Tag: mrt

Random Discourse – Public Transport Improvements

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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.

Commentary – SMRT To Reinforce No Drinking / Eating On Trains

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Some friends were discussing on Twitter the recent decision by SMRT to reinforce no drinking / eating regulation on their trains. I believe this is enforced not just on the trains, but also the station platforms, and all of the ‘restricted area’ – i.e. the area leading to the platform after you tap your card.

What is interesting, is that some commuters readily embrace this, and go so far to even suggest that people sucking on a sweet (or lozenges) or drinking plain water should be punished as well.

Before I talk about these people, I would like to say the sudden decision to reinforce this regulation is the result of several conditions. First of all, SMRT has lowered fares recently and need to make up for their ‘income loss’. While they had attempted to adjust their usual ‘elastic schedule’ to try and squeeze more commuters (and thus, income) per train, this had led to an outcry from commuters. There is now a group called ‘I don’t like to squeeze on the MRT’ on Facebook.

Next, the inconsiderate commuters, such as the one who ate an apple in the station daily, and then leave the core on the platform benches, must have pissed off some SMRT staff to no end. On top of that, all the photos posted to STOMP now gave SMRT the perfect excuse / pretext for reinforcement. Of course, they need to pay also for all that advertisement with Phua Chu Kang tell people to give way to alighting passengers and to give up their seats to more needy passengers.

Thanks to these sheep, as my friend Ridzuan called them in a comment to my mei Nicole, there is now yet another thing to make our already hardly enjoyable MRT rides even worse. Though personally speaking, with the trains being so packed I would like to see how SMRT can get their staff to patrol the trains to enforce this regulation!

Anyway, Ridzuan is clearly too kind. I would have called them monkeys, because these Singaporeans reminded me of a ‘monkey experiment’ I read about a long time ago. It goes like this. Three monkeys were put in a cage, and a passage will lead to another section in which there is some food – peanuts or bananas. Whenever a monkey moves through the passage to grab the food on the other side, water will spray onto the section where the other two monkeys remained – to their immense annoyance. After awhile, the monkeys that were repeatedly sprayed, figured out that this has something to do with the other monkey’s actions. And they forcefully restrained the other monkey from doing so, at times even resorting to violence. These monkeys knew and understood why this law in place.

The scientists then removed a monkey and put in a new one, and now turned off the water spray. Without an prior experience of the situation, this new monkey quickly tried to cross the passage to grab the food, which the other two remaining monkeys promptly beat the new one up, even though no water now sprays on them. When all three monkeys stopped attempting to grab the food on the other end of the passage, yet another one of the old monkeys are removed, and again the situation repeated itself. Surprisingly, the monkey that hit the hardest is always the new joiner – which had exactly no clue why it was beaten. The experiment thus repeated itself until none of the monkeys has any idea why there’s this law in place. Now, anyone who tried to cross the passage to grab the food is simply beaten up promptly.

What is my point on talking about this experiment? The point is that there is something called the Spirit of the Law – where you understand why it is enforced, and the Word of the Law – where you understand what it says, but not necessarily the reason or the rational behind it. Neither do you give a damn why it is there and you probably enjoyed it when you see a person punished by it.

In my opinion, the spirit of the no-eating and drinking regulation was meant to keep the trains clean. SMRT will spend a lot to clean up the crumbs of food or stains from colored drinks, to prevent an infestation of ants and cockroaches. The idiots who are the usual whining STOMPERS probably have no clue about this, since I recall seeing some complaints about someone drinking a bottle of… plain water! These monkeys just whined about anyone eating or drinking on the trains – even when these people have not dirtied the trains. Granted, people will take it for granted if the regulation is not enforced, and we might soon find ourselves with a huge pest infestation on our trains, but my point is that some moderation is required when enforcing it – with the spirit of the law in mind. For example, people sucking on a lozenge because of a sore throat / cough, or a mother pacifying the baby with a bottle of milk is excusable.

Talking about wailing babies, my personal advice is that one should bring earplugs in the future, since you probably get more of them on the trains in the future, as a result of mothers not allowed to feed their babies on the trains / platform. Keep a look out for news of babies rushed to hospital because mothers tried to force them to drink more milk than necessary before they rushed onto the trains too.

By the way, since eating on trains is an offense and it deserved a fine, will there soon be an award the good Samaritan who gives up his seat for an old man or a pregnant lady, for example?

Funny Picture of the Day:

Daily Discourse – STARiS

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TODAY [November 8 2008]
– Leong Wee Keat

Can’t hear the name of the station when arriving at the next stop? Wondering whether thedoors will open on the right or left side? Soon, commuters can use a new onboard rail travel information system to find the answers.

SMRT, which operates the North-South and East-West lines, put the system – which includes a new route map and information system – on trial on one train on Friday.

Unlike the existing static route maps in trains, the new map mounted above all train doors will indicate the direction of travel with a series of lights. A red light will show the current station, while a blinking red light will indicate the next station.

A series of green lights will indicate which line the train is travelling on, and the direction of travel. The route map will also have a “door opening” indicator, to show which side of the train the doors will open. Information about terminal and interchange stations will also be shown.

In addition, a fluorescent unit – similar to those seen in 21 trains here – will be mounted on train ceilings, displaying multi-language text synchronised with in-train audio announcements.

The system, called STARIS, was developed by SMRT over two months. It will be installed on all 106 SMRT trains after the trial ends in January. The entire installation would cost the train operator around $12.72 million, and should be completed by 2010.

SMRT deputy president and chief operating officer Yeo Meng Hin said costs would not be passed on to commuters: “It is a service issue and not a fare issue.”

Commuters on the trial train gave their thumbs up. Frenchman Franklin Huber, 26, said: “It helps to tell where you are going. The trains can be quite noisy so we may not hear the announcements.”

Finally! It would have been well done and a pat on the back but what took you fellows so long? After all, the trains have been running since 1987. Thus, SMRT COO Yeo is right to say that this is a service issue and not a fare issue because this should have been implemented for ages.

But there’s something puzzling here. Why is there the need to develop the system when STARiS looked just exactly like what I saw on the Hong Kong MTR trains when I was there in August? Did Singapore once again reinvent the wheel, just like they did with our EzLinkItchyLink card when Hong Kong already have a similar system in place – the Octupus [八達通]?

Furthermore, will this be shared with Comfort Delgro, which is operating the N-E Line and have them pay for part of the development costs so they don’t have to re-re-invent the wheel again? Just why spend money to reinvent a technology that is already available when you can pay the money to obtain it? It makes one wonder what cost analysis was done on this matter to come to the conclusion that developing it is cheaper than obtaining it from overseas.

Either way, I have not much faith in believe that this cost won’t be passed to commuters. After all, if it’s not energy prices, then the justification would be operating costs – which will cover wages, maintenance of the trains (including STARiS), the tracks and replacement of the trains. Just how SMRT justify that it isn’t passed on to the commuters at all will be hard to verify. Above which, even if this was taken from part of the previous record profits SMRT has made to cover this… it simply means the cost has already been passed to commuters.

Oh well…

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