- M R T _ & _ N E L -

Irritating teenagers


Christopher Chen sent in these two pictures of inconsiderate teens while in the southbound train on the 5th of June at 1130 am.

揟hough it was crowded on the train, these teenagers who are apparently on holiday, chose to sit on the floor of the train

virgomal

Originally posted by Gadis_Venus at 8-6-2007 04:19 PM
Commuters locked out of Bugis MRT station


About 60 commuters were locked out of Bugis MRT station this morning, even after the first train arriv ...

ekekeke
sebelum baca.. masa tengok jer gambo
V ingat F4 tgh dok posing2 amik gambo
antara sebab org ramai kerumun..heeee

Have you seen this man on the MRT?


At least one STOMPer has.



Cai Shuhua sent in these pictures of the well accessorised man.



With his golden helmet, studded belt and numerous rings, the man certainly looks out of place amongst the usual train commuters.

Has any other STOMPer sighted this man?

Are wires overhead at Novena MRT safe?


Operations manager Siu Yow Wee is worried for the safety of pedestrians walking through the underpass to Novena MRT station from Tan Tock Seng hospital.

The 38-year-old STOMPer sent in this picture of dangling wires and cables on the ceiling which were not covered up, some of which were attached to the lights, when he was passing through the place at 11:30 am yesterday (18 May).

揑 was wondering how safe is it for pedestrians to walk under this particular stretch, it seems rather dangerous,

virgomal

gelihati tgk gambo ni... ekekeke
blom pulak v terserempak dgn dia

Keep your legs to yourself!


The feet in black slippers belong to an inconsiderate commuter who made himself right at home on the train but left STOMPer Firedragon boiling mad.


The youth was spotted on an MRT bound for Bugis at 7.40pm on 10 June.


He was comfortably stretching out his legs from his seat, even intruding into another commuter抯 standing room. The train was crowded but he did not have the sense or courtesy to keep his legs to himself.


Firedragon and his friends glared at the youth but to no avail, as he was pretending to sleep.




Firedragon explained to STOMP in an email: "It was obvious he was pretending because he opened and shut his eyes a few times during the trip. He also kicked the woman抯 legs, but did not say sorry. What if the woman lost her balance and stepped on his foot?"

Please stand behind the yellow line


If you are a frequent commuter on the MRT, you must be familiar with the public announcement reminding passengers to "please stand behind the yellow line". Yet, how many times have you seen fellow commuters ignore the warning?

STOMPer Edric believes this is an issue which should be raised yet again, as many people still fail to follow the clear and simple instructions. This is despite the rise in the number of incidences of commuters falling onto the train tracks in the last few years.  

"If you go to any MRT station, you will be able to see people standing beyond the yellow line, almost right in front of the doors," said the 14-year-old student. "People just don抰 care even though there are lines for them to stand by."

He points out that this is particularly dangerous during peak hours, especially in the mornings when people are rushing to work. According to him, it is the middle-aged commuters who are the main culprits.

"They block the doors, preventing passengers from coming out of the train, and they squeeze in at the same time passengers want to come out," said Edric.

He suggests that station personnel should be stationed at the platforms to make sure commuters follow the instructions.  
"It will be safer and more pleasant then," he said.

sutera_abadi

berita hari ini: 7/4/08
Northbound train services disrupted due to rail incident

SINGAPORE: Northbound train services from Yew Tee station to Bukit Gombak station were disrupted for about 50 minutes on Monday morning.

SMRT said a man was hit by a train at Choa Chu Kang station at 8am. He was subsequently pronounced dead by paramedics.
Police have classified the incident as unnatural death and investigations are ongoing.
A bus梑ridging service was deployed between Yew Tee and Bukit Gombak stations as trains were made to turn around at Yew Tee, Bukit Gombak and Choa Chu Kang stations.
SMRT said train services resumed at 8.52am.
Passengers who were unable to complete their journeys due to the disruption can claim a full梖are refund from the Passenger Service Centre at any SMRT station.
All claims must be made within the next three working days.

sutera_abadi

erkk...
page sangkut kee?????????

fatz

SMRT wins international award for "Best Passenger Experience"
Posted: 08 April 2008 1528 hrs

SINGAPORE: Transport operator SMRT has clinched the "Best Passenger Experience" award at the inaugural Metro Awards 2008 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Metro Awards is part of MetroRail, an annual conference of the urban rail industry worldwide which met from 1 to 3 April this year.

Other finalists of the "Best Passenger Experience" award included Copenhagen Metro, MTR Corporation Limited (Hong Kong) and The Warsaw Metro Ltd.

They were judged on factors such as value for money, efficiency and reliability, as well as cleanliness and security.

SMRT said the international award for service excellence came shortly after it won the "Most Customer-Friendly Transport" award, presented by Singapore's Land Transport Authority.


