Tag Archives: Transport

North East Line Down 8 July 17

The North East Line went down in the wee hours of Saturday.


Information is up but with a small mistake which I think you can spot easy.
(Picture credit of my FB friends)

The delay travel spell into a full break down of services.

It is a common since to see passengers battling to get up the buses due to the large human traffic. The train will also be pack like sardines when it started to resume operations.

It looks like the signal fault is creating an uphill task for the operator. There may be other issues which is not visible to us and unspoken by the staffs who are aware of it. We just have to live with it as LTA try its best to resolve the issue.

NFC payment for train and bus fares

The usage of Near Field Communication (NFC) for payment is a convenient method. But this innovation technology is going to fail once again even with the pushed by IDA.

WHY?
The reason is simple and boiled down to dollars and cents and others as highlighted below.

1. Consumers will not be paying $37.45 to purchase a NFC Sim Card to use the contactless payment.

2. The e-wallet had a validity of 5 years only. Isn’t this a scheme to made more money from the consumers

3. Payment of $5 EZ Link registration fee. But I believe most telcos will wave it off.

4. Limited number of NFC smartphones to support the application.

In view of the above reasons, the project will not going to be a successful. But if NFC Sim Card are provided free of charge to consumers, then it will be a viable project. Our telcos will not absorb the charges unless the government paid for it.

EZ Link cannot even made its current app to work on all NFC enable smartphones to check their EZ-Card value. I am not confident on how they are going to made this a success. They still have a lot to learn from how HongKong partner on the Octpus Card.

We will update the feasibility of this project in a year time.

Read the NFC Payment on Straits Time>>>

SMRT Breakdown July 2015

I was returning home after work as usual at Yishun MRT at around 7PM. I reach the platform and saw both the north and south bound trains at the platform. The doors were open and only have 50% of the lighting. I board the north bound train thinking that there is no issue with the train.

It is actually the start of the major MRT breakdown of 2015. The train captain update that the power track had some issue and the engineers were rectifying the issue. He keep repeating the announcements periodically to update the passengers.

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Cabin lights are only 50% switch on.

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Communters rushing out of the stations to catch the free bus.

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No free bus bridging available yet and communters choose to take whatever services is available to their next destination.

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This is the first time that all the North South and East West LInes are down at the same time.
I manage to catch service 169 to Woodlands and then changing to 964 to reach my final destination at Admiralty MRT. It was a 1.5 hours journey with so much communters catching bus back home for dinner. Many of our muslim friends also need to break fast outside instead of at home with their family.

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SMRT announce on July 08 that they wanted to stop the train services between 1100hrs to 1600hrs on North South Line as they have not identified the root cause. The time table for the affected lines are as listed below.
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But they never took the intended action and announced that train services will continue as normal.
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The below is a timeline of the biggest SMRT breakdown in 2015.
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Workfare Transport Concession Card

The Singapore government has announced the new Workfare Transport Concession Scheme (WTCS) for the recipients of the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS Scheme). The concession holders of the scheme will be able to enjoy 15% discount off the adult  fares on buses and trains.
Workfare Transport Concession Card

You will recieve the letter from Land Transport Authority (LTA) if you are already on the WIS Scheme. You may apply online via www.transitlink.com.sg or using the hard copy posted to you. The deadline to make the application is 31 December 2014. But do it immediately so that you can get to enjoy the discount off the transport fares.

Interim Assistance
You will be given $30 of interim finanical assistance to help defray the transport cost during the implementation period from 6 April 2014 to 5 July 2014. This assistance amount is available up to 31 December 2014 only.

Do I qualify for the WTCS?
Individuals who qualify for the WIS Scheme and received a WIS payment from 1 December 2013, will be informed of their eligibility for the WTCS.

  • Individuals who qualify for WIS prior to 6 July 2014 will receive an application package from LTA informing them of their WTCS eligibility details of the scheme and how to apply for the Workfare Transport Concession Card
  • Individuals who qualify for the WIS scheme after 6 July 2014 will receive details of the WTCS and how to apply for the Workfare Transport Concession Card when they receive notification of their WIS payments from Central Provident Fund Board

Do you qualify for the WIS?
You may visit the Workfare to find out more whether you qualify for it.
Click here to find out more>>>