Merry go round

I took my first ride on the Circle MRT Line on Saturday, 30th May 2009. It had been opened earlier to fare-paying customers on Tuesday, 26th May 2009. In fact, it had been opened a week earlier for a free preview by the public which, predictably, the public showed up in droves. I didn't like crowds, so I passed on the freebee.

It wasn't an awesome experience, though. With just 4 stations and a train half the length of their normal N-S and E-W ones, it felt more like an LRT than an MRT. But this is only stage 1, so it may be premature to pass judgement.

However, it opened up more options for me to get from my workplace home and vice versa. To this, I must pat the back of LRT/SMRT, and probably also the Transport Minister, Mr Raymond Lim, for giving me more reasons not to drive around the island. It didn't reduce my traveling time significantly though, perhaps shaved off 5 - 10 minutes. But that's not the fault of the train system. The constraint still lies with the unreliable Bus services. If something can be done about this.

One of the bonuses of this circle line is that it gives me convenient access via public transport to the Shunfu Mart, which houses several award winning food stalls - the Chao Guo Tiao stall (fried Kway Teow), and the Hakka food stall. Yummy. The problem is I've got to watch my weight ever more vigilantly now. For your info, the Mart is a short walk from the Marymount MRT station.

Taxi dole

Whoever (excepting young kids and very old senile seniors) doesn't know that we are going through a recession must have had his/her head stuck in the proverbial desert sand. Jobs have been lost, people by the thousands are showing at at career and recruitment fairs, hoping to secure that 800 or so jobs on offer, probably in industries or businesses they are unfamiliar with. Choice isn't an operational word anymore, at least for breadwinners who need to feed the family.

So I have heard and the press has reported that taxi drivers are also suffering from reduced businesses. The logic is that more people are taking public transport to save money, even as salaries are cut and job security has become the uppermost concern on their minds. So taxis are finding it harder to get passengers. That's how the argument goes.

Well, pardon me if I disagree. Taxi business hasn't really gone down at all, judging from my experience over the last month or so. You see, I always take a cab on Sundays, and for the last few weeks, I have also had to take taxis at various locations around the island during weekdays, such as Clementi and Sims Avenue (near Geylang) - places, which even if you have lived 6 months in Singapore, you would agree has high human traffic almost the entire day.

In all the instances when I wanted to catch a cab home, I have had to wait for no less than 10 minutes for one. Many whiz past with passengers. In fact the other evening, I got fed-up waiting for a cab that I took a bus home. Yeah, it is that bad.

Are Taxi drivers suffering from poorer business? After all, the Chinese New Year has come and gone. So where are the taxis? Lining up at government offices collecting dole money? I have seen how bad business can be for taxi drivers, particularly back in 2003. This recession doesn't look anything like 2003 - it looks very much like business as usual.

Fair revision?

The Great Singapore Transport Fare Sales!
Up to 4.6% Fare Reduction
Hurry, limited time only*
Everywhere must go

Well, the transport fare revision is finally out, and it is going to kick in in April 2009. But it is good only for one year, up till 30April 2010. How typical of the PTC and the public transport companies to set a time cap. This fare revision almost looks like a great transport fare sale. The smart copy writer who came up with the travel ad "The world is on sale, everywhere must go" could have anticipated this Great Singapore Transport Fare Sales.

We are used to Robinson's sales, and Metro (no, not the transport type in this case) sales, etc., but an SBSTransit / SMRT sales is on for a year? So should I rush to take more bus and train rides, just so that I enjoy the sales discounts, no matter that I really don't need to get from point x to point y, just like what many people do when retailers put up sales promotions and people just buy up the discounted products when they really don't need the products on sales?

And please don't tell me the public transport companies are sacrificing $xx million here and there as if they are doing anybody a favour. After more than 30 years in the public transport business, they still haven't really gotten their act together. Otherwise why do you think that people continue to be willing to pay an arm and a leg for private transport?

* promotion ends 30 April 2010

Up and down

What's this I hear? The public transport companies are lowering fares? Well, if this is true, it is indeed good news. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let us wait and see. Not that I doubt it will be done. In Singapore, whenever something is announced (i.e. makes the news without official denial), it will be done. That's the good thing about Singapore. The authorities act like authorities.

