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Rail can be better
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Sun, Nov 04, 2007
The Straits Times
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MR | T commuters are a stoic lot. They put up with crowded conditions in rush hour and grumble to themselves why more carriages couldn't be added on. It's elementary. They take in their stride the unreasonably long wait of seven to eight minutes on weekends, and wonder why the operators do not consider weekend evening peak times, with trains running two to three minutes apart. In any metropolitan city, weekends are peak as hordes of people rush about to shop, eat, go to shows and to fulfil social engagements. Weekday lunch hour is also not counted as peak; too bad if executives working in Shenton Way and downtown don't work in a 15-minute margin to their appointments. And this is a business-friendly city. One hasn't even considered the gripe of visitors, about why a place which sells itself big on tourism doesn't offer full-day passes for unlimited bus and rail travel. This is elementary, even in cities not regarded as tourist hot spots.
Our belief is that commuters are just glad they can move about with ease and quite cheaply, too. But the two rail companies fool themselves if they think they need not bestir themselves just because their clientele is not a loud, complaining lot. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he observed a bit of rail conditions when he made his way to the Orchid Country Club in Khatib, in the north, for the NTUC conference last Monday. He saw that every city-bound train was full. His coup de grace: 'I think we need to improve public transport. We've some ideas.' The Government's traffic-relief plans the public has been told to expect in a few months' time would include car use, he said. Rail is a hugely important element in the scheme of things. If the senior rail people have been taking test trips besides reading operational reports and revenue data, they would concede it didn't need a word from the PM for them to anticipate real-life conditions.
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