- CNA/so

fatz

April 8, 2008         
Almost 700 more train trips a week by mid-May
By Maria Almenoar

TRAIN operator SMRT plans to roll out an extra 700 train trips a week, from the middle of next month, to cut waiting times and ease crowds.

If it gets the green light from the Land Transport Authority, commuters will see a difference travelling to and from work, and during their lunch break.

Just under half the extra trips or 328, will be added to time slots just before and after the morning and evening peak hours, to cut waiting time to under 5 minutes, said SMRT.

Right now, it can be as high as 7 minutes at some stations.

LTA said that the plans were a step in the right direction and it was working with SMRT to implement them.

Details like exactly which stations would see the biggest improvement are still being worked out.

But as a guide SMRT chief executive Saw Phaik Hwa indicated that passengers who share the train with more than 1,200 others will see a change for the better.

Her target - reducing train loads to between 1,000 and 1,200.

The rest of the additional trips planned - 350 trips - will be used to make going out to lunch on weekdays less tiresome for folks in Raffles Place, Bugis and Orchard among others.

The waiting time at these busy stretches will be cut by half - from 7 minutes to 3.5 minutes.

Cutting lunchtime waiting times across the rail network to five or six minutes was a target set by Transport Minister Raymond Lim in January, when he unveiled the Land Transport Review.

fatz2

Commuters to get wider choice of cards next year
Competition heats up as EZ-Link faces offering from Nets
By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent

PUBLIC transport users will have a choice of more than one card to pay for bus and train fares and road toll charges next year.

CashCard issuer Nets is likely to be the first competitor to the ez-link card, issued by a company owned by the Land Transport Authority (LTA).

Nets, set up in 1985 by local banks to facilitate cashless transactions, is working on a new card for this purpose.

Right now the two cards are used in separate markets: ez-link cards on trains and buses and Nets' CashCards for Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges.

Both also can be used for some retail transactions, but in the transit sector they do not compete directly.

Nets CashCard vice-president Yvonne Fong told The Straits Times that the Nets transit card would be different from what is already on the market.

'For example, we can develop and offer more ways of using CashCard as a payment mode, as an ATM card and for payments through mobile phones,' she said.

EZ-Link, the LTA-owned firm that has been issuing ez-link cards since 2002, is not sitting still.

The Straits Times understands that it will launch a new multi-use card by the end of this year. For starters, motorists will be able to use the new ez-link card instead of the CashCard for ERP payments.

It could also have basic banking features - ATM withdrawals, for instance - as well as the capability to be a credit card.

Before the new cards are rolled out, card readers on buses and in MRT stations will be modified to enable them to read a wider range of cards.

Secondary 1 students have been told to extend the validity of their primary school travel concession cards as a stop-gap measure until the new cards are launched.

Asked for comments, the LTA would say only that it is working on a new smart card which conforms to new, Singapore-wide standards that allow such cards to be used across several sectors, from transit to retail and banking.

For consumers, the changes expected in the coming year could mean that they will need only one card for a range of transactions.

Observers reckon that when the Government opens up the transit card market to competition, Nets will benefit more than EZ-Link.

This is because usage of Nets' CashCard is expected to shrink in a few months' time, when motorists can opt to pay ERP charges through their monthly credit-card bills.

ERP has been a boon for the CashCard. Non-ERP transactions - largely retail - make up less than 10 per cent of the 200 million or more CashCard transactions a year.

EZ-Link has been trying to increase usage of its cards as well. It has been eyeing the taxi fare market, worth $3 billion a year.

It approached operators to offer its touch-and-go payment system to cab commuters a couple of years ago.

The plan was said to have been put on hold because LTA was on the verge of divesting EZ-Link late last year. The authority has since decided to hold on to the subsidiary because of sweeping public-transport reforms the Government is rolling out, The Straits Times understands.

'It's felt that with so many changes ahead, especially in public transport, having control of a transit-card company is important. You can get things done more easily,' a source close to EZ-Link said.

The competition may not just be a two-cornered fight.

Credit-card companies are also said to be eyeing the $1.2 billion a year bus and train fare market, which is expected to more than double by 2020.

[email protected]

fatz

PM Lee positive about proposal to link up S'pore, JB urban rails
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 17 April 2008 1800 hrs



SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has responded positively to a suggestion by Johor's Chief Minister Abdul Ghani Othman to link up the urban rails of Singapore and Johor Bahru.

The issue was discussed when visiting Malaysian Foreign Minister Rais Yatim called on Mr Lee at the Istana on Thursday morning, said Foreign Minister George Yeo at a joint news conference with his Malaysian counterpart later in the day.

