Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan earlier this week chided reporters for unfair coverage of train breakdowns. He was halfway in a prepared speech on the reliability of Singapore’s rail network when he decided to go off-script, challenging reporters to run the train system themselves. Mr Khaw had said: “But I thought they were being unfair to the teams … working…
About two years ago, I wrote about Mediocre Engineering, Failed Management, in reference to SMRT’ s breakdowns. I was wrong. While it’s clear their management has been a failure, it’s beginning to emerge that their engineering isn’t doing that much better either. If I were to use favourite words from Donald Trump, they would be labelled an “absolute disaster”. I…
SMRT begun “signalling checks” of their brand new signally system this month, during weekdays, and including during peak hours. Not surprisingly, numerous disruptions occured, leaving commuters upset and wondering if this is just but the usual breakdowns, now cleverly disguised as “signalling checks”. We’ve had signal faults, track faults, train faults. Faults are now “checks”. The public was even earlier informed that…
SMRT announced that all trains traveling on the North-South Line will pause for 10 minutes around 11pm on Tuesday 28th March. This is when they will be switching over to commence trial on a new signalling system that allows trains to travel at closer intervals. I’m sure this sounds all like good news for train commuters. Except that, why in the…
With the completion of sleeper replacement works, speed limits on the East-West Line (EWL) will return to the normal 80 km/h, allowing for faster train rides. Don’t be too happy though. With faster train movements, we should expect greater wear-and-tear, likely resulting in more breakdowns in the system overall. Train faults, track faults, power faults, sleepers sure also can fault. That…
I’m certain many of us have been joking about it. With all the frequent MRT breakdowns, problems are just the new normal. The day the MRT actually works, that will be big news. Indeed, that day has come, with our Straits Times declaring “Circle Line glitch-free since Friday evening“. The trains actually worked. Finally. Today, before reading about this news,…
There are many times I wonder if a prerequisite to being a politician is having a screw loose in one’s head. I’m sure we can identify numerous instances when the messages coming from them just seem completely illogical, and we stop in our tracks (pun intended) to wonder what did we just hear. According to Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan, going public…
Bus operator Tower Transit has begun operations late last month. They are the first company to be awarded a tendered bus package under the Land Transport Authority’s (LTA) new bus contracting model. In a sweeping restructuring of the public bus industry, the authority will own buses and infrastructure, while tendering out operations and service management to bus operators. Tower Transit…
Two weeks ago, I joked about how the likes of Grab and Uber should band together to form a national association for private hire drivers, the equivalent of the National Taxi Association (NTA) for taxi drivers (NTA Just Cares For Themselves). It turns out such an association has indeed been formed. I suppose it was a matter of time that it…
The National Taxi Association (NTA) is an association that represents taxi drivers. If there is some threat to taxi drivers, of course, it’s the NTA’s job to protect them. Let’s just forgive their executive adviser Ang Hin Kee. The remarks he makes about Grab and Uber, it’s just what he has to do. We’ve heard him, so now lets move on. Let’s hope…