I refer to the report, “Only one case of non-compliance” (TODAY April 6) on the Public Transport Council’s review of bus service standards.
Every day, many students and adults rely on both bus and rail transport to go to school and to work.
As fare-paying customers, they have every right to expect the following service standards. Not just affordable fares and timely arrivals, but also a pleasant ride which means air-conditioned comfort with proper circulation of cool clean air in the cabins.
Why the concern? Because this is also a public health issue. Our jam-packed public transportation system is a possible mode for the transmission of various air-borne infectious diseases, such as Common Cold, Influenza, Tuberculosis, SARS, H1N1 and Bird Flu.
For years, many long-suffering commuters have provided feedback about the stuffy and dusty interiors of our crowded buses and trains. Many buses have a lingering smell of stale air, and their aircon vents are often encrusted with black dust which could harbour mould. When breathe in, mould can cause respiratory or asthma problems especially for young students and elderly commuters.
Alas, such customer feedback have fallen on deaf ears. Despite being public transport regulator, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) had conveniently passed the buck to the respective bus or rail operator to cook up defensive “non-answer” replies.
To protect both the health and travel comfort of public transport commuters, why is it so difficult for the LTA to lay down and enforce these service standards on our bus and train operators:
After bus and train services end at midnight, cleaning crew to move in with heavy-duty vacuum cleaners to suck dust from aircon vents and floors. The interiors must be cleaned on a daily basis because of the heavy usage of public transport.
“High-touch” surfaces, such as grab handles and poles should be wiped clean with an appropriate disinfectant.
Set stringent intervals for aircon maintenance and changing of dirty aircon filters.
If the LTA cannot enforce such a simple service standard that will definitely encourage more Singaporeans to switch to public transport, its claim of a “World-Class Public Transport System” will just be an empty boast. It now remains for Transport Minister Raymond Lim and his well-paid LTA bureaucrats to ”walk the talk”.
David See
This is a letter which was rejected for publication by Today.
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Complacency. They keep pointing their fingers at us without considering the irony.
There is so much rubbish and dust between the cracks of the window panes on the buses (new ones) it’s really disgusting. And if they remove the long-distance bus I take to my night-school… let’s just say that night-school –> MRT journey (waiting time: 7 mins) –> SBS feeder bus takes longer and is more expensive than night-school –> some bus stop –> transfer directly to doorstep.
Let’s just say that I like the bus journey more, but I’ll enjoy it more if SBS has the decency to note that there are a few hundred people waiting for a bus at the nearby bus stop at the same time DAILY. They could have done more and added more buses that are not creaky and old (the new buses are left to the centralised areas mainly)
It’s like the frequency of MRT trains (they’re up to 3 mins during peak hour on the east-west line; what now?) and lack of coordination between the interchanges to move the crowd and reduce waiting time (Hong Kong does this so well; but obviously SMRT would not use them as a comparison scale). My major concern: what happened to being prepared for possible terrorists attacks?
“walk the talk” is for little people like us only.
and they are right; everything wrong with Singapore is because of Singaporeans. Singaporeans voted them in.
and OF COURSE they wont publish stuff like that. the author forgot to praise a certain old man a few times in the article.
LTA can only give you basic transport system with World-Class Prices. Maybe you can voice your concern to Ministry of Health or Environment. Or maybe our new Productivity Minister can also take a look.
I think, and very likely so, that they will only get down to the nitty-gritty of wiping or sanitizing grab-poles & handle bars inside trains & buses – after some kind of devastating outbreak – typical from our REACTIVE government (forget the word PROACTIVE). Besides, doing the nitty-gritties would mean spending more money for the people’s comfort & health.
i’m a frequent public tpt commuter and yes despite the rush hour congestion, i think this article has blown the situation out of proportion. true there are areas to be improved but lets take pride that our public transport system is one if the best in the world, and take it from someone who constantly travels for his work. i think the govt has spent a lot of money and resources on our tpt system and this is undeniable. i appreciate TOC’s constant questioning of our ruling party but honestly lets be fair this time round shall we?
I think our public transport system is good compare to myanmar and cambodia. It is with pride that they learn from our transport ministry.
S’pore is not a country, it is a MNC. Things like consumer protection, high taxes, concern for customers etc that take away from profits are not encouraged. In fact we don’t have much consumer protection laws in S’pore. What little we have is also not enforced strongly. It is mainly up to you to sue the company in court. You die your business.
This environment is excellent for screwing the people and making money. If business owner feels that no more big money to be made, just take the money and close down the company — declare business not viable. And immediately go into another line of business. Better to be shareholder than customer.
Below are 2009 financial results for SBS Transit.
Operating profit = $62,203,000 (32.1% increase over 2008)
Net profit = $54,612,000 (34.6% increase over 2008)
I honestly think they are doing a good job. It does take some effort from the govt and LTA to do something like this:
http://blog.byawn-hope.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/complicatedmrtlines1.jpg
And If you guys are frequent drivers, you will all notice the amount of dedication given to the designs and construction of our roads. To cite, look at the the recently opened flyover that links Tampines to Bartley in just a mere 5 minutes? And the CTE widening from Ang Mo Kio to Potong Pasir? The fly-over along Upper Serangoon Road, which previously was heavily congested. Doesn’t it seems that these improvements are benefiting the heartlands? These projects don’t come cheap ok.
