Appreciating our efficient transport system

Posted by Simply Jean under National History, Reflections
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singapore_public_transport As I roused from my slumber, I heard a familiar voice over the public address system, warning the commuters that the doors were closing. Almost immediately, I jumped from my seat, nearly hitting the lady sitting next to me, who responded with an almost inaudible grumble.

“It’s the new buses”, I thought to myself and tried to get back to my sleep.

After the merger between the Trans Island Bus Services (TIBS) and the Singapore Mass Rapid Transport (SMRT) – the company which runs one of the train services in Singapore, the newer buses were fitted with a new announcement service similar to that of the SMRT trains. Indeed, the posh leather seats, the sometimes-almost freezing air-conditioning, and the EZ-Link card readers have come a long way. In the past, we only had seats that could sometimes be dislodged easily and air-conditioning was almost a luxury. I can remember the days of breathing in exhaust fumes from a passing truck.

cimg0337 The EZ-Link had also evolved from the first generation of fare cards, which was – and probably still is, affectionately known “the MRT card” or “the Transit Link card”. Ah, how that brings back sweet memories of my school days. Unlike the tough ubiquitous EZ-Link which relies on Radio Frequency (RF), it was a flexible card with magnetic strips that was slotted into the card validator (ticket reader).

Come to think of it, do you remember the times that you have to slot the card into the card validator and then try to figure out how much you have to pay if you were going to an unfamiliar place? While the bus drivers would have been quite kind to tell you the exact fare, this is normally met with impatience by the other commuters queuing behind – who are usually left waiting in the sun; or worse, the rain!

These days, the comfort level for our public transport system has risen by leaps and bounds; and most importantly, you can use the same card for trains and buses.

Along Anderson Bridge in 1951, transportation then was a far cry from what we have today. (MICA collection, Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore)

Some of us might remember when the MRT trains first started their operations on 7 November 1987. It was running between Yio Chu Kang and Toa Payoh. As a child, I remembered being cajoled into taking the bus from Yishun to Yio Chu Kang, just so that my mum and I could try out the novel train ride to Toa Payoh; coincidentally where my grandparents used to stay. The train services, which was planned between the Singapore government and the United Nations Development Programme, was part of an urban renewal and development program for the Republic’s future infrastructure.

As useful as it may seem, the development of the train services, supported by then Minister of Transport, the late Mr Ong Teng Cheong, faced strong opposition from other members of the cabinet because of the $5 billion pricetag that came with the rail construction.

As a Singaporean, I’m really proud that the train services became a reality because it changed the way the people travel – and with a population of 4.8 million people, we definitely needed a mass rapid transporttion system beyond buses and taxis.

The rickshaw was prevalent during pre-war Singapore (MICA collection, Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore)

Speaking of taxis, do you know how people got around the island before the introduction of the first Yellow Top taxis in the late 1960s? It was the trishaw, or the rickshaw in pre-World War II days. The difference between the two is that the trishaw is still commonly seen in Singapore – with the trishaw man cycling whereas the rickshaw was pulled by on foot. After the war, it became a common sight to have rickshaws, trishaws, bicycles and cars all on the road at the same time.

Of course, the bus services evolved alongside – with Singapore Traction Company (STC) and a few other smaller Chinese-run private bus companies plying the city routes and rural areas respectively. This resulted in the formation of the Singapore Bus Services (SBS) and subsequently the SBS Transit when it became the train operator for the North-East Line of the train services.

The formation of the SBS came about as the result of a reorganisation by the Singapore government when it recognised that the service level of local transportation was being outpaced by rising demand. In addition, the famous Hock Lee bus riots on 12th May 1955, where workers of the Hock Lee Amalgamated Bus Company protested over poor working conditions, the “Great STC strike”, which lasted 146 days (that’s almost five months without public transport!) and a series of 57 strikes often left the commuters in the lurch. This forced the government to look into restructuring the bus system. This saw the formation of three bus companies – the Amalgamated Bus Company Limited, the Associated Bus Services Limited and the United Bus Limited. However, the STC still maintained monopoly on the central area of Singapore.

Despite this intervention, bus breakdowns, overcrowding and irregular fares, amongst other problems, still persisted. STC subsequently collapsed due to financial losses and the three bus companies merged and formed the Singapore Bus Services.

Having learnt the side effects of monopoly, the Singapore government contemplated the idea of creating a competitor to SBS and formed the Trans-Island Bus Services Limited (TIBS) on 31st May 1982 as the second major transport operator. TIBS started operations about a year later, on the 3rd April 1983. When the train services, operated by the Singapore Mass Rapid Transport (SMRT) started in 1987, Singapore had three major transport operators – SBS and TIBS for bus services, and SMRT for the train services. When SBS tendered and won the rights to operate the North-East Line in 2001, it was renamed SBS Transit Limited. In the same year, TIBS also became a subsidiary of the SMRT and was renamed SMRT Buses Limited on 10th May 2004.

A City Shuttle Service (CSS) bus on the road taken during the launch of CSS under the "Park snd Ride" scheme by then Minister for Communications, Yong Nyuk Lin, at the Holland Road fringe carpark (MICA collection, Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore)

Before efficient bus services, there was another service that tirelessly plied the roads. It was the City Shuttle Service (CSS), which was operated by the Singapore Shuttle Bus Limited (SSB) – the result of the Park and Ride scheme that was introduced in 1975. The scheme was aimed at reducing city traffic congestion by encouraging car owners to park their vehicles at allotted fringe carparks and making use of these bus services plying between the fringe carparks and the Central Business District.

This was however, unpopular and was abolished the following year. Nonetheless, several other bus services were introduced and CSS operated from housing estates like St Michael’s, Queenstown, Bukit Merah, Bedok and Sin Ming to the Central Business District (CBD) and vice versa.

Here’s another little known fact: SSB was the first bus company to introduce concessionary fares to senior citizens, which was later copied by the other bus companies. On 12th March 1987, SSB was acquired by TIBS and also became a subsidiary of SMRT in 2001.

Looking back, I never realised that our bus services had come such a long way. In fact, I never imagined that the bus and train services had so many intertwining relationships. While I consider the train services to be top notch compared to our neighbouring countries, the planning of the train routes never did stop even after the train services ran from Pasir Ris in the east to Boon Lay in the west, and Yishun in the north to Marina Bay in the south in the 1990s.

mrt_lrt_system_map_current

As we know today, the train services extended from Yishun MRT Station to join Jurong East MRT Interchange and new stations were added at the Boon Lay end – which resulted in me alighting at the wrong station a few months ago. Besides the addition of the North-East Line and the LRT systems, several stations were also added along the East-West Line, including Dover MRT Station, Expo MRT Station and Changi Airport MRT Station.

Of course, the most recent addition is the Circle Line which is currently serving commuters between Bartley MRT Station and Marymount MRT Station. Admittedly, I have not boarded the trains on the Circle Line, but given the good track record of train services in Singapore, I have absolute confidence in the service levels. One thing’s for sure, our transportation today is definitely a far cry from the bus services in the 1950s.

EDITOR’S NOTE::: This is the eighth in a series of blog posts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s journey to nationhood.

To read the other offerings in this special series, see: