Category: Singapuraku

Uber To Look Into Reports Of Inflated Fares Following SMRT Disruptions

Third-party taxi service-provider Uber will be looking into reports of inflated fares experienced by their customers, following a 3.5-hour disruption that crippled the North-South and East-West train lines on Tuesday (Jul 7).

Some who had used the company’s app to book drivers had expressed frustration at having to pay fares that were higher than usual. Uber said that fares had gone up due to its “surge” or dynamic pricing mechanism.

This causes fares to increase when there is high demand from passengers and low supply of cabs. It aims to incentivise drivers to ply the roads and take up bookings during such periods. The company added that once demand and supply are in balance, fare prices will come back down.

The MRT breakdown on Tuesday had prompted more commuters to book cabs. Some of those who used the Uber app were shocked to discover they had to pay higher fares. One person said she paid around S$124, which is five times her usual fare.

The company said it suspended the mechanism an hour after the full extent of the MRT breakdown was known. Still, it highlighted that users will see a notification on the app whenever there is “surge” pricing, and they will also be required to make multiple confirmations before they submit their request for a driver.

Mr Karun Arya, Uber Communications Lead for South Asia and India, said: “As soon as we found out the extent of the disruption and the number of people who were stranded, we did turn off the dynamic pricing mechanism. But moving forward, if such situation does rise, our team will assess it accordingly and take the necessary action.”

RALLYING TOGETHER DURING THE DISRUPTION

While some profited from the 3.5-hour disruption, others rallied to help others. Marketing executive Kerrin Kua, 27, was making her way home with her cousins and domestic helper when she realised there had been a train disruption, resulting in snaking queues at Ion Orchard’s taxi stand. Her cousin, Ainslie Kua, then had a brainwave – why not book a 13-seater van?

They managed to get a van in about 15 minutes, and proceeded to ask those waiting in line for a taxi if they would like to join in.

13-seater carpooled with 9 others! #ThingsIDidWhenMRTWasDown pic.twitter.com/fE6fa6kwOP

— Kerrin Kua (@kuakerrin) July 7, 2015

In total, Ms Kua told Channel NewsAsia nine others chipped in, and were dropped off at five different locations.

“We were really excited, and I have always wanted to car pool,” said Ms Kua, who said some of the strangers she met were really chatty.

Separately, Mr Tong Yee, director of social enterprise The Thought Collective, posted an offer on Facebook to give lifts to those who may have needed a ride home. His post garnered more than 500 likes.

anybody need a ride from anywhere?I am home and willing to help anybody who might need a ride home.just drop a…

Posted by Tong Yee on Tuesday, 7 July 2015

“Like the fairy godmother to Cinderella he actually appeared at Toa Payoh offering to drive me and a few other desperate strangers at the taxi stand all the way to Woodlands,” a passenger wrote.

Mr Tong’s initiative also prompted others to offer free rides in the comments.

Another commuter who found herself stuck outside Somerset MRT station decided to make the most of the situation. Relating her experience on Facebook, Ms Tong Sian Choo said after meeting a woman who lived from her neighbourhood, she whipped out pieces of tissue paper and wrote “Hello! We need a ride to Yishun”, in hopes of hitching a ride.

Just reached home half an hour ago at 12.30am. Am beginning to take in all that had happened for the past 3.5 hours on…

Posted by Tong Sian Choo on Tuesday, 7 July 2015

Her post has since been shared nearly 2,000 times, and while Ms Tong did not manage to get a lift, she found her way up a crowded bus to travel home.

“As I looked around, there were migrant workers, families and individuals who were trying to make it back home. We started smiling at one another, somehow knowing that everything is gonna be okay. Just tahan this together,” she wrote.

“All in all, so so so glad to see Singaporeans stepping up to care for one another, through their actions. Believe we are so much more than this breakdown,” Ms Tong added.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

July 9, 2015
ST Correspondent: Government Should Help Beef Up SMRT Resources To Fix Problems

In an opinion piece in the Straits Times on Thursday, 09 July, the newspaper’s Senior Transport Correspondent, Christopher Tan, says “apologies from the operator, regulator or the Government” over Tuesday’s island-wide MRT shut-down “are beginning to sound glib and hollow.”

