SMRT has actually DECREASE their train service frequencies by as much as 13%! An increase of 19% of demand couple by a decrease in supply of 13% will naturally result in packing the MRT cabins with more people! This is reflected in the increase of occupancy rate from 56% to 76%!
Goh Meng Seng, Singapore alternatives blog
Welcome, this is our “world class” public transport system! it is no small wonder that 6.30pm train @ yew tee is so jam pack! so is a so called good public transport system judged by
1) Max no. of people u can squeeze in
2) Max profit u can reach with min. number of train service
I am surprised the occupancy rate is only 70plus %…
It should have been 99%.
Why would the Transport ministers and Mrt Ceo cares??? You think they take public transport to work???
They only care about how much profits the system makes at the end of the year…and then increase the fares to make even more,citing high operating cost and rising oil prices.
So the more they can people they can squeezed into a train only means more $$$ to be made. and that’s the bottom line.
Adding to the jam packed cars, the aircon and ventilation is really pathetic.
Guess what is on the rise?
1) Molestation on the train by default is excusable.
2) Increase of people falling sick. (Hopefully not H1N1 or SARS).
3) People fainting. (Due to lack of air)
4) Priority seats no longer priority. (Because those who need them most will find it very hard to get into the trains.)
I am sure there are more to add.
if this is true how can smrt do this types of things.
transport in singapore is not cheap.
some more smrt earn so much from the shops spaces they rent to retailers already every year.
they should increase the rent of retailers to very high and use the profit to help singaporeans who take public transport.
Don’t buy cars, save enough money to buy the SMRT shares.
Cars price, parking fees, petrol price, insurances etc in Singapore are ridiculously high. Urge all to not buy cars, buy SMRT shares and earn dividends instead.
I know there are people who have difficulty paying for the SMRT rides even, but for everyone else, the rationale should be obvious.
6) Buy SMRT Shares on January 24th, 2010 12.18 pm ”
Don’t buy cars, save enough money to buy the SMRT shares.”
Sorry, I don’t buy shares of companies run by crony dogs and pigs whose kpi is to maximise profits in order to pay their MILLION DOLLARS salaries at the expense of the public interests. Irony is they call themselves “PUBLIC” transport.
With the govt urge for senior citizens to extend their employability, how are they going to commute to their work place with the incessant increase in transport costs and squeese in cabin space ? Why don’t the old fart take a mrt ride for a change, disguise as his cammotose wife of coz.
most important people not do bad things.
people like ex taiwan president do bad things and lose power.
and might be in jail forever.
hope all singapore politicians only do good things.
if not singaporean will put you in jail forever.
they just don’t give a fxxk about you people cos they already know there is nothing you can do about it except complaining and complaining, too bad you 66% out there voted them in, what just shut up and sit down . . .
ALL MPs n TRANSPORT MINISTRY SENIOR OFFICERS SHOULD TAKE MRT n BUS ONCE A WEEK AT PEAK HOURS TO WORK.
Then, they can blog about their experiences, and understand the ‘common people’ life.
Lemmie let you all TOC public-transport readers on a little tip….motorcycles.
You may not survive but its a happier life if you do.
And you know what? Motorcycles are actually more energy-saving than taking the MRT? Unbelievable, right? Here’s the statistics:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2917/is-mass-transit-a-waste-of-energy
It’s amazing to consider the decline in km served considering how the MRT lines have actually grown since 2003, too.
This Goh Meng Seng fella is a disgrace to the Opposition in Singapore.
Poor grammar and excessive inclusion of emotive rhetoric is not the way to write a decent article if you’re attempting to criticize public policy.
It was really a face-palm moment for me when he blatantly aired his grievances against WP to the media during his resignation.
I really wish to see more opposition politicians elected into parliament but with clowns like him around, how like that? And ultimately, how to even form an alternative govt?
I say it is a show of poor management by LTA CEO, Yam Ah Mee in managing the transport in Singapore.
Do you guys remember the news about senior management in LTA quitting after he came in?
Here’s a link: http://sgtransport.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
Then there is that news about LTA going to do distance based calculation of fares and their spoke-n-wheel strategy. That is going to increase travel time siah…
I speculate that there may be something to do with those military man with their leadership styles. Watching eco-challenge has convinced me of that.
Swiss standard trains always on-time.
French metro super good frequency.
//Buy SMRT Shares
it will be funny if mrt management after screwing you by reducing their frequency, they pocket the savings through higher management fees, while reducing the dividend they give out to you after you bought the shares.
