets 4x, 5x, and 9x also had a hard time finding an empty cab to flag down. In fact, some even tried calling for a cab and not getting one after 1130am. Ironically, there was a short queue of 4 ~ 5 taxis at the Jurong Point taxi stand along Jurong West Central 3 – a bare 100 or so meters away from the other Jurong Point taxi stand where passengers waited frantically for a cab to show up around 1pm that day.

It really makes no difference taking the bus either, since there isn’t that many service heading out from Jurong West to Clementi. The wise cracks at the PTC had decided that it would hurt the bottom line of the transport operators if another mode of transport to duplicate the services of the MRT. In my opinion that they are clearing out of their fxxking minds because having a bus service from the rival company running along the MRT line not only provide an alternative for commuters, it also serves as a ‘punishment mechanism’ on its own if one operator screws up. SMRT wouldn’t even have to keep buses on standby for such an eventuality as commuters will all just take the alternate mode of transport (which benefits the rival company). Then again, if such a system is in place there wouldn’t be any reasons for the LTA to fine the transport operators when they screw up! What good is there to fine the operator when not a single cent goes into compensating the poor sods who suffered as a result of the screw up is beyond me.

Anyway, there are just 2 bus services (154 and 198) heading eastwards out from Boon Lay Interchange. Bus 154 stops next to Clementi MRT while 198 stops next to Buona Vista MRT. Sadly, both of them wouldn’t even have gotten a commuter out of Jurong (i.e. beyond Jurong Town Hall Road) within 30 minutes. Such is the wonders of our allegedly ‘World Class Crass’ Transport System.

There is yet another alternative, but one would have to catch Service 99, or just take Express Bus Service 502 all the way to town. All of these alternatives will put you at your destination anywhere eastwards beyond Clementi some way or another. But none of them would have offered you the same speedy mode of transport the MRT would have offered. Frankly, there is completely no use talking about it because it will be met with indifference or what I called contemptuous neglect from those who had the power to do something about it.

While I agree with the Prime Minister Baby Lee that I should have more patience while they upgrade the signalling system of the trains so that the trains can come more frequently, it is my considered opinion that this is clearly not enough to deal with the capacity issues the MRT is facing. It is high time the land transport planners take a hard look at the issue and seriously consider putting some real express buses into service and not the kind like 97e or 502 which still takes a roundabout route. Considering that taxis would have cost me $15 ~ $25 (depending whether it is peak or off peak) to get to town, I wouldn’t really mind paying $4 ~ $5 for a premium, no-standing express bus service from Boon Lay, Woodlands or Tampines interchange to town if that would put me at Raffles Place within 30 ~ 45minutes (not including waiting time). In fact, that might even take some demand off taxis and knock some sense into some recalcitrant taxi drivers who is taking advantage of the thrice damned, infernal surcharges or the call-booking system.

Such a bus service can in fact happen right away, since a bus company now have idle buses lying around with the termination of the shuttle service between the Integrated Resorts and the heartlands. At least the poor bus company which sunk $2.5 million into investing into those buses and hiring all those extra drivers can continue to make some money. Alas, I doubt any of these will happen at all, unless something drastic happens at the ballot box to knock some sense into these self-claimed ‘elites’ in their f**king ivory tower who can’t seem to admit that there are things they overlook. Again, that isn’t surprising at all because doing so would simply prove that they are rather mediocre individuals who aren’t justified to be paid what they have given themselves right now.