However, Mr Tan also suggested that “the Government should step in to help beef up resources required for SMRT to make things right quickly.”

In Parliament in February, the Government revealed that in total, S$40 billion would have been spent on the PTOs over the next 10 years, that is S$4b a year. (See here: “Parliament: Government spends $4b a year on transport infrastructure and subsidies“.)

Do you think it is prudent for the Government to pour in even more resources into SMRT, resources which ultimately will have to come from commuters and taxpayers?

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

July 9, 2015
Singaporeans Shoud Stop Complaining And Spare A Thought For SMRT Workers And Their Families!

We were having family dinner when my dad received notification that he is activated. Without further ado, he put down his dinner and report within 30 minutes to the assigned station. He did not grumble about how he had to work again. The previous time when he was activated, he came back to us and shared with us how he could understand the feelings of the passengers who were shouting and pushing him and his coworkers. He stood and said sorry at least 100 times to everyone who was trapped. He is just a maintenance guy in SMRT.

But, there was no negativity in him despite being shouted at, at the efficiency of the company, at the long standing hours or at anything. He came back to announce that he was glad that it’s settled.

So, before we throw our frustrations and ill mannerism to any of the ground staff, please remember that they are just doing their best to get lives moving. They apologized on behalf of SMRT, not themselves. And most importantly, they have families waiting for them back home, or the unfinished dinner to eat too. A little empathy goes a long way to consider the various stakeholders invoked in this whole process. And I am sure we can do this!

And for now, my family and I are waiting for my dad to come home safely.

Source: Iris Lee

July 9, 2015
SMRT Fiasco – Time For Heads To Roll

To call it a disaster may be an understatement for the quarter of a million people stranded by the train breakdowns last evening. Yes, we do see breakdown pretty often but what happened last night was unprecedented. 250,000 commuters were affected when no less than 57 train stations were rendered obsolete.

Some scenes of the fiasco last night

The scenes around the red dot last night were befitting of an apocalyptic blockbuster. Bus stops became obsolete, queues formed were so long that it gave the queues at Lee Kuan Yew’s funeral a good run for its money and people were lost, angry and unsatisfied, to say the least.

Bus stops became a thing of the past (Source: Renald Loh)

On social media, many Singaporeans lamented about how, in the face of constant breakdowns and now the nationwide disaster, unjustified the increases in the salaries of CEOs and fares were. In the past 5 years alone, commuters have seen fares increased 3 times.

To add salt to the wound, just last week SMRT CEO’s Desmond Kuek’s salary increased yet again. His salary has increased mulitfold in just a span of three years and he is now paid at least 2.2 million annually. With increases in salaries of the men in-charge and fare hikes, it is only natural that commuters expect a parallel increase in service standards, or at the very least, the maintenance of current standards.

However, that was not to be. The lack of satisfaction amongst millions of Singaporeans is justified, definitely more justified than the fare hikes and Desmond Kuek’s remuneration package.

SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek

Instead of taking responsibility and being seen on the ground to ensure commuters affected by the countless breakdowns get home safely, there was little else other than statements of ‘concern.’ from Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew. From a layman’s perspective, stranded at bus stops and faced with the never ending queue in the hot, humid and sweltering crowd, reflecting on the astronomical salaries the people behind the trains and the fare hikes is a real kick in the face.

Even if we can accept occasional breakdown, or even systemic infrastructural faults, complete lack of accountability should not be tolerated. And we saw a decent dose of that last night.

But things weren’t always like that, were they? There was once a time where the MRT was the pride of all Singaporeans alike and breakdowns were as alien as curry puff syndicates . So much so, in fact, that the PAP itself incorporated the MRT in it’s election posters.

A PAP campaign poster from 1998.

Now, that is one poster we’ll probably never see revived. Not with the way things are going. This poster surfaced in 1988, when the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew was our Prime Minister. Reflecting on last night’s fiasco, I can’t help but wonder, what would he have done?

I for one feel that, if the man was still around, such an incident wouldn’t even have happened. In fact, he would have tackled the problem at its core before it snowballed to the constant breakdowns Singaporean commuters face today. See, if there were one thing that separated PAP’s Lee Kuan Yew from the PAP of today, it would boil down to this – he never hesitated to make heads roll.

