Friday, September 5, 2008

Over-crowded trains

Our SMRT trains are over-crowded most times of the day and night. Passengers like to stay near the door, as they will find it difficult to get down the train, if they move inside the carriages. It is difficult for other passengers to get up or down the train, as they have to squeeze through these passengers crowding near the doorway.

I hope that the Public Transport Council will mandate that SMRT should run more trains, so that they are not so crowded. It is possible to use a benchmark based on the ratio between trains and passengers. In my view, the average occupancy should be 75%, based on passengers and train capacity (i.e number of trains X passenger per train).

If the average capacity is 75%, the trains should be 100% full during the busy hours and 50% full during the off-peak hours. At present, I suspect that the average capacity is closer to 85%, which leads to over-crowded trains.

As another indicator, I do not get the chance to have a sit for more than 80% of the trips that I take, even during the off-peak hours.

5 comments:

  1. It has always been difficult to find seats even a few years ago.

    It's no wonder. Seating capacity is about 25-33% of the total capacity. If there are seats, it means the train is really under-utilized.

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  2. Wonder if you guys realize SMRT trains are getting more and more frequent technical faults. This resulted in trains delay!

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  3. How full do the trains need to be to have a decent profit? Does SMRT publish their books?

    I agree it is totally annoying how people hang out at the door. I ride the red line. About 40% of the people get off at City Hall. However the door for Raffles (where the other 60% get off) is on the other side. People remain pushed up against the door, but they have the room to take one big step back. I don't understand why they don't. I always do.

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  4. Please check out how the people in tokyo catch a train during morning rush hour.

    http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=axwMxUBL_ws

    This is back in 1991. It is not so bad now as many Japanese companies have flexi-time.

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  5. It's not just the trains that are crowded ... the stations are also very crowded. Not long ago, I had a terrible fall down a flight of stsirs that landed me unconscious. I asked for a CCTV recording but told that are was not covered. All I get from our dear SMRT ... " we sympathise with you ..." SMRT needs lots of review and improvement to cope with our population growth !!!!

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