HAHAHA
There are increase in the population of foreigners, when MRT was built 20 years ago, there are not so many passengers, so now resulting every morning jam packed, my girl friend was once molested inside the jam pack train.
train frequency decrease and overcrowding is two different things.
people who actually take trains during rush hour will know that frequency is approximately every two to three minutes, which is much better than what it was before. I never run for trains in the morning because there will be one coming soon.
Having said that, i agree that the trains are overcrowded especially in peak hours. i don’t think there is any more room in improving frequency for trains anymore. If trains were to be one minute apart, there will be an increase in risk of collision.
the solution will be to build more train lines to spread out the flow of people. which is basically what they are doing. i guess the only complaint is why not sooner, faster in tandem with population growth.
“I am surprised the occupancy rate is only 70plus %…
It should have been 99%.”
SMRT likes to produce strange and confusing statistics. Perhaps they are hoping that no one will be able to read and understand them.
You can check out their kinky KPIs here
http://www.smrt.com.sg/investors/documents/key_operating_data_mrt/trains_FY2005_Fy2009.pdf
The number you are referring to is not % occupancy. Rather it is the number of people they crammed into a train car.
In 2003, there were an average of 53 persons in 1 train car.
By 2009, they had crammed 73 people into 1 train car.
This cramming has been very good for business.
In 2003, SMRT earned $72.1 mil after tax and minority interest.
In 2008, SMRT earned $149.9 mil after tax and minority interest.
2009 just ended so SMRT has not published their annual report. One would however expect it to be a very profitable year.
Is it true that the bus people are getting pay hike?
i remembered donkeys years ago before the mrt even endup in woodlands..
in angmokios towards orchard road…you will be lucky if you can squeeze into an empty seats @ ALL
nowadays don’t even dream of findin 1 empty seat even in the offpeak period….
and you people still vote them in place to continue such things?
On SMRT’s Board of Directors (from http://www.smrt.com.sg/investors/shareholders_information.asp), we have a chairman Koh Yong Gua, who has had (maybe even now) very strong links to the PAP prior to his current appointment. Please google his name to find out more.
Also on the SMRT Board of Directors is PAP MP Halimah Yacob, who is also the deputy Secretary-General of NTUC; Ong Ye Kung who is also the chief executive of the WDA (Workforce Development Agency) and the assistant Secretary-General of NTUC.
In addition to these alarming appointments, please also read the SMRT CEO’s statement that “the important of the train is to ensure you can pack as many people as possible”. (from http://pubed.blogspot.com/2008/10/saw-phaik-hwa-president-ceo-smrt-said.html)
And as to why the PAP would like to see the profits of SMRT (a supposedly “private” company make huge profits), it might be because Temasek Holdings is the largest shareholder of SMRT with over 50% of the shares (http://www.ocbcresearch.com/pdf_reports/company/SMRT-091217-OIR.pdf). And I think we are all aware of Temasek Holdings’ even stronger links to members associated with the PAP.
It is very disturbing that there such strong links between the PAP and SMRT, who in their official duties will see many occasions where there might be an unsettling conflict of interest.
The USELESS transport minister is not doing his job, let change a new one the coming election.
CEO of MRT sitting and collecting money and doing nothing. Her famous comment: “There is a limit to seamless transport. If we have a seamless transport for all MRT commuters, then we need over 50 buses waiting for 1000 MRT commuters when they exit the station and that would be impractical.” With such a brilliant analysis from the MRT head, can we expect better MRT service???? Beside this famous comment, what has she done for SMRT, nothing beside changing their uniforms.
The reason SMRT openly abuse you is because of you, Singaporean, who keep bo-chap & keep voting for PAP to return to power, so that PAP & all their Temasek-linked company can abuse you w/o facing any serious consequences.
As a frequent visitor of HK, I have some observation about our MRT system that I think can be improved:
1. Entrances and Exits
Not sure if you have noticed but MRT station only have one entrance and exit via the control station. During peak hours passenger spends more than a couple of seconds to pass through these barriers. In HK, the entrances and exits are spread out, we can walk from the platform and exit the station is more than four or five different direction. Take city hall station as an example. I can’t understand why SMRT does not consider allowing people to walk toward Suntec and Marina direction and exit the station somewhere near HMV store? That would take some traffic volume away from people needing to go to Raffles City or Capitol area.