Let us cast our minds back to Mr Lee’s National Day Rally in 1984,

“Everything works, whether its water, electricity, gas, telephone, telexes, it just has to work. If it doesn’t work, I want to know why, and if I am not satisfied, and I often was not, the chief goes, and I have to find another chief. Firing the chief is very simple.”

Mr Lee and Mdm Kwa entering the train station

To cut the long story short, if Mr Lee was in charge, heads will roll. Mr Kuek and Mr Lui would be lucky to even stay in their positions, let alone collect millions of dollars. The PAP of the past sure is a far cry from what it is today.

As then Chief District Judge Tan Siong Thye during the Committee of Inquiry on the slate of breakdowns concluded:

That the incidents were preventable and that there was a “a gaping disconnect between what was formally on record and what was happening on the ground”.

And that gap is ever-widening. The PAP of today is great for soundbites, but when it actually comes to acting on their words – well, I’ll leave you to decide for yourself.

It’s about time that Singaporeans started voicing out for, as Mr Lee said, heads to roll. And the ballot box is a pretty good place to start.

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

July 9, 2015
Gerald Giam: Caught In The NSEW Line Breakdown

I was caught in the massive breakdown of the North-South and East-West Line (NSEWL) of the MRT yesterday evening as I was heading to a meeting at the WP HQ in Jalan Besar. When I reached Dover station at about 7.05pm, the eastbound train was already at the platform but with all its cabin lights off. I got onto the train anyway, but waited almost 5 minutes before it finally moved off. The westbound train on the opposite track was similarly stalled. My train stopped midway to the next station and all its lights went out again. This pattern was to repeat itself several more times over the next 25 minutes. When I reached Outram Park station at about 7.35pm, the lights in the train went out a final time and we were told to detrain as it was no longer in service.

The PA system announcements at the station informed us that train service on the entire NSEWL had been suspended and free shuttle buses were available. So I exited the station thinking I could hop onto one of the buses. Big mistake! The street level was packed with people and there were no buses to be seen and no directional signs to guide the stranded commuters. Someone asked me where the buses were. I told him honestly that I had no idea.

Knowing that it would be pointless to attempt taking a cab, I headed back down to the station, against the flow of the crowd, hoping to get in again and take the North-East Line (NEL). But all the fare gates were closed and I was told by an SMRT staff that I had to exit and walk around the station to get into the NEL entrance. I finally boarded the NEL and arrived at my meeting almost half an hour late.

I consider myself fortunate that I was able to hop onto the NEL. The guy sitting next to me on the East-West Line train (before it stopped at Outram) said that he was heading to his home in Simei. I think he, like hundreds of thousands of other commuters, probably got home much later than usual.

This 3.5 hour service disruption, which happened simultaneously on the two busiest MRT lines during the Tuesday evening rush hour, was probably the most serious service disruption ever. I had flashbacks to November 2011, when I had another close shave — I just missed getting on one of the trains from City Hall station that was to eventually stall in the middle of the tunnel.

According to SMRT and LTA, the outage was due to a power fault. Preliminary investigations found that a faulty train could have caused the power to trip. I find it astonishing that a fault with a single train could cause power to be cut to trains at all 58 stations on the NSEWL. Is there so little redundancy in the system? Or are all the circuits strung together in series like a cheap set of Christmas tree lights?

As of the time of this writing, it is still unclear if the MRT service will be available in time for the Wednesday morning rush hour. SMRT has already advised commuters to make alternative travel plans. Both the Minister for Transport and LTA have come out to apologise for the breakdown and demanded that the faults be investigated and rectified. That is little comfort for the quarter-of-a-million or so commuters who suffered this massive inconvenience and frustration.

The Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the November 2011 MRT disruptions had identified maintenance (or lack thereof) as a key cause of the multiple breakdowns then. Now, almost 4 years later, with a new CEO at the helm who promised to focus more on engineering and maintenance capabilities, we seem to be back to square one. What can we expect moving forward? Another COI?

Source: http://geraldgiam.sg

July 9, 2015