And its time they did so too, whether there is a recession or not. This lowering of fares is not about charity or corporate social responsibility. Its economics, stupid. First, the price of oil has tumbled to as low as $40 a barrel. Actually, for us old-timers, $30/barrel was hitting the ceiling many years ago, but I don't want to push this. The age, it shows, you know. Previously they raised fare annually, whatever the price of oil, with the blessings of the PTC. The assumption was that their operational cost will always increase, come what may (read: salary increases, including bonuses). Mercifully, Singapore is too small an island for transport executives to fly in their own jets to meetings. But they don't take public transport either...

Next, commuters are increasingly packed like sardines in the train on their way to work and on their way home, everyday, for all 5 days of the week. Mercifully, the reduction of the work week from 6 to 5 was a godsend. On the other hand, this human congestion does bring us closer as a nation, but I suspect that many citizens would rather that it were in spirit rather than in the flesh. But having said that, I must say that generally, Singaporeans, and even foreigners, don't have problem with body odour. They don't perfume themselves too heavily either, so the packed ride is spared the smell you would normally get in a crowded soccer match. This one thing I can say about Singaporeans, they are a sensible lot, at least on a train or bus. Nevertheless, the public transport companies owe it to the commuters to make the congestion more bearable either by enlarging the trains, or baring this, reducing the fare so our pockets don't keep hurting.

Third, with the money that the public transport companies, i.e. SMRT and SBS Transit, are going to receive from the government in its latest 'giveaway' budget, it will be unconscionable for them to keep it, and worst if they were to give themselves any bonus out of it, like what the insensitive, and might I say greedy Chief Executives in the US are doing even as their ships are sinking. The public transport companies in Singapore have always turned a profit. Their cashflow is quite stable and their de facto monopoly business is probably the best business to be in in recessionary Singapore. They get more business during bad times compared to good times.

The question now is, how much of a reduction will there be?

New ez-link is hard

I spoke too soon. From my use of the new ez-link card these past couple of days, it appears that not every card reader, whether on buses or train stations, are created equal. Some read my card without any problems (of course, I continue to have to use that workaround technique described in my previous blog entry), some have to be 'coaxed' to read it, i.e. the 'last-resort' card sans wallet technique has to be used. The worst performing card readers, it would appear, are in the very busy MRT stations such as Clementi and Sengkang. (Well, I do use these stations quite a fair bit).

I don't understand it. These are contact readers so it shouldn't suffer from wear and tear. The only mechanisms that need periodic cleaning and maintenance are the mechanical gates. Some of them can sometimes be retarded, but that's pardonable.

I hope my rant about the new ez-link card is over. It hasn't been a pleasant experience using it. I am just now getting used to it and I don't want any more unpleasant surprises...

Old is better

Singapore is a place with a reputation for efficiency. So naturally, I took my complaint about the new ez-Link card to the person sitting in the MRT Control Station. I explained the problem and asked, rather rhetorically, if I could have back my old card. He just reached over his desk, retrieve a piece of paper and handed it to me. He said that I should contact the 1800 number on the paper and explain my card problem. That's very efficient indeed, paring away a complaint in less than it take to say, "I have a problem". You also begin to wonder why the Control Station has such a ready stock of these pre-printed slips of paper with instructions to call a 1800 number.

On second thoughts, these people were in charge of ensuring that the trains are running ok, and handle issues related to the train station. Don't ask a cat to produce milk. Hey! you got the wrong guy, right? I took the paper but lo and behold, the listed number to call was for lost or stolen cards. Now, my card is neither stolen nor lost... I gave up with officialese. I had to solve the problem myself. So much for Singapore's reputation for efficiency, and we are thinking big about growing our service economy...

I surmised that the reader might not be able to read my new ez-Link card because it was buried in all my other cards in the wallet. I re-arranged my cards so that the ez-Link card was on its own and nearest the outer back of the wallet. This way, it would be the first card that comes into contact with the signals of the reader. And it worked!

But I have a new irritant. The readers on buses take a longer time to read my card compared to the old one! Previously, it was really 'touch and go'. Now, with this new card, it was 'touch wait hear look hear and then go', taking me at least a second more than I previously took to get out of the bus. Now, you may think that 1 second isn't a long time, so what am I complaining about? But when you consider that when everyone else has to do the same, you are looking at a lot longer to process the queue out of and into the bus. That's not progress.

