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However, I've almost never seen it in use, whether it may be for technical or public morality reasons. Dynamic art like this is also a maintenance cost.

Perhaps it may be worth removing this and commissioning a new art piece for the station? That could come alongside JRL related station expansion.

This is not a critique of art.

But perhaps we may need to be a bit more circumspect about how our public transit spaces intersect with public art.

This installation at Kent Ridge Station was initially meant to let people text messages to a certain number and it would be flashed up on the screen.

Do you need express trains, revisited It’s about making the most of what we already have.

And far busier, too - with an average of around 800k daily passengers in 2019.

To make our rail lines faster and more attractive, the Victoria line perhaps provides a good example to follow.

Read more in the blog on what we can do in Singapore:

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The Victoria line off peak service also comes every 2 minutes - better than peak hour in Singapore!

And while the Victoria line is around the same length as the NEL, it is about 10% faster, a full trip taking half an hour.

Shorter wait times and faster trains makes overall journeys quicker.

The Victoria line is an example of what Singapore's MRT should aspire to be.

While the trains have the same top speeds as in Singapore, they accelerate and brake much faster. Station stop times are also reduced thanks to the very wide doors.

Core capacity Why just a short 4km extension matters so much.

4 years later, they're still not in service. And probably not for a while yet, as SMRT completes final tests on these trains. Now they're running as test train during service hours - the final step towards taking passengers.

More in the blog on why these new trains are so important:

4 years ago, the first of 23 C851E trains were delivered to Singapore.

These trains are not only for Circle Line Stage 6, but also to allow more service on the line, to run trains more frequently and relieve crowds on the northern half of the Circle.

Technological progress gives us not only new ways to do old things.

Perhaps we can bring back some old ideas, that may not have worked with the tools we had back in the day, but are worth revisiting with what we have now.

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The carrot and the stick Fare review gives us the opportunity to fix policy failures by the LTA and the Transport Ministry.

Those who demand higher levels of service such as point to point express services, should pay more. Fare policy must be used to encourage modal shift to rail, as new projects increase connectivity of the rail network.

(5/5)

Read more in the blog:

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With 57% of drivers being work pass holders, more must indeed be done. What will be enough?

And who will pay for it? Someone's salary raise is another's increasing cost of living. Little has been done to cushion the significant fare increases across the board, and I think that must change.

(4/5)

Yet politicians and enthusiasts alike all lobby for more and better buses, but how many of them will actually sign up as bus drivers, now that push has come to shove? Or to attract gig economy workers, stuck in an illusion of freedom, working 16 hour days to pay off debts and operating costs?

(3/5)

Their hands are clearly forced, with new bus route after bus route in the northeast, where transport must pick up after urban planning failures, and we can't build the CRL and Seletar Line fast enough.

Our bus network today is already overstretched, according to the bus safety taskforce.

(2/5)

The bus driver shortage is now enough of a concern at the highest levels of government, with the minister himself now hinting at increasing salaries to attract more locals.

It's clear that in some cases, passion doesn't go far enough.

A thread on what's happening:

(1/5)

Would you take a Singapore-Bangkok train? The Singapore-KL HSR may be successful by itself, but it can be even better.

Read more in the blog:

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But also connect to other cities such as Malacca, Penang, and maybe even in Thailand.

That may require a level of imagination and cooperation not originally called for, but cross border projects like the RTS Link, with its Eurostar style border control system, can set the stage for doing more.

However, the governments don't seem interested in investing in HSR service, preferring to leave it to the private sector to fund such a project.

Thus, letting the HSR succeed may require us to learn from Eurostar - not to constrain ourselves only to Singapore-KL traffic.

With flights between Singapore and West Malaysia accounting for 10% of Changi Airport's traffic and ranking among the world's busiest international air routes, high demand for ETS train tickets, and cross-border travel by intercity express bus even more uncounted, there is plenty of potential.

The Eurostar shows us the missed potential of the KL-Singapore High Speed Rail project.

The case for HSR is extremely compelling, with strong people to people ties in both nations, and increasing economic integration as companies use Singapore as a springboard to expand into Southeast Asia.

These help phones can help bridge the gap. Place them at key navigation points and normalize their use in non-emergency situations. And better yet, by keeping them in constant use. we'll know whether they can actually work, day they're needed for their true purpose.

Less tech savvy, or even illiterate seniors must be guided step by step in using the rail system to get where they need to go.

Yet, manpower issues limit the staff presence that can be deployed in stations, and staff must also stay at the Passenger Service Centre to monitor systems and operations.

The humble help phone lurks around our MRT system unnoticed, as a thing that really only stands out in emergencies.

Why not expand their use as well? As Singapore becomes a super-aged society, signage alone is no longer enough.

But what about other locations, like Little India? Maybe it's time we revised our space usage in stations to permit small vending machine nooks or automated convenience stores here, repurposing such areas in addition to existing retail spaces.

That shows how taking 15 years to build a train line means extra costs are spent building infrastructure that we turn out not to need.

At King Albert Park, the space may possibly be reused for the greater space needed to handle passengers switching to the CRL.

Fare modernization in Singapore has put an end to many ticket offices, previously needed to help commuters manage their travel cards.

Some along the Downtown Line may never have been used for their intended purposes at all.

Could the same kind of step change be seen in Singapore? If anything, sometimes I feel rail expansion has more skeptics than supporters; and that may be due to how the LTA sells projects so badly.

Things are happening in Singapore, but I think we just need reasons to look forward to them.

But Londoners may say today that it was worth it, still highly anticipated because of how it significantly transformed travel, by providing more core capacity and relieving crowded Tube lines.

When it was being built, the Elizabeth line was criticized for exceeding costs and schedules, in part due to its complexity, with massive stations under London and complex interfaces with existing railway lines.

In public consultation for the Land Transport Masterplan "refresh", a common request is for for fast express trains.

I think there's a better way, that uses what we have and what we're building. That will help more people for the same investment, while still working for our city.

More in the blog:

Much ado about the RTS Link Do we really need to worry about the RTS Link?

Whether the RTS Link succeeds or not will depend on how easy it is to get there on the Malaysian side. The clock is ticking, and time to make things better is getting less and less.

There's 323 days to go.

Read more in the blog:

At the same time, the future must also be considered. Capacity moral panics on the RTS Link may be overstated if public transport connections to the rest of JB aren't set up. Only so much car and motorbike parking can be built in Bukit Chagar.