After almost eight years, I am now taking the public transport to get to work and it has been a huge culture shock to me! I had read about the crush in the public transport system in Singapore but it was only when I actually experienced it did i realize the magnitude of it.

By and large Singapore has a fairly decent public transportation system with trains, called the Mass Rapid Transit or MRT serving major towns and the Light Rapid Transport or LRT connecting newer towns to the MRT stations and buses which either connect the outer lying areas to the city centre or connect the suburbs to bus or train interchanges. The two operators which run the bus/train network are SMRT and SBS.

Eight years back when I last took the bus on a regular basis, it was easy since I was taking it from the first stop to the last one and was guaranteed a seat. My connecting bus from the interchange to my office was also from the first stop and since the journey was some 10-15 minutes only, not getting a seat was not a big issue! The traffic on the roads was not so bad and I could reach my workplace in the western part of the country in less than an hour. Then last year when S was on his last reservist duty, I had to take the public transport for about 4 days and I took the bus as usual and the journey took me almost double the time! The traffic in the roads was terrible and made me realise just how many vehicles were on the road, in spite of high car prices and the other expenses that come with owning a car! I then took the train on the other days and that was not too bad considering I was travelog in the opposite direction for most of the journey. I was so thankful to be driven to work once S was back!

Now since July I am working in a new place which is on the fringe of the Central Business District (CBD).  This means along with me, approximately 60-70% of Singapore’s working population travel in the same direction as me. The first few days I took the train, but the crush there brought to mind the Mumbai train crush the only difference being that people are a bit more polite here and all buses and trains are air conditioned. I’ve had to frequently miss trains because there was just no way I could enter the train! I then started taking my chances with the road traffic and am now taking an almost direct bus which takes me to a busstop about 7-10 minutes walking distance from my office. This bus is also extremely crowded. The stop I usually get on is the last one before the expressway and the days I can actually get on the bus is good! But there is one thing that I have noticed which is fairly disturbing. Most people do not like to move to the back of the bus but crowd around the exits. This means that the bus is front heavy and newer passengers have to squeeze in the front with zero personal space while at the back it is fairly comfortable.

Wish the powers that are (aka the transport minister or the biggies in the ministry) take these busses and trains incognito without getting the operators and the grassroot leaders in the picture and get a first hand experience of what most Singaporeans go through. Only then would any policy designed to alleviate suffering really take place, otherwise it’s all just gloss.