This new-fangled ez-link card? Well, the LTA can have it back and eat it for breakfast, for all I care. I want my old card back.

Old Card New Card

Since 9 January 2009, Singapore Bus and Train commuters are able to use the new CEPAS-compliant ez-link card on the subway train (MRT/LRT transportation network) and the bus services operated by SMRT and SBSTransit. And since that day, people have been queueing up to get the latest 'gadget' in a one-for-one exchange of their existing ez-link card. The public has up till 30 September to change their existing cards, after which, if I am not wrong, the existing card will no longer be valid.

And in typical Singapore style, long queues have formed to get this latest card. Given that 30 Sep 09 is the deadline, there is really a lot of time to do the changeover, so people really do not have to queue. But I found myself in the queue last week and got mine changed within 10 minutes. Call me kiasu, or whatever, but I have since regretted my haste. This new cards has been an irritant because the fare gates at the MRT stations just refuses to read the card unless I remove it from my wallet. I suspect that the reader might have problems deciphering the various cards in my wallet, as happened with the new NETS Cashcard I bought a couple of months ago. In the case of the Cashcard, I had to put it in my coin and key wallet. I don't shudder to think that I need to carry a third wallet to isolate the new ez-link card.

The odd thing is, the readers on the buses, whether those from SBSTransit or SMRT, have no problems whatsoever with this new card. I continue to successfully 'beep' the card while still lodged in my wallet, as I used to do with the old card. Sheesh. I say again - I now regret changing to the new card. It has no significant added benefit over the old card, at least for now, until some other establishments, such as retail shops, start accepting them from February onwards, as promised. Payment for ERP using this card will have to wait a bit longer as the in-vehicle-units need to upgraded also.

I hope Transitlink and LTA will resolve this problem - err...not by replacing the readers on the buses, mind you. Carrying three wallets will make my pants bulge - I just don't want to be mistaken for being permanently, err, on via***, you know. Right now, this new ez-link card is nothing but a pain in the ass, really.

See also:
SeP - LTA's new generation e-payment system
ez-Link card exchange exercise

Driving service

I don't know if it has anything to do with the falling price of oil, and the resulting drop in the price of petrol. I don't know if it has anything to do with the impending removal of the 30 cents taxi surcharge. I don't know what the recession is doing to people. Or is it simply because I was irritated?

I bought a 5-level stocker yesterday - quite large by normal standards. A brave decision because I don't drive and I was at Giant, Tampines - which is as far away from civilisation that you could find in urban Singapore. How could I lug that home, I wondered? It wouldn't fit in a bus without my getting cold stares from the public and walking was definitely not a option. Taxis were the only means of transporting that stocker and myself home. I was hopeful that it would fit into the booth of a taxi. You'd have to try, right? And anyway, if it didn't, surely it would fit in the back seat?

A Comfort taxi came along after a very short wait. I asked the driver to open his booth, but lo and behold, there were a couple of pails in there. I asked the driver if he could somehow remove the pails (perhaps to the front passenger seat) so that I could try to fit my stocker into the booth. He threw a glance at my stocker and said it wouldn't fit. All this while he kept his bum on his seat. He just wasn't interested to help think of alternatives, nor to come off his seat and his taxi to assess my situation more closely. He just wasn't interested, period. It was just a 'take it or leave it, I'm not going to help attitude'. There wasn't anybody else in the queue. He was just 'happy' to burn petrol while waiting for some other would-be passenger to come by. Eventually, he drove off without a passenger.

Meanwhile, I waited for the next cab to come by, hoping I would get more help. Another did come by, a Premier Taxi. This time, the driver got off his taxi and helped me fit the stocker into his booth. It didn't fit, so he suggested the back seat. He helped me put it in and we were off. All this probably took less than 2 minutes - and he earned not only my cab fare, but my respect. I took down his name and cab number, silently. This was stuck on his windscreen. I mean to write to Premier to let them know that they have an excellent driver.

It is often said that we remember the bad things people do, and not the good. Well, I had forgotten to take down the number of the first taxi. I should have so that I could also write to Comfort Cab about the rotten apples in its basket of cab drivers.