Give credit when it is due bah. In this case I think we should not just jump onto the bandwagon and hit on everything and anything. Many of these civil servants are your friends and family members too.
In my own view, the bus systems remains one of the MOST InEfficient PUBLIC Transport system in terms of time-vs-distance and nothing else despite the regular fare hikes over the years which the people accept one way or the other, unsurprisingly.
For a short distance of say under 5 km, the bus can take 45mins or more during peak hours to reach its destination. Using the Mr Ong Teng Cheong-championed MRT system, i am able to reach the same place, on the same day during peak hour much FASTER! and you know what , the cost is prolly the same! this is why i say what i said.
The reasons for bus system slowness is well known. Just that , the root cause remains over the years. Traffic Lights too many in a small place. traffic situation is unpredictable compared to MRT.
Thus, MRT is way superior to Bus systems and i refuse to pay for any more hike. I will walk than sit on the bus again. I have been ‘vomitting blood’ since 1978 due to the bus rides.
Ramonde, I welcome you to take a bus here in NYC. You’ll realise SBS is heaven. Welcome to e real world.
divide and rule is not new. many of us had ridden on it happily because the divide had added up well for us then. now, we sing a different tune.
What can we expect? to perform maintenance…to increase frequency will only increase cost…compared to packing the same number of people like sardines on a mrt/bus
to companies which are only interested in maximizing profit and answering to their shareholder which is we know how…this is what we get. this is the real singapore
overseas singaporean,
ur name is such but not necessarily you are.
i also lived overseas before. All top notch services.
but you cannot compare large cities with a country the size of a relatively small city.
remember , we expect Non Mediocre. Others can be mediocre but we do not expect non mediocre.
our talents are so great and better, they are paid the highest in the world. Remember that.
compare 15 or 20 years ago, to move from point A to B of about 5 km, in peak hours, it still takes a long time. COE or ERP, jams jams jams continue. For decades.
i know where you coming from. But dun waste your time on the enlightened. you wan, go sell your stuff to the Apathetics. Easier for you.
i doubt you lived in overseas before if you think our jam roads are a problem.
LOL rejected by Today newspaper????? This shows how desperate MSM can be.
Overseas s’porean,
you are the one who claimed to have. You need to prove it 1st. haha. else, you are not credible. I can also say i am overseas singaporean. and then what?
the fact is, singapore is different from other countries. It is small to manage. If you compare with larger cities, of course it can be better. But we should not compare apples with durians.
you fail to understand this. until then, we can debate further. I have no patience for ignorance.
ok lah, i suspect you will not understand. to make things easier for you, tell me is it fair to compare a large city of 45 million with singapore’s population of 4.5 million in terms of crime rate?
does this help you to be more enlightened? If not , many readers may help you be enlighted. Its free service for you. You will be saved.
the fact remains, the bus are sardine packed, much like in 3rd worlds during peak hours, but the fares may be higher if not comparable.
the fact remains, the buses hop from one stop to another running at speeds much slower than it can at off peak hours. Sometimes even in early mornings.
I have 1st hand experience. I ‘vomitted blood’ having to endure the long journey for relatively short distances and the way it is routed to collect more passengers thus making the point A to point B trip less than ideally efficient in this aspect.
the buses are not smelling nice all the time despite the hikes. sometimes the bus drivers drive less than ideally by stepping on the brakes too hard that old people fall to the floor if not cause stress to their joints trying to tahan the sudden violent movements.
the buses are cutting into lanes more often now due to either their lack of consideration or skill or lane too narrow or whatever.
hike after hike, the bus travels about the same as before in terms of time and distance.
dun grumble and compare with other country systems. We just need to focus on the current systems. We Expect Non Mediocre. Others can be Mediocre but not ours. Why ? You still got the cheek to ask ?
i dun like taking the bus. expensive and slow.
TODAY rejected the publication of such letter is perceivable. As aways, the truth hurts, thus sweepng issue under the carpet by PAP is the only option. If any Singaporeans who came to read online news for the first time, you should know many hurting truths were censored by main stream media to make PAP look “good” on the surface.
Something i learned all these years is that if we singaporean asks for better services from bus operators. They will give you some improvements but at the same time increased the fares by even more. The more you ask for better service they find excuses to charge you more. The only way is a free and fair parliament that will force PTC to act in consumer’s interest. There can be no other way.
I am a daily bus/train commuter. I have written many times to the LTA (and SBS, SMRT) regarding buses, bus stops and bus interchanges. Each time they reply nicely about how it cannot be done. I have given up writing. They have effectively shut me up by not listening.
There is none so blind as those who will not see. It seems LTA is not interested in implementing anything other than those decided by their management. This is another “frog in the well”.
we should not expect non-Mediocre.
pls wake up!
Well this is what happens once you hand over public necessities to private hands… these buggers are making money and yet have no single intention of at least cleaning up inside and outside the buses. And those pesky ad films outside the windows are just more salt into my wounds.. i have to focus my eyes just to see what’s outside.
is so sian..
When the upper pp intake so many people to the little dot.
6.5m?
Can they solve the jam in MRT,bus and car without increasing fare?
When we talking MRT, squeeze with other people.WhAT they do for us?
they sat nice car and just enjoy themself.
Does this fair ? :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRDbxoR1RUo
singapore traffic jam evidence found on youtube.
COE, ERP what happened?
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