Hello from Singapore again... It's been a while and I just could not make the time... Anyway, if you ever came to Singapore then you'd know what these abbreviations mean, like as if they are a part of life... specially MRT.
Private transportation is kind of discouraged by the government. That is why they got a high tax on cars, a monthly lottery for picking up license to be a car owner (Yeah - you just can't go and buy a car even if you can afford it) and automated Road Toll system call ERP. Lemme share a bit of what I know about these and experiences I had so far.
First comes MRT. What can I say, going around in Singapore would be impossible without MRT. MRT stands for Mass Rapid Transit, which are a bunch of electric trains running all over the city/country. Yeah, you call them Metro or Tubes in many other countries. Most of it is underground but the western side of the city has it running on the ground as well, more like on 40 feet high tracks. I commute to my office everyday for 1+1=2 hours in these MRT trains. With trains running every 2-6 minutes, I sure don't have much complaint. But if you are new in Singapore, here are a few basic etiquettes:
1. When there's no seat, don't crowd around the door, if empty, go and stand inside. People are very understanding and courteous towards those who are standing in the middle of the boggy and trying to come out upon reaching their destination.
2. Let the elders sit. Yes, it's a common courtesy which I see kids in their teen totally unaware of. Most of these elderly people got a strong sense of pride and they don't mind standing but they also recognize and appreciate these good'ol manners. At least you get to make 1 person smile.
3. While going up/down the escalator, stand at the left side if you plan to stand. There's always someone who's in a rush and wants to run up/down the escalator. It's kind of an unwritten rule where to divide the narrow space in two side and keeping the left one for standing. It's not nice to hear an impatient 'excuse me' and possibly receive a 'are you dumb or what?' kind of glare. Don't expect any more politeness than this when you're standing at the right side.
There are basically three types of routes here: North East Line (Purple in the map), North West Line (Green in the map) & North South Line (Red in the map). There are nine stations where you can switch lines.
There's two government or semi-government (I'm not sure) organizations running these services. One is SBS Transit and the other is SMRT.
SBS Transit: Singapore Bus Service
SMRT: Singapore Mass Rapid Transit
BUS Services: Whether the bus is from SBS or SMRT that's clearly distinguishable from the looks of it. SBS has double Decker bus where as SMRT got extra long buses. To me, the SMRT buses looks more hi-tech but it's the SBS bus that covers most of the city. Unlike many other countries, people tend to be totally oblivious towards the person sitting next to them.
Bus Manners: Everyone will try to occupy an entire seat for himself. Some countries have this manner of looking towards the incoming people as a sign saying, "I don't mind if you sit beside me" and looking out the window as to say, "I don't care, but better if you sit somewhere else". Here it seems that everyone likes to look out of the window.
Taxi: Like USA, taxis are convenient but expensive. Sometimes, you gotta know your routes, at least the name of the highway. Or else, the taxi driver will take a more roundabout route and end up charging you much higher! This is not true for most of the taxi drivers but there's always few bad apples...
How to Pay:
For MRT and BUS services, they accept both coins and this RFID based smartcard called EZ-Link. You can buy EZ-Link cards from all the passenger service counters at any MRT Station for 15 sgd or something like that. You will have 3-5 sgd as security deposit and rest will be credited on your account. Just tap this card at the entrance and go. Also Tap and leave. Where in MRT you really can't go in and out without tapping, in Bus it's possible to forget tapping while coming out. If you do that - the system will take it for granted that you went as far as the last destination and deduct accordingly. The fairs also lower for those who uses EZ-Link. If you're here for about a week and got loads of traveling, better buy a Ez-Link card for yourself.
I guess that's all about Singapore and their transport system. I wish to talk about private cars, the pleasure/pain of owning them and local driver behavior on the next post. Till then, have a wonderful day!
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