2. Congested in the middle cabins
Because the entrance and exit are centralized in one location, people can only access the platform from the middle escalators. They will all reach the center of the platform and simply wait around in the middle cabins. If we walk further down to the end, there is always more spaces to stand and not squeeze. Is it people who are lazy or is it bad design?
3. Waiting for an empty train
I don’t know why but my wife loves to do this. Every day she would rather wait another 10 minutes for a empty train so that she can sit down. I sees a lot of people doing that. I just simply don’t understand that. I don’t see this happening in HK although I admit I don’t take from the starting or ending station. People are just simply congesting the platform.
We may not be able to increase the number of cabins in each train but we can definitely make the train more effective.
The reason SMRT openly abuse you is because of you, Singaporean, who keep bo-chap & keep voting for PAP to return to power, so that PAP & all their Temasek-linked company can abuse you w/o facing any serious consequences.
by Steven Yong on Jan 26, 2010 at 9.36 pm
this 1 i 101% + 66% of the techgheephuat constituncy fully agrred on…. sometime i often wondered why do i wasted my breath and energy to tell my upstairs ole neighbours..you all alway tell me your woos and problems? butt by the end of the days..you all still vote for PAP?
why belinda han is not as beautifool as leehsienloong?
10 Things that are bad about the MRT:
1. Unable to increase frequency. Openly admitting it cannot be as good as HK system while we supposedly have world class leadership.
2. Frequency drops after peak hour so much that trains remain excessively crowded even at 8pm to 9pm
3. Idiotic train car design. Grab poles and hand rails are positioned without consideration of where people stand. Obviously no work done to study usability and how commuters’ behaviour gets influenced by the design.
4. Large LCD displays at the stations showing rubbish, such as adverts, instead of useful info. Positioned at one extreme end of the platform limiting legibility from the other end for those fleeting seconds when useful info is actually displayed.
5. Gurmit Singh — don’t we have enough of him already?
6. Adverts by Gurmit (he deserves to be mentioned twice) and whats-her-name to give up seats: being admonished by people who probably don’t take the train.
7. Big lying posters: “Better by Train”. It could be better if it was done better. Right now, its just “Cheaper by Train”. On one occasion recently, a station announced that, due to high volume, commuters were advised to seek alternative transport. Better indeed! Cannot handle volume? Excuse me, what does the M in MRT stand for?
8. New “CEPAS Compliant” (English, anyone?) system sucks. Forces you to pay for services that used to be free. And leading to much more frequent read-errors at the gates.
9. Seatless cars: stand, all of you, whether pregnant or old or what (count the number of “priority seats” in them). These cars are in use even in off-peak hours. Their efficacy is dubious: human beings have a sense of personal space which keeps them a certain distance from each other. Contoured seats and opaque partitions allow people to overcome this invisible barrier. In a seatless car, people stand a distance from one another, especially in the middle of the car. Count the number of people standing on the side of such cars, compared to the number of people who can sit.
10. Finally, foreigners. Nothing against foreigners, just the policy about foreigners: if the MRT is our nation’s artery, keep increasing the number of foreigners without getting the infrastructure ready, is like inducing a heart attack!
“Seatless cars: stand” – The person/team who design this must be “daft”. I agree with jonny, there are less people in the seatless center portion of the car than the other portions. Most are taking a gamble that the seat which you stood in front of might be vacated some stations down. Especially if your ride is more than 45mins, you just take your chance.
As for the priority seats, don’t bother to mark them in the first place. Those who needed them are finding it extremely hard to get into the trains! Once I was in front of a woman in her advance stage of pregnancy. We were waiting at Jurong East Int. for the south bound train. We had to wait a second train to board after one clearing. Though I was right in front at the door and she was just behind me, it took her very long to enter the train. I found a seat but I put my bag on an empty seat next to me. If I had not put my bag there, this poor woman would not had got a seat at all even the priority seat was taken.
Ventilation on the train is pathetic. Just this morning someone fainted at the connecting part of the cars.
Some “cheekos” are taking advantage of crowded trains to molest female passengers. You cannot complain because he might embarrass you. And this is a personal experience!
//jonny
very funny list.
our system is not world class. It is 2nd class. only better than the 3rd/4th world immigrants who haven’t visited Japan or HK.
//rw
define peak hour.
Set it to 7am to 10am, while maintaining the frequency or
increase it to 1 train every 1.5 minute.
I don’t see why there would be problems. I remember seeing trains 1 every minute. in the 90s.
with 7am to 10am, there will be people more willing to wake up earlier to reach their work place earlier to catch a short nap or coffee. (shorter duration train ride at least make the ride more comfortable.
