Tuesday, September 7, 2010

a day without train

Can one imagine the extent of inconvenience caused by the lack of train service between just two consecutive stations?

I must say that it's VERY inconvenient. What used to be a quick hardly-five-minute trip from lakeside to jurong east mrt station took around twenty mins at least. And it took another twenty min on the free shuttle service provided to reach clementi where normal train operations finally resume. Thats an additional 40mins of travelling time.

So thinking its smarter to just take bus service 154 straight to Clementi (since the bus stops right behind my block, so-to-speak), that was precisely what I did when I wanted to head to town today. Well, it wasn't such a smart move afterall.

Being the only bus that plies the Boon Lay to Clementi route, I don't understand why Sbs didn't make the bus frequency any earlier. Fifteen to twenty min interval between buses is just torturous. On top of that, there were plenty of smart, like-minded people like myself & thus, the buses were all packed to the brim with locals and foreign workers. I hardly managed to squeeze past the bus entrance doors.

I guess I shouldn't really be complaining so much since public bus services in many other countries pale in comparison to the system in singapore, but like many other singaporeans who are accustomed to the efficiency of Sbs and Smrt, the sudden lack of it is unnerving, and even frustrating.

Perhaps the best solution to minimise such disruptions in mrt services is to have a multi-prong approach instead of just, let's say, provide a free shuttle service to ferry passengers from one station to the next.

Am I making any sense? It's hard to think on an empty stomach.. I can't wait for the fasting month to be over.