By Lovecraft Raveneve
I just saw the headlines of today’s straits times. was surprised to see that Land Transport Authority “is looking for experts assess the health of the entire rail network as the regulator and operators grapple with glitches that do not seem to go away” (22 April 2015)
It sounds like LTA has finally exhausted all venues when it comes to fixing our train faults and have thrown in the towel. If so, I would like to ask
1) Were the past fare hikes in 2011, 2014 and April 2015 justifiable? Why are commuters paying more for substandard services that the operators have been unable to solve for the past few years?
2) Should LTA and IDA approve SMRT bid for the 4th telco contract with OMG? Since SMRT is primarily a transport operator so it should focus and improve on its transportation first before embarking on other business ventures.
3) Should SMRT continue to dabble in its retail venture: SMRT Xchange? Shouldn’t more manpower and attention be diverted to solve its train woes?
4) Is Minister Lui able to juggle his duel roles of Transport Minister as well as Second Minister for Defence? Would it be better if he can just focus on his primary role?
5) Why do Minister Lui and SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek continue to earn million dollars salary annually when they are unable to lead our local team of capable SMRT employees and have to resort to external help?
I think there’s still a lot of room for improvement for Singapore’s transport system network and I hope our transport operators will focus solely on their primary function at least till they are able to manage without causing much disruption to the commuters.
