Anyway what can we do, We just LOVE PEACE. Change your mindset! LIVE WITH IT!

Don’t waste time here. What we should do now is to earn more money to pay for the increasing standard of living in Singapore. I always think that the more richer you are, the more all this “increased in standard of living” will benefit you. Looking forward for the opening of the whole stretch of KPE.

“In fact, I find many of them merely reflect the well-known short-falls, some of them gave hypothetical reasons, and others even wrote personal and political attacks. What I also find disappointing is the absence of gracious lucid articulation”

The only lucid thing is that our pockets gets burned deeper and deeper with no imporovement but the situation getting worst because of unforseen consequences. So what solutions & gracious lucid articulation are we talking about. They have been experimenting (you may call it deliberately planning) for so many years with COE, PARF, ERP, weekend plate, high fuel tax, taxi fare (with so many levels of costs that add to confusion rather than enligtenment), privatisation in the name of competition and whatnots and so what do you get finally.

Record $150m profit on $800m revenues for FY 2008 from $135m profit on $740m revenues in FY 2007. 8% revenue growth and 11% profit growth. Increasing oil costs?

So despite increasing costs, do people in Singapore actually pay more for a public good to fund shareholders profits as well? :-)

Will FY 2009 see even higher record profit? Doesn’t take a genius to guess…

Both the deficiencies and the necessity for improve are clear.

What is more uncertain, in my opinion, is how best to fix it. I’m not entirely sure that nationalizing public transportation will definitely work. A quick scan across the world reveals that nationalization works for some countries but not others: (1) state ownership works in France, (2) privatization works in Japan, (3) nothing works in UK.

A more pragmatic approach is to examine available information objectively and to explore new solutions without fear or failure. To achieve this, both the government and people need to change.

The government needs to be more transparent about the traffic statistics and revenue. Availability of information allows more people, for example universities or interested individuals, to understand the situation and to propose new perspectives objectively. What is equally important is communication of the rational behind public policies to the people. I find these efforts seriously lacking.

On the other end, I (sorry for being equally blatant) find some responses from the public useless at alleviating the current problem. In fact, I find many of them merely reflect the well-known short-falls, some of them gave hypothetical reasons, and others even wrote personal and political attacks. What I also find disappointing is the absence of gracious lucid articulation.

Imagine the heartlanders’ outcry if a clearly govt-owned transport company increases fares as blatantly as what SMRT and SBS did so regularly. Now, our govt can “honestly” claim that these fare increases are commercial decisions (not govt decision) of any publicly listed companies which must answer to their shareholders. However, the govt conveniently fails to mention that it is also the biggest shareholder.

Many netizens know what the govt say is partially true, but it is NOT the whole truth. As even more heartlander uncles and aunties do not know they whole truth, these are the 66.6% who give their votes to PAP after receiving GE handouts.

A series of measures, like increasing ERP charges and installing more ERP gantries at various “strategic” locations, have been implemented to discourage owning a car. To encourage more to take public transport, LTA has come up with a masterplan to make travelling easier. Higher frequencies of buses and trains between intervals especially during peak hours are ordered by the LTA to transport operators.

Question comes down to “Are Singaporeans taking public or private transport?” Now, all transport operators are privatised and the big players like SMRT, SBS Transit and Comfort DelGro, are all listed on the stock market. They will need to answer to shareholders and ensure y-o-y profit are improving, if not maintained.

How many times have we read, seen or heard of complaints from commuters because of overcrowded trains or buses, or filthy buses? How many minutes have been wasted because of long waits for buses or trains? How often do you read of passengers complaining on taxi drivers “hiding” from the streets but suddenly reappear out of nowhere with a “On Call” sign?

Despite higher oil prices, SMRT still managed to report higher net profit of S$149.9M, up 10.4%. So, is their past arguments on a need to up transport fares justifiable? Also, are the public consulted prior to an increase in on-board rate for cabs? The taxi operators simply proceeded with their increase without listening to both the cab drivers and passengers. Profit is number ONE.

Let’s admit the fact that we, Singaporeans, no longer are taking public transport. We are taking PRIVATE transport. I will not be surprised should transport operators submit another round of fee hike proposal and get it approved year in year out. It’s time to introduce and bring in big and new players so no single operator can “monopolise” the market. When I says big, I really mean big if not their influence to the market is of little if not negligible insignificance. Remember how the other smaller taxi operators have no choice but to follow big boy Comfort DelGro up in fare prices?

hongjun
http://hongjun.blogspot.com/

So it must goes to follow, perhaps somewhere , perhaps part of the governing of Singapore need to be ‘ptivatised’ and ‘outsourced’

Bus no 197 and 198 do not come from the same terminal. One is from Jurong East and the other is from Boon Lay. But, I have experienced similar cases (quite often actually) where 2 double-deck 198 bus has passed before a single-deck 197 bus showed up.

As for “de-privatising” of the public transport? I don’t think it would make much of a difference now.

As it is:
Their routes are “government-approved” ones.
Their fares are “government-approved” ones.
And: Guess who’s the major share holder for both SMRT and SBS? (There was even an article in TOC on this)

Yes, what can we do about it? BIG ZIP. As the ministar incharge of introducing the New Water said – Singaporean will adjust to new levels of discomfort in time. (or something to that effect!) So, if the PAP (or the Board of Directors of Singapore Inc) wanted to implement something, it will get done irrespective.

Some said that PAP will be punished in the next GE. Do you really think that PAP will allow that to happen. There are really imaginative and lawful ways to adjust things before the next GE. It is not true that 66.6% voted for PAP. 66.6% who got to vote voted for PAP. I cannot imagine how many of us never got the chance to even vote. If you transpose that percentage over the whole of the Singapore electorate, it will be a very interesting percentage. So dream on Singaporeans!

That’s a world class public transportation system for you.