This post is modified from a comment I posted on one of Ignorant Soup’s blog post.
He is dead right on this matter. People buy a car for 2 simple reasons – the public transport sucks and they really needed one (people who do sales for e.g.). In fact, I suspect Uzyn, the founder of ping.sg, would be in a better position to tell us why he bought a car too!
Here are some examplesof the gripes about our world class transport:
- I saw on Twitter the other day, a pingster (I think it was DK) talking about the MRT trip from Bugis to Somerset in which he wasted 11mins – waiting. And to think of it, I think there’s really not much time gained between taking the MRT to Funan Centre from Raffles Place compared to walking there too, when the weather is good.
- There was a day when I took the MRT from Dhoby Gaut to Little India in which the trip is 1.5mins and I spent more than 4 min waiting. It must have been absurd to some that I complained about the waiting time when it takes less time compared to the bus. But having the waiting time to be almost 3 times the travelling time is quite absurd on its own!
- There was another day I needed a bus from Fullerton Hotel to Marina Square because I was late and I end up waiting 20 mins for either bus 97 / 75 when several 131s, 100s, 10s, and 196s (plus even a 70, which comes every 20 mins) went past. Had I walked (and I would have when the weather isn’t so blasted warm), I would have reached way ahead anyway.
- Take also the bus 157 or 198 coming out of Boon Lay Interchange. Try taking a ride on either of these buses during the morning peak hours, and I can assure you that you won’t get out of Jurong even after 20mins because it prowls Jurong West and Jurong East Ave 1. And when we have a spoke and hub system, why are these inter-town buses prowling the routes where feeders are already prowling… again? And in fact, won’t this be a clear indication that the spoke and hub system is inefficient and the feeder bus system should be done away with completely?
- Then look at bus 51 which travels out of Jurong East to Hougang. It goes around Pasir Panjang, Alexandra Road, Queensway, Alexandra Road again, Havelock Road, China Town, Hill Street.. * yawn * I assure you anyone who has tried making a trip from Jurong East to Hougang on this bus should really bring a bottle of water and ignore the no eating / drinking rule because you might die of thirst when the bus reach Hougang… 1.5 ~ 2hrs later! I wonder, can we even find one inter-town bus that can get you between them in about half an hour?
- The MRT – Does the LTA not know that the satellite town concept means there’s a low turnover of passengers in between stations? For e.g. if you use the N-S line northbound, you will notice that almost every station there’s a nett gain of commuters until Toa Payoh onwards? Or the E-W line westbound, you will notice that the trains are usually packed until Jurong East?
In short, this gahmen is talking out of its arse when it talks about a world class system without considering just how this blasted system that meets the generic performance matrix is in complete shambles when you include it’s true performance and daily commuter comfort for those travelling to work. In fact, I am not surprise that it takes most Singaporeans – without the luxury of moving like our Fallen Talents – about 45mins to an hour traveling between home and work. And that’s just only one way.
Please, don’t tell me to find a job that’s near home because jobs I don’t take are taken up by Foreign Fallen Talents in a blink and with much lower wages too!
Finally, it doesn’t take much for one to ask just how ‘World Worse Class‘ it is when the very guys who said so won’t even set an example to use it daily! How justified can the fare hikes really be, when the people who approves them generally only take public transports once in awhile? And I don’t even want to get started about taxis all over again, since I have talked about them before.
I concur with DG…
The satellite town issue does mean that we will get net adds until we reach an interchange or Raffles Place (most of us work there)…
I do take the MRT in the morning every day from Gombak Station (2nd last stop on the NS line towards Jurong East Interchange) and even at 6.50am, I typically have to wait 15 minutes before I can board the third train as the first two would be too packed…
On the other hand, the train from Jurong East towards Marina via Woodlands would be quite empty when it arrives at Gombak…
However I can’t go via that way because it would take me >1 hour to reach Raffles Place as compared to 25 minutes on my usual route…
SanNiang> If we even have voters like the Taiwanese to begin with.. perhaps.
NTT> Tell that incompetent fxxker who is now taking the $3 million pay to fxxk off, and give me his pay. Then I’ll show you what I no. If not, don’t even ask.
“Do they actually know what to fix in our transport system?”… Do you??
” … when the very guys who said so won’t even set an example to use it daily! … ”
not every World Class officers we have are as humble as the Taiwanese 1st Lady to be …