Do a survey.
don’t give excuses.
do your work.
//MataMan
as if MBT is very rational.
show me the rational behind his hdb policies.
Even LKY has to come out to say that if he cannot explain things then he deserve to be voted out.
Or rather he had to come out to explain things for MBT.
As if MBT changes his specs and assumes a new cool look, makes his policies more sensible.
what a joke!
//aurvandil
so SMRT is a more effective tax collecting agent for GOVT than IRA.
No competition is good business .
//jessica
I bet you the old LKY cannot take the mrt alone.
the cram will drive him nuts.
My Mail to LTA (shortened here): Yesterday (23-Jan-2010) evening at around 6.50pm I was at the Woodlands MRT station intended to go to Ang Mo Kio. I couldn’t get on the 1st train, virtually got squeezed out, managed to squeeze, really squeezed in, onto the 2nd train. The situation is even worse if i were to board at City Hall station….
… all these justify the LTA to give approval for future fare increases? The transport operators always cite fuel, salary increases. Did they ever cite passenger discomfort, missed trips, etc?? Now with the Circle line in operation, more passengers are using the trains…imagine what’s going to be like… more seats for the passengers? The elderlies and pregnants are the worse hit, had to stand all the way…or perhaps like me….left on the
platform…!!!
LTA redirected the mail to SMRT, here’s the reply on 19-Feb-2010:
We refer to your feedback on 23 Jan 2010 and sincerely apologize for your train experience. We wish to share that the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) is designed to transport large numbers of passengers promptly and efficiently. As such, our train service frequencies are planned based on travel demand, the carrying capacity of trains and the time required to stop at each station for passengers to alight and board. Over the last few years, we have increased train service frequencies during peak and off peak hours for both the East-West and North-South lines. Our train service frequencies for both lines currently range between two and six minutes during the morning and evening peak hours, with a gradual increase in headway towards the end of the peak period. The short headway currently operated during the peak hours also takes into consideration the need to maintain a minimum distance between trains. We have injected additional 900 train runs per week to the introduction of service ambassadors on selected station platforms during peak hours to facilitate commuter movements. The measures introduced are meant to help create a more pleasant ride in our system even during peak hours. Notwithstanding this, we would like to share that in the planning of train services, SMRT conducts studies and surveys to operate services which match commuter demand at different parts of the day. We will review the frequency to match demand and growth. We would also like to take the opportunity to remind passengers to board the train away from escalator landings where possible during the peak hours as those areas are usually more crowded. Nevertheless, we will continue to monitor the situation closely and make necessary adjustment to ensure that the service is adequate.
Approval for fare increase justified? ….no answer yet..!!!
Any concrete steps to solve the missed train experience?…None…!!!
Circle Line will be in operation in April-2010, Sentosa RW already added load to the congested trains.
Your question for fare increase will obviously be ignored as it is not as simple as you claim. it is not even an issue to be easily resolved within 1 or 2 correspondences.
its quite obvious from the SMRT reply that detailed surveys have been done to gauge commuter demand at various parts of the day. They even have these ‘tokyo train packers’ to pack commuters into trains at congested stations. I would suggest you give detailed suggestions on what you think should be done to improve the situation rather than complaining.
Also, installing the circle line reduces the passenger density per km of train track and lowers the burden on existing tracks and does not contribute to further congestion as suggested. Finally, the middle seat have been designated as ‘priority seat’ in some of the trains if you havent notice yet.
While there have been consensus about the greater stress placed on the singapore transport infrastructure, it remains manageable and stress-free compared to some of the big cities like tokyo and hong kong and seoul. Not saying that the status quo is preferable to past experiences of greater comfort, but that there is no better alternative. so cope with it just like what i am doing now, or take driving lessons and cope with ERP.
I usually don’t take the train, but prefer the bus. Yesterday, at about 2pm, though, I needed to get to Pasir Ris from Queenstown. Would you believe it? The train was packed like anything and when it got to City Hall, people were literally pushing and squeezing in. Much like during peak hours on the weekdays. It was quite terrible. I thought that our population is shrinking? Not enough babies and whatnot? So where did the crowd come from?
And amazingly enough, the intervals for trains were at 6 minutes apart. It really makes you wonder. But I did meet some kind people on the train who let me have the seat when they saw I was carrying a child. So perhaps, there’s some kind of saving grace after all?