This is going to be a non personal finance post and I’m hoping it doesn’t end up being a rant. But we are starting to lose it with SMRT and we are not even taking the North-South Line, which seems to be taking the brunt of the delays and breakdowns. We take the East-West Line in to work every weekday morning from the East side of Singapore into the city.
We used to drive in to work a few years ago since it was easy to carpool with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. All of us were working in the city and my mother-in-law had season carparking. However, the road traffic on a weekday morning is terrible and it makes for a difficult drive. And we got to a point where my father-in-law, who is retired from full-time work, had to drive all of us in since we were too tired from work to navigate the heavy traffic.
This worked up to the point until the work schedules of my mother-in-law and brother-in-law started differing from ours significantly. Since it was taking up too much time and effort to coordinate (not economical as well to drive the car into the city twice), my wife and I decided to start taking the train in to work. We have tried taking the bus in to work on weekday mornings before. It may be the cheapest option but takes up the most time because the bus route doesn’t get us into the city directly. And the bus has to go through even worse road traffic conditions because of its route. We also tried taking taxi/Uber/Grab in to work on weekday mornings too. The fares are higher due to increased demand and can rise even further when there are train delays and breakdowns.
Which leaves us with SMRT. What should have been a cost-effective and fast means of transport to get us into the city. We have to admit that we were shocked with the state of SMRT when we first returned to Singapore in 2014. The overcrowding, train delays and breakdowns contributed to our decision to drive into the city. The last time we worked in Singapore before 2014 was as interns in 2008. It was a different world back then when SMRT used to be a lot more reliable and trains were less crowed with few delays and breakdowns.
With this new signalling system installed, SMRT seems to have reached a new low. When testing the new signalling system during peak hours, it causes signalling faults instead of reducing the interval time between trains like it’s supposed to do. The fact that a new system breaks down almost every time you test it goes to show how many fundamental problems it has. And it doesn’t seem to be improving, which worries us even more.
We are fine to be used as guinea pigs if we can see the new signalling system stabilising but this is not the case. This is what it’s like for us every weekday morning. We check the SMRT Twitter feed to see if there is a major train delay or breakdown before we take the bus and make our way to the train station. After all, the SMRT Twitter feed doesn’t announce minor train delays, which can be just as problematic when you are trying to be on time for a 9am meeting.
Even if there is no major train delay or breakdown, as we take the escalator up to the platform, we hope SMRT has got their act together that day. Sometimes, we hear announcements on train delays due to signalling faults. These don’t show up on the SMRT Twitter feed but we know we are screwed the moment we see long queues at the platform doors. We wait in line and look at the train interval times. Anything above 3 mins means we will be in this mess for a while. Yup, it’s 4 mins, sometimes 5 min, which explains a lot. We can look forward to missing trains and squeezing ourselves onboard to be packed like sardines in a small space.
We watch all our time and effort waking up earlier in the morning and taking the bus to the train station evaporate as we miss a few trains. People on the trains don’t like to squeeze to the centre and people waiting for the trains don’t like to squeeze onboard. We don’t blame them. Nobody likes to start their morning in such a manner. But we have no choice if we don’t want to be late for work. So we push ourselves into the trains and sometimes tick off the people that are already packed so tightly against each other.
That’s how we start our morning, the most important part of the day. What kind of mood do you expect us to be in for the rest of the day? And you wonder why Singaporeans are always so pissed off. As we stand in the trains with people’s arms, hands with phones and bags jammed up against our bodies and faces, we start to feel our patience wear thin. Then we start to feel our anger grow. We feel stuck in every way since there’s no viable alternative mode of transport we can take into the city without causing even more inconveniences or paying more money.
SMRT platform staff is telling us loudly (people with their faces pressed against the door that can hear them the most) to move in to the centre. We see posters of SMRT technical staff smiling and working hard asking for us to be patient with them while the trains continue to have delays and breakdowns. Lastly, we remember our Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Minister for Transport Khaw Boon Wan complaining about the media over-reporting on train delays and breakdowns. And his assurances that the system should stabilise over time despite having no technical or engineering breakdown. A person with a million dollar annual salary and who probably doesn’t take the train in to work telling us to believe in him.
