THE Land Transport Authority (LTA) has claimed that removing some seats on trains will raise people's chances of boarding and give standing commuters more room ('Fewer seats on this MRT train', Nov 12).

These twin aims are not achievable by merely reducing the number of seats. The present press-formed seats have been shaped and sized to seat passengers compactly, with barely enough shoulder and leg room for a medium-built individual. Hence the converted space will in practice take about the same number of standing passengers as seats removed, after allowing for shoulder room and room to avoid breathing down another passenger's neck. The net result of the exercise is thus no increase in space for more standing passengers and no more room for those who stand. Not surprisingly, this has been borne out by feedback from passengers.

With overall space unchanged, the only way to take in more standing passengers is to allow them to jam into the train, Tokyo-style. However, this would defeat the second aim of more room for passengers who stand.

A practical way to achieve both aims is to add more carriages or increase train frequency during peak periods.

From personal experience, I can foresee an unintended effect of the conversion - it will aggravate the plight of people with special needs. such as:

Old folk, who may be feeble and infirm

People with back pain, knee pain or weak legs

Parents with a baby in arms

Pregnant women
These people usually have difficulty physically supporting themselves, standing or keeping their balance while riding in a train (or bus), especially when it is in motion or stopping. I am one of them, afflicted with a painful back condition (spinal and cervical stenosis) which surgery has failed to fix. Even with the existing number of seats, most times I find it hard to get a seat - when even designated special-needs seats are taken by able-bodied individuals (who have apparently dozed off).

On two occasions, however, I was lucky - a Bangladeshi worker and a Filipino maid kindly offered me their seats, after noticing me fidgeting in pain while standing. On most other occasions I have to suffer excruciating pain the whole train journey. The drastic reduction - by 84 of 300 seats - will certainly worsen the situation for us 'handicapped' people.

So, SMRT and LTA, please have a heart, reconsider and reverse your decision. This will also enable you to avoid expense in time and money in an exercise in futility (as explained earlier).

Edward Say

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