Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Long wait for a bus

I had to take a connecting bus to reach home from my office. I waited 30 minutes for the connecting bus No. 70 at the terminus. The normal waiting time is 8 mins but the bus was delayed. The queue was getting very long. Many people ahead in the queue gave up waiting and decided to walk to take another bus.

Later, I found a sign posted at the head of the queue, "Due to traffic jam, the bus No. 70 would be delayed". That was all. As this sign was posted in front, there was no way that people at the back of the queue knew about the delay, and how long the delay would be.

Most of the commuters would take this type of poor service as part of life in Singapore. There is no point in making a complaint. The people in charge, in SBS Transit or Land Transport Authority would not care. They might give some hollow apology or nice words, but they really don't care.

If there are sincere about the customer, they would have sent a staff to tell the people in the queue, update them about the arrival time and help them with alternative arrangements. After all, there are many unemployed people who would be delighted to have this type of job, even at low pay. Surely it is possible to have some customer service officers at the terminal? But, SBS Transit probably decided that employing people would cost money and eat into their profit. So, they would save on this money. It is cheaper to give hollow apology.

It took me 1 hour to get home from my office, travelling a distance of 2 km. It would have been faster for me to walk.

Sigh! This is Singapore.

Tan Kin Lian

5 comments:

  1. It's due to the F1 road diversion. Bus 70 is also affected. It took me more than an hour, to travel from opposite SIA Bldg, Robinson Rd (7pm) to Marine Parade (8.15pm) on bus 196

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  2. It might be a good idea to start a link where car owners can advertise their usual routes either from housing board or private estates.
    People can wait at prearranged points and be picked up.

    Its a casual system and its up to each party to arrange.

    We must find our own solutions. Too much of our lives are dictated by others who seem to know it all.

    A pilot project for us to try?

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  3. I can tell my experience with Singapore bus service in much hotter words. Try the bus customer service hotline. I was asked the same question about my complaint a few times till I got more angry. The question then changed when I showed frustration, "do you still want to pursue the matter?" I hung up my phone!
    Waiting 30 minutes for no.170 along Bukit Timah Road was a daily routine. Until Malaysian side started to operate a similar route, service of no.170 has improved. It's the attitude of the operator let the whole system down. Without competiton, it will be hard to see changes to provide better service. If you take feeder bus regularly, I suggest that you have your health check more often.

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  4. Bus services often make my blood boil. As long as MRT bring me to my destination, I prefer MRT to buses anytime.

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  5. Busway in Jakarta has its own lane, so its always on time. Its eating up the normal lanes but Singapore is not as ongested as Jakarta. Is this viable in singapore?

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