Who Really Pays for MRT Fines?

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Today’s Straits Times reports about LTA reviewing the penalty framework for MRT breaches. Everyone’s very mad about all the recent MRT breakdowns, particularly the two major incidents in December 2011. We’re all thinking that the MRT operator should be fined heavily. But do you wonder, at the end of the day, who really pays for the fines? If the operators’ bottom lines are affected by these penalties, or side-effects of such penalties (e.g. increased maintenance costs), they’ll ultimately petition the…

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Our SMRT Drama Unfolds

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The last couple of days we’ve been entertained by the public inquiry into the spate of SMRT disruptions. We’ve just come to the juicy part where SMRT ex-CEO Saw Phaik Hwa gets grilled. Not unexpectedly, we’re going to learn about many more things wrong about SMRT. One of the key issues is about the maintenance budget set by SMRT had not kept pace with the growing ridership. To cut a long story short, Ms Saw claimed a mid-life refresh had averted…

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If Only SMRT Had More of These…

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The SMRT breakdown yesterday could have been easily averted. A power supply earth fault had brought down their communications backbone network, and that disrupted their train signally and hence te trains could not run. Now, I suppose they do have UPS backup power, but probably just not enough of it. If only they had enough batteries, the 2.5 hrs of downtime could have been averted. It seems like such a silly thing for network equipment to run out of power….

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The Singapore-Class Transport System

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Transportation is in the hot seat lately. Last week, it was about our Transport Minister justifying that MRT breakdowns are unavoidable (see The New Singapore Standard for Train Service). This week, we are told to be prepared for more shutdowns. I’m disappointed. These stunts are what I call “managing expectations”. Or more appropriately here, “managing disappointments”. I’m annoyed because “managing expectations” is what books teach me to do to other people. It doesn’t feel so great when others practice what you’ve…

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The New Singapore Standard for Train Service

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I read with disappointment our Transport Minister Mr Lui’s address in parliament. I thought we were supposed to have a world-class public transport system. His Ministry is only targeting to minimize train disruptions that last longer than 30 minutes. I suppose delays under 30 minutes are considered tolerable. If the train operators can shorten the delays to under 30 minutes, they would have satisfied the new standards for train service Mr Lui wants. Seriously? Shouldn’t you want to minimize the…

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What’s Wrong With Taxis in Singapore?

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I was flipping through our Land Transport Authority’s Land Transport Master Plan recently. A couple of statistics caught my attention. One of it is about taxis. According to the LTA, there are 5,129 taxis per million persons in Singapore. There are 2,642 taxis per million persons in Hong Kong. I’m extremely puzzled. In Hong Kong, if you accidentally wave your hand while standing at the road side, a taxi will very quickly pull up and stop next to you. Taxis…

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A Case of Failed Communications

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Our SMRT trains have been on the headlines for the past week. I decided that I need to weigh in my own two-cents about the whole episode. The problems that have been occurring of late have hit on an unprecedented scale in our public transportation history. The MRT trains which so many people are dependent on for the daily commute are expected to run flawlessly. How can they fail us? Most of us have been venting our anger at SMRT….

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Alongside Cyclists

I used to cycle around a lot, on the roads. That was over 10 years ago. I think I was a well-behaved cyclist, keeping to the side of the road, not getting in the way of motorized vehicles. Back then, the danger was with drivers not looking out for cyclists on the roads, not having awareness of their presence, not knowing how to react to their movements. The last couple of months, the issue of cyclists has cropped up many…

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SMRT Forgets To Pay The Bills

This should be an embarrassment to SMRT. It looks like they forgot to pay their bills. Their corporate website www.smrtbuses.com.sg is now inaccessible, because apparently the license for their Blue Coat proxy appliance has expired. Maybe it’s time to raise bus fares again, so that they have enough revenue to pay for their IT operating expenses. Not only is there inflation, rising fuel prices, wage increases, but there is also IT costs to grapple with.

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