Votre Coeur: SMRT=Singapore Money Rolling Tree

SMRT=Singapore Money Rolling Tree

Posted by Mastermind at 1:51 pm

I was planning to grumble about the high costs of owning a car until I came across this piece that have already done it. Bernie, the author, praises the Singapore transport system, specifically MRT, for it's efficiency.

Singapore has gotten it right. Its transit system is comfortable, safe and absolutely clean. There is an efficient and inescapable way of paying for it. There is a cost structure that in and of itself makes it prohibitively expensive to own and operate a car.

Mastermind says it's more comfortable now (more standing space), safer (no dustbin and mail box for terrorist) and perfectly clean (no place to throw trash so where got rubbish?). For an added bonus, there is an inescapable way of over paying now compared to the time when the author visited.

However, it troubles me when I came across this line which justify a second look at the article.

A dollar-value card is inserted into a slot in the turnstile at your origin station. At the end of your trip, you again insert the card into a slot in the turnstile as you leave the station.

Slot? What slot? Oh.. the now defunct transitlink slot. No wonder the descriptions doesn't match.

Then it came to me that what the author wrote was based on a 2 weeks stay back in 1999. Which is like the Medieval times for the MRT's. Back in the good old days when we still use the reliable transitlink cards, the time when peak hour travel looks a lot less like smarties, when I actually enjoy my rides on MRT.

But the point is, the prohibitive price of cars is not the only reason behind Singapore's successful transport system. It's the monopoly SBS and SMRT enjoys that made it successful. I'm sure older folks would remember privately owned buses ply through certain routes in the past that charges a fraction of the fare. Sure, some of those buses have no air-con and certainly no TV Mobile to go with it but who cares. Why would I need TV to entertain me on a 3 bus-stop ride to school? If private companies were allowed to compete with SBS directly, I'm sure Singapore's public transport system would be better. Just ask those friends who stay in North east area what happened when North East Line opened and to track further back, Choa Chu Kang residents when the LRT started. It became more troublesome and more expensive for them to travel.

The public transport system is suppose to affordable and convenient for peasants like us. But when Singapore wanted to go for a "world class" system imported from some foreign countries, the public transport system have been taking steps backward for years. I still admire the metro system in Paris whereby you can find a metro station within 400m wherever you are there. Now that's convenience.

Tagged: singapore mrt