Saturday, October 27, 2012

SMRT should play nice music at our MRT interchanges

Today, I saw to my surprise large giant electronic signboards at the control station of a MRT station which indicate in simple descriptions whether the services on the various MRT lines are normal or not. Since today, there is not MRT breakdown, the words "Normal" in the signboards greeted me.


Though this is a good gesture by SMRT after LG(NS) Desmond came to helm the company, I really think that SMRT is now operating in a New Normal whereby normal operation of the MRT lines should not be taken for granted - as if this were so, why is there a need for the large electronic signboards?

Anyway, many people have benchmarked our MRT system with our close neighbour, Hong Kong and having spent 5 days with my then-girlfriend (now my wife) some years ago with our own planned free and easy tour of Hong Kong using 99.9% Hong Kong's MTR, we really believe that Hong Kong's MTR easily surpasses Singapore SMRT by many notches.

Till now, I cannot forget the very romantic music piping away as my wife and I went through the interchange, changing from one train to the other, it is really romantic and I think the music really soothes the souls of many Hong Kongers as they rush through their busy days!

Compare the aforementioned scene with Singapore's Dhoby Ghaut or Harborfront MRT interchange and you can see that it is a really stressful experience navigating our SMRT interchanges.

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