The proposal will now be discussed by a joint ministerial committee which is looking into the Iskandar Malaysia project. This committee was set up after PM Lee and his Malaysian counterpart, Mr Abdullah Badawi, had their first retreat in Langkawi last year.

Singapore is the first stop in a series of introductory visits by the new Malaysian foreign minister, and this signals the special relationship between the two neighbours.

Dr Rais said: "Between Malaysia and Singapore, there is only a one-way street and that is to forge ahead together for a future within ASEAN and to share the good fortunes of what the world will offer.

"No one will come to us and help us except ourselves. Therefore, the commonality between the two nations should be at the top of priority lists and the differences

fatz2

Fri, May 16, 2008
SMRT to run 700 more train trips from Tuesday
Maria Almenoar


COMMUTERS can enjoy less crowded train rides and shorter waiting times when SMRT starts running 700 more train trips from Tuesday.

This is on top of the 83 additional train trips it introduced in February this year during the peak hours.

Most of the extra trips will benefit the weekday lunchtime crowd.

Another 350 train trips will be added from noon to 2.30pm on the North-South line between Ang Mo Kio and Marina Bay MRT station and on the East-West Line between Aljunied and Outram Park stations.

This will cut waiting time by half to 3.5 minutes, said a statement from the SMRT on Friday.

To ease the morning and evening crush, SMRT will add about 40 more services a week just before and after the peak periods.

For example, the morning southbound service will have one extra train trip between 7.30am and 8am, while the evening southbound service will have three extra services between 6.45pm and 7.45pm.

Commuters who take the train after the evening rush hours will have a shorter wait.

From Mondays to Thursdays, SMRT will add slightly more than 100 more trips a week from 8.15pm to 10.30pm.

SMRT is also putting in 40 extra trips on the North-South and East-West line from 6.45pm to 11.30pm when commuters are out and about on Friday nights.

From June 21, SMRT will inject 172 more services a week on weekends.

SMRT said the extra trips will cost it $5 million a year but the cost will not be passed on to commuters.

fatz2

May 20, 2008         
Extra train trips give commuters a respite from lunchtime squeeze
By Maria Almenoar and Lee Pei Qi

LUNCHTIME commuters got some respite from the daily crush at train stations on Tuesday.

With the additional 360 trips SMRT started rolling out at weekday from noon to 2pm, they could also get to their lunch destinations in a shorter time.

The extra trips during lunch form the bulk of the 700 trips which will be added by June 21.

Bank officer Gerard Sim, 26, who was taking the train from Raffles Place to Bugis for an appointment said he was pleasantly surprised at the quick succession of trains .

'With the limited lunch hours we have, it is good to reduce the time we spend on travelling,' he said.

Sales executive Zahirah Ayang, 33, who often takes the east-bound train from City Hall for lunch appointments, agreed.

'I will get more time to spend with my friends over my one-hour lunch than waste them on waiting for a train.'

By pumping in more services, SMRT has promised to cut the waiting time between trains during the lunch period from seven minutes to 3.5 minutes.

The additional train trips have been rolled out at the most congested stations during lunchtime - between the Ang Mo Kio and Marina Bay stations on the North-South line, and the Outram Park and Aljunied stations on the East-West line.

fatz2

SMRT adds 700 extra train trips a week, costing it S$5m annually
By Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 20 May 2008 2229 hrs

SINGAPORE: SMRT is increasing the number of train trips by at least 700 a week to cut commuters' waiting time and provide them with a more comfortable ride.

A common complaint by MRT passengers is that it gets very crowded at peak periods and on many occasions, commuters are not able to get on the train.

In February, 83 more train trips per week had been added. Now, SMRT is introducing even more trips.

More than 50 per cent of these will be during weekday lunch times (noon-2pm), when waiting time will be halved to just three-and-a-half minutes, SMRT said.

Improvements are also expected for those who go home later after work and those who go out on Friday evenings.

Vincent Tan, Vice President, Rail Operations, SMRT Trains, said: "We have added train trips where possible so that the average trainload is not more than 1,200 passengers.

"The added services will also mean that the trains will arrive within five minutes or less if the passenger loads are within 1,000 and 1,200 passengers."

SMRT said they are already operating at the best intervals of two minutes at the peak within peak and cannot improve this any further, for now.

However, a few commuters were concerned that fares would go up with the increased trips.

In a month's time, SMRT plans to increase frequency on weekends, for those travelling to and from town and the suburban areas.

SMRT promises that there will be a train arriving every five minutes when trains are packed.

The additional train trips have been rolled out at the most congested stations during lunchtime - between the Ang Mo Kio and Marina Bay stations on the North-South line, and the Outram Park and Aljunied stations on the East-West line.

