So, I just created a category called “Singapore”. I figured I’d be blogging on that topic a lot, and so thought I’d organize it that way.
The public transportation of Singapore definitely has to be one of the best in the world. Its efficiency is amazing. You know if you have a good system in place if you can’t easily think of ways to improve it. I still can’t think of any improvements!
Basically, its trains and buses. The trains (called MRT) have 3 lines – North-South, East-West and North-East. They connect most of Singapore. The frequency of trains is amazing. And the frequency adjusts according to the peak hour, holiday/weekend etc (this is true for buses as well). I believe during peak hour, the train frequency is 3 minutes. Off peak is 6 minutes. All trains and buses are air-conditioned (anything that can be A/C’ed is A/C’ed in Singapore). The train system is very easy to use and it’ll take about a couple of train rides to get a hang of it. Buses is more complicated. You need to know where to get onto a bus, where to get down, where to transfer, if at all necessary. There are websites to help, the bus driver is usually helpful as well. All Bus stops have route maps, bus service numbers operating, timings, frequency, etc (All bus stops have names and also numbers to identify them if you want to use their website that way). There are several double-decker buses as well. And they optimized the bus rides very well – For example, all buses have these ‘stop’ buttons on all the seats/holding rods. The passengers have to press the stop button indicating that they want to get off at the next bus stop, otherwise, the bus doesn’t stop there and keeps going. Of course if there people waiting at the bus stop, and they are holding their hand out, that means they want to get on the bus, so the bus driver stops the bus there (The people waiting at the bus stop have to hold out their hand, otherwise the bus driver doesn’t know that they are waiting for his/her bus and keeps going). During peak hour, the buses pretty much stop on all stops (as someone has to get on or get down), but this optimization works amazingly during off-peak hours as the bus keeps going by several stops without stopping.
And then there are those nice conveniences – most buses have TV’s where you can watch the news (esp. in the mornings), so thats nice – catching up on news on the way to work. For double decker buses, it says near the stairs on an LCD display how many empty seats are available at the upper deck, so you can check before taking the stairs up.
They really thought of everything. So, for example, at the train stations, while you approach the station, they have those electronic signs which tell you when a train is arriving (so for ex. it’ll say, next train east bound 2 minutes or 1 minute), so based on that, you can hurry up and make it on time to board it. And the trains just stop for a few seconds. So, you have to be ready to get down or board when it arrives.
And finally, there are several ‘feeder’ buses and ‘shuttle’ buses, to and from popular shopping malls, less accessible housing areas, etc.
My shot at blogging! 