Image source: morgueFile.com. Author: Clara Natoli

Leg up to Public Transport

There's a new public transport web site and service available. Unlike SBSTransit's Iris NextBus for mobile devices, which is only available to Singtel and Starhub subscribers, this new service is available to anyone with a cellphone. With this new service, the public transport commuter just sends an SMS message to the number 77722 with the bus stop number. Within seconds, a list of arrival times for all buses at the bus stop will be sent to the cellphone. I tried it twice, and its fairly accurate. Maybe not up to the second accurate. It may be 1-2 minutes off, but in terms of sequence of arrival of the buses, it is spot on.

The only limitation with this service is that it only covers the academic town of Clementi - so students in Singapore Polytechnic, Ngee Ann Polytechnic, NUS, NTU and UniSIM are the main beneficiaries of the free service. It won't be free forever. Come next year (April, I think), each query will be charged. What the exact charge is, over and above the cost of the SMS, which must still be borne by the public transport commuter, is not known yet. iris Nextbus charges 5 cents per SMS request for postpaid customers and 10 cents for prepaid customers (Singtel prepaid accounts only). Since this is a service provided by LTA, it should cost less, hopefully. If it doesn't cost too much, it is going to be a winner, at least for those who use public transport in Clementi.

Oftentimes, I debate whether I want to take the bus on the other side of the road, or this side as several buses on different routes can take me to the same destination. What if I moved away from the bus stop and minutes later, find the bus that I was waiting for 'sailing' in? It happened before several times, much to my dismay. So with this Publictransport@sg system, there'd be no more second guessing. I can make an informed decision.

Public transport has just got a leg up.

Image: morgueFile.com. Author: Martin Cannings

It takes two

The price of oil has plummeted, in concert with the banks and investment houses going broke in the US and Europe. Singapore is now in a recession, yet the price of services in Singapore is still going up, or at least, not going down any time soon.

Electricity has gone up a whopping 20%. Transport costs, particularly taxi services, refuse to go down. A surcharge of 30 cents was slapped on taxi fares some time ago when the price of oil was going north at US$130/barrel. The price of oil is now US$70-$80 a barrel, and we learn that in spite of this, fuel oil is sold at a premium in Singapore for daa daa daa dee dee dee reasons...

Which of us common folks can understand ther pricing mechanism, anyway? The pump price for diesel is $1.53/litre now and the taxi company, in collusion, refuses to take away the surcharge, saying that it will be removed once the price of diesel falls to $1.19 - the December 07 level. So much for competition. Even cars running on gas pretend that they are on diesel.

What if the price of diesel falls to $1.20 and no lower? Then the surcharge will be a permanent charge, and you have the new model of increasing taxi prices. No need to agonise over prices increases in future since all you have to tell the PTC is that the increase is temporary. Well, how temporary is temporary? While commuters quibble over 2 cent increases, or even 10 cents increases that bus companies impose, we have the taxi companies getting away with 30 cent increases (well, ok, the taxi companies also run the public bus services and vice versa).

Well, there are two ways to skin a cat (my apologies to cat-lovers). Either we wait for the pump price of diesel to fall to that magical number, or we force the removal of the surcharge by with-holding our business. Commuters should just vote with their feet, literally, and take less taxis.

And it seem to be happening. Last Sunday, there was a long queue of taxis in front of my place. Usually, you'd have to wait at least 10 minutes to board one, if you are fortunate. Otherwise it would be 20 minutes. On that occasion, I spied a woman with a clipboard writing away while glancing at the taxi queue. No, I don't mean the people queueing for the taxi, I mean the taxi queueing for customers. The last time this happened was during the bad times, economically, that SARs brought. It was a breeze when you'd want to take a taxi then, because they are all lining up for you. When the good times return soon after, commuters were at the selective mercy of taxi drivers again, though not entirely due to the fault of the taxi companies.

I don't know what that woman's purpose was. Usually it is either to report back that there is not enough taxi's at a particular spot or the frequency is good/bad so that something can be done about it. This time around, there probably wasn't any concern for the commuter. It appears that the taxi drivers are more concerned. Well, it was only last Sunday. I would like to see if this happens again. If it does, then it would confirm that people's pockets are truly in sync with the reported recession that Singapore has slippped into.


Image source: morgueFile.com. Author: Cheryl Rankin