By the time we get to Raffles Place mrt station, we have anger management issues and feel like punching someone in the face. But it all goes away when we get to work because we have to deal with more important problems and keep our jobs. When the evening comes around, we have lost hope in SMRT and expect the trains to be delayed and breakdown. We feel fortunate and thankful that our train is on time. We even have space to stand in the center and talk to each other about our day. We start wondering whether SMRT is conditioning us for this new environment with their recent change in operating model to “You are lucky if we are on time”. Well done SMRT!
Our worldclass MRT looks 3rd world, like the slow trains of India and Myanmar.
Even after Khaw BW comes in, it isn’t any better. Putting a CEO of a President Scholar and paying him millions also make no difference. Privatising the whole SMRT is surely an excuse. Poor PSLE children taking their exams….
Those idiots who subscribe that high salaries would make a difference need to examine their heads. It is these high salaries that caused the GFC in 2008 and inequities. Those American follies are outdated. The low salaries of the Chinese bureaucrats are the in-thing. Maybe things will be better if we eat more brown rice? LOL.
Today, if we go a day without these breakdowns, is an exception and we thank God for it.
Yes, our train system seems to be getting worse over time. I can see why it is easy to get frustrated at the ministers receiving such high salaries but not producing any results. People with high salaries and don’t achieve anything tend to get fired in the private sector. But that’s not the case in the public sector and this can be a problem. Yup, getting off work soon and the North-South Line seems to be having issues. I’m hoping the East-West Line is fine!
You Singaporeans should try our Malaysian KTM at peak hour in KL and be proud of your MRT. One train every 15 minutes and pack like sardines, no one complain. And yes, we pay much higher fare (in terms of digit eg RM4+ vs SGD1+ for the same distance) than your MRT.
Train breakdown/delay everyday is a normal problem for us. We are basically so use to it. If the train doesn’t have a delay/break down, it’s a miracle.
We Malaysians are used to 30-45 minutes train delay ok. 4-5 minutes delay is already considered “ontime” already. *rolleyes*
Sometimes, when you have used other country train system and compare with what you have , you will realised that your SMRT is way better than what we poor Malaysians have (our KTM).
I get where you are coming from but comparing Singapore to KL (Malaysia) isn’t fair. Plus I don’t live long-term in KL (Malaysia) but I do in Singapore. They are two very different cities in terms of infrastructure, culture, population, cost of living, etc. The same argument can be applied to say SMRT in Singapore is better than a country/city with no train system. We can try comparing Singapore in its present to Singapore in its past to see how much the train system has deteriorated.
I take your point that Singaporeans have it better than Malaysians when you compare SMRT to KTM. But it’s always an easy win when you compare to a worse counterpart. We pride ourselves as being a global city so shouldn’t we compare against our better counterparts?
Hahaha … I couldn’t even stand it back in 2002 when I returned from a few years working in UK. I worked in a Uni town so even London & its Tube felt claustrophobic and polluted to me after 6 months in a small town. Singapore felt like a madhouse!! Probably the same feeling if a Sinkie were to go from here to Kolkata or Mumbai.
Even back in the mid-2000s, I purposely went out no later than 7am to take the bus, just so to avoid having to take MRT. The extra 30-40min travelling time was worth it for being able to sit down, do some reading or mental visualization exercises on the way to work. I’ve been fortunate to have encountered only 2 MRT breakdowns in over 20 years.
Luckily I’m not working now, so have escaped all those “delays”, “signal faults”, etc. Frankly I don’t have much sympathy for those caught up in all these daily BS (Sorry….). Most people chose it of their own accord … when the upper beams are not straight, the lower beams will be crooked.
Wow, so you went out early to take the bus and avoid taking the MRT. It’s good that you made use of the extra 30 to 40 mins of travelling time. Yeah, it comes down to the failures of the Government and SMRT leadership!