The additional train trips are expected to cost SMRT an additional S$5 million yearly. - CNA/vm

fatz2

Bicycles to be allowed on trains, buses as part of 6-month trial
By Hiroshi Limmell, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 21 May 2008 2111 hrs



]

SINGAPORE : Cyclists will be allowed to bring foldable bicycles on board all trains and public buses, in a six-month trial.

This is an initiative by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in a study to meet the transport needs of diverse groups of people.

The trial period is from May 24 to November 24 this year.

Foldable bicycles will be allowed on MRT trains every weekday during off-peak hours and on SBS and SMRT buses on weekends and public holidays.

The trial is one of several initiatives announced during the Land Transport Review. The Review recognises an increasing trend of people cycling for sports, recreation or as a means of transport.

Although the move gives cyclists more convenience, LTA spokesman Jeremy Yap said public safety must still come first.

He said, "Cyclists and other commuters are encouraged to be considerate and make way for one another, so that more people can use our public transport system to meet their needs."

During the trial, public transport staff can stop a cyclist from boarding a bus or train if the cyclist is unable to comply with given guidelines.

The LTA and operators will monitor and review the initiative after the trial period.

For more information on the guidelines, members of the public can go to http://www.lta.gov.sg, call LTA at 1800-225-5582, or email to [email protected] - CNA/ms

fatz

fatz2

June 26, 2008         
Hotel at Bugis to make way for new Downtown Line MRT station


(Artist's impression) The new Bugis station will be sited under Rochor Road and partly within the adjacent land to the west. -- PHOTO: LTA

THE Government will acquire the New Seventh Storey Hotel at Bugis to make way for a Downtown Line (DTL) MRT station.

The Land Transport Authority said on Thursday that the hotel will have to be vacated by year end to enable comprehensive redevelopment of the area.

The new Bugis station is one of six that make up the 4.3 km DTL Stage 1 (DTL1) that will run from Bugis Station on the East-West Line (EWL) to Chinatown Station on the North East Line (NEL).

The other five stations are Promenade, Bayfront, Landmark, Cross Street and Chinatown. The new line is scheduled to open in 2013.

The new Bugis station will be sited under Rochor Road and partly within the adjacent land to the west.

LTA said due to engineering constraints which cannot be avoided, the land currently occupied by the New Seventh Storey Hotel and part of the adjacent state land fronting Rochor Road, is needed for the construction of the station box and station structures, such as the station's entrance and lift facility.

'The hotel will have to be demolished to allow for the construction of the station,' said LTA. The hotel site will be amalgamated with the adjacent state land parcel at North Bridge Road, Tan Quee Lan Street, Beach Road and Rochor Road for future comprehensive redevelopment.

LTA said the amalgamation of the hotel site with the adjacent land parcel will allow for better integration of the station with future development in the area, and allow the planned pedestrian network and urban design plans for the area to be carried out.

The owner and occupants of the New Seven Storey Hotel, who will have to move out of the building by end December, will receive compensation pegged at market value.

LTA said commuters will have more transport choices in the city as the DTL 1 will serve existing and upcoming developments in the Marina Bay area, including One Raffles Quay, The Sail @ Marina Bay, Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resorts and the Marina Bay Financial Centre.

The contract for the construction of the new DTL Bugis station and tunnels from Beach Road to Queen Street will be up for tender in early July and awarded in November.

fatz2

Penalties for fare evasion on buses and MRT trains kick in on Tuesday
By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 01 July 2008 2206 hrs

SINGAPORE: Penalties for fare evasion on buses and MRT trains kicked in on Tuesday.

Under the new system, those who do not pay the correct fare will be fined S$20, while those who abuse concession cards face a penalty of S$50.

As of 3pm, 16 people had been caught for these offences, all of them bus commuters.

At Tanjong Pagar MRT station, there is an average of two cases of fare evasion every month, mostly those abusing student concession cards.

Since the penalty system was announced on May 2, ticketing operator TransitLink, which manages the ticketing system used on buses and MRT stations here, has issued over 10,000 warning letters. However from now, the guilty ones will be fined.

TransitLink and the two public transport operators, SBS Transit and SMRT, conducted a public education campaign in May and June.

All public transport officials will carry an identification card and issue a receipt once the fine is paid.

Offenders can pay on the spot or at any of TransitLink's offices and Add-Value Machines located at bus interchanges and MRT stations. They have up to 14 days to do so. Any appeals should also be made within this time.

An additional penalty of S$1,000 will be imposed on fare cheats if they do not pay their fine. The same penalty applies if one refuses to give their personal details, or provide false information to the public transport official.

Repeat offenders may be fined S$2,000 or be jailed up to six months, or both.

SBS Transit and SMRT said over 300 fare cheats are caught everyday, but they believe the actual figure is higher.

The new system is meant to help stem the loss of about S$9 million each year from fare evasion. - CNA/vm