Translate

07 May 2012

MTR Spoil


Do not panic. It's not Singapore. Well, not this time anyway.

Hong Kong SAR is a place where the population is similar to Singapore and while MTR (or we like to call it MRT over here in Singapore) do break down from time to time, we find that the folks in Hong Kong more forgiving than Singapore.

Why?

For starters, it does not break down as frequently. They take each incident more seriously and are more transparent to the public.

When things go wrong, the management have enough balls to step up and face to public to apologise instead of cooking up some lame-assed canned responses and tried to pass them off as a form of apology.

It is really insulting. Really.

And they don't use cable ties to secure the claws. *roll eyes*

So. Is the pasture greener on the other side? Well, not really as the frequent breakdown of the subway trains that we have kind of evens out with Hong Kong's Ngong Ping 360 cable car system headache.


Perhaps, we should do an exchange program where we take a look at their cable car system while they help us with the MRT?

p.s. I wonder if anyone realises that all these breakdowns started occurring from last year only. We have had the MRT system in place for over 20 years. So why now? What happened? What was changed along the way that trigger this massive spate of breakdowns?

Image: http://thestandard.com.hk

- Voxeros

9 comments:

pmg said...

An Opposition held GRC. An MP resigning for cheating on his wife. An MP not moving his family here despite promises. Another MP not becoming a full time MP even though she said she would (she has a part time job). So it's all WP's fault. =P

Either that or having a full time MP from the PAP. So it's all the PAP's fault. =P

Anonymous said...

You touched on this briefly in a previous post. Its a combination of overcapacity stemming from an over-zealous immigration policy and a greedy corporation that neglected essential line maintenance for years. Still, things could always be worse...

Arrenn

JayWalk said...

PMG: I don't think this is political but rather the incompetence of the heads at SMRT.

A lot of people are placing the blame on Tuck Yew but given that SMRT is supposedly not a government entity, the Minister of Transport at best can only be blamed for not applying enough heat on the SMRT management to come clean and to buck up.

It's a SMRT problem, let the heads at SMRT account to their customers i.e. the general public.

Arrenn: Hong Kong's population is even larger than us but they have a train system that seems to perform more reliably.

So where did we go wrong?

So I am thinking there is a dead rat somewhere along the line within the SMRT management. Time to find the errant critter and eradicate it right away.

Anonymous said...

the guilty rat may have departed?

however, i cannot believe everything falls on just one person, though that person would take responsibility. there must surely be others who are as much involved simply because they didn't speak up/warn/check.

and going by the COI, it would seem that the really big boss wasn't keeping on eye on things.

so actually quite a few heads in 2 big outfits should be rolling. and that includes people sitting on boards.

JayWalk said...

Hi Anonymous,

If you are referring to Ms Saw, then I have a different view.

I do not believe that an individual hold so much authority that it can single handedly steer the big ship in another direction.

I believe the decisions are made by a panel of several individuals. Government involved? Very likely.

We need to suss out these incompetent fools and get the SMRT back on the right track (no pun intended) to serve the general public to the best that it was originally intended.

auntielucia said...

I've always admired HK's MTR for its seamless connectivity.

SG's problems with MRT surfacing recently. Besides over-use in terms of running times and weight of number of passengers (for whom the lines didn't take into consideration), could it be the massive earth-quakes we've been seeing/feeling around us? Could the earth beneath the tracks n tunnels have shifted o so tinily but enough to KO the finely calibrated systems? I'm no engineer. Just giving 2 cents worth. LOL!

Anonymous said...

The MTR started operation much earlier than the MRT.
I had a ride 'eons' ago on the HK system before the MRT was built and it is still going strong compared to the local system. Smells suspiciously of either under-specification or someone received kickbacks to close one eye to sub-standard work or material. It is not impossible to check even now if supply and services were up to specs.

JayWalk said...

Hi Auntielucia: Welcome to the blog.

You have a valid point as to perhaps our SMRT deployed a rail system not catered to take on such a massive population.

Granted that HK's population is 7 million compared our 5, they don't seem to have as much problem is perhaps their rail system has that capacity?

Seriously, I doubt if many people would expect Singapore to ballooned to 5 million people (and counting) in such a short period of time.

On the other note, I don't think the tremors has enough effect to wreck havoc to our rail system. Besides, I am sure daily checks are being conducted unless of course, negligence and incompetence come into play here.

Let's wait for the inquiry and see what the panel digs up.

JayWalk said...

Hi Anonymous 2 which I am assuming is a different Anonymous from above:

I agree that under-specification is highly likely but I don't think kickbacks to let sub-standard material and/or work slide exists.

Some say that the new China-made cars are not compatible with our existing rails. So who is the genius to approve the purchase, assuming that it is true?

I was floored to see cable ties as a solutions to claws securing. Who is the genius to approve this form of rectification?

Again as I have mentioned earlier, let's wait and see what the inquiry turns up.