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Singapore's electric car-sharing program hits the road

reuters.com

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Re: Singapore's electric car-sharing program hits the road

#31

Post by jesterson »

vadimberman wrote: post #24
jesterson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You clearly need more time to spend here, your excitement will definitely go down. >> the public transport is probably one of the best all over the world (even though the locals keep complaining) Did you hear what are they complaining about? There is a lot of thing to complain. >> with completely driverless trains On Circle, DT/DT2 and Purple lines only, so not "completely". >> accuracy that would make the Germans an…

> Did you hear what are they complaining about? Yep. > There is a lot of thing to complain. Nope. Not in comparison with the rest of the world. > MRT issues are happening very often, can't remember any other country with such amount of MRT problems. Have you ever ventured outside of Singapore, I wonder? Are you even aware that the 3-5 minute interval between trains, air conditioning, seamless connections with other t…

> Nope. Not in comparison with the rest of the world.

It's a very bold statement for someone who spent 2 months in Singapore. Maybe it worth listening to what local people are saying?

And yeah, it depends on what you mean under "rest of the world". If you compare to Africa (with all due respect!) then yea, I would agree.

> Have you ever ventured outside of Singapore, I wonder? Are you even aware that the 3-5 minute interval between trains, air conditioning, seamless connections with other transport, no rubbish on the ground, no graffiti, trains less than 10 years old is not a rule but an exception?

Mate, you're not the only one travelling, chill ) I don't care about graffiti or train age, all I need from transportation system is to deliver me from point A to point B with maximum speed and comfort. Let me ask you one question - do you know any country where metro goes down for hours quite regularly?

I'm not saying Singapore transportation system is bad - it is definitely among best, but it's way too early to call it the best, especially after train collision with 28 injured last month, tunnel flooding because of negligence, few incidents that leaded to MRT closure for hours.

Re: Singapore's electric car-sharing program hits the road

#32

Post by [deleted] »

jesterson wrote: post #31
vadimberman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did you hear what are they complaining about? Yep. > There is a lot of thing to complain. Nope. Not in comparison with the rest of the world. > MRT issues are happening very often, can't remember any other country with such amount of MRT problems. Have you ever ventured outside of Singapore, I wonder? Are you even aware that the 3-5 minute interval between trains, air conditioning, seamless connections with other t…

> Nope. Not in comparison with the rest of the world. It's a very bold statement for someone who spent 2 months in Singapore. Maybe it worth listening to what local people are saying? And yeah, it depends on what you mean under "rest of the world". If you compare to Africa (with all due respect!) then yea, I would agree. > Have you ever ventured outside of Singapore, I wonder? Are you even aware that the 3-5 minute i…

[deleted]

Re: Singapore's electric car-sharing program hits the road

#34

Post by choonway »

A Singaporean here. The real revolution in transport happening here is NOT electric cars, NOT autonomous cars, NOT Uber/Grab, NOT the bike sharing scourge the likes of ofo.

It is the e-scooters that has been zipping around the walkways and highways recently.

Some heroics... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn03CUt4fm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVDFcnMKNRM

Re: Singapore's electric car-sharing program hits the road

#35

Post by sho »

jesterson wrote: post #31
vadimberman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Did you hear what are they complaining about? Yep. > There is a lot of thing to complain. Nope. Not in comparison with the rest of the world. > MRT issues are happening very often, can't remember any other country with such amount of MRT problems. Have you ever ventured outside of Singapore, I wonder? Are you even aware that the 3-5 minute interval between trains, air conditioning, seamless connections with other t…

> Nope. Not in comparison with the rest of the world. It's a very bold statement for someone who spent 2 months in Singapore. Maybe it worth listening to what local people are saying? And yeah, it depends on what you mean under "rest of the world". If you compare to Africa (with all due respect!) then yea, I would agree. > Have you ever ventured outside of Singapore, I wonder? Are you even aware that the 3-5 minute i…

> do you know any country where metro goes down for hours quite regularly?

Of course. In Sydney the trains have historically had plenty of issues, usually around power management. And even in Japan lengthy delays are not uncommon, usually because of suicides (have personally waited 40 minutes in a crowded train on the "chuocide" line while they cleaned one of those "accidents" up). And in living memory is the 2005 Amagasaki disaster, which killed over a hundred people!

I'm not sure Singapore's is "the best" or even what "the best" would mean, but it's world class for sure, and the price is fantastic. Tokyo trains cost more than twice as much. If you factor price in, I'd say the only competitor is HK, which is also fantastic.

Re: Singapore's electric car-sharing program hits the road

#36

Post by kccqzy »

vadimberman wrote: post #20
brisance wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>* the public transport is probably one of the best all over the world (even though the locals keep complaining), with completely driverless trains and accuracy that would make the Germans and the Swiss cry in envy. Train service is one of the top electoral campaign issues for the past 3 cycles (about 12 years). I don't know the metrics for European countries but my anecdotal experience in Japan is that the Singapore…

> I don't know the metrics for European countries but my anecdotal experience in Japan is that the Singapore system is not even worthy of discussion. That's strange, while I liked the Tokyo JR system, I think Singapore's overcrowding is better managed. No people pushing passengers into trains. I know it was considered an issue and every single Singaporean complains about it. Which is really, really puzzling. You guys…

Singaporeans aren’t complaining because their trains are worse compared to the ones in New York. They are complaining because the trains are worse compared with fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago it was unthinkable that two of the busiest lines would simultaneously go down for hours during rush hour, but that happened in July 2015. The NS/EW line trains were so incompetently maintained that reliability has been going down for several years now, to the point that outages are now common. This is after years of reliable service such that most Singaporeans do not have cars and depend on trains for almost all travel needs. This is valid cause for complaint.

Re: Singapore's electric car-sharing program hits the road

#37

Post by sho »

hboon wrote: post #28
vadimberman wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know the metrics for European countries but my anecdotal experience in Japan is that the Singapore system is not even worthy of discussion. That's strange, while I liked the Tokyo JR system, I think Singapore's overcrowding is better managed. No people pushing passengers into trains. I know it was considered an issue and every single Singaporean complains about it. Which is really, really puzzling. You guys…

If you compare Singapore's MRT system to similar systems in every city in the world, it will rank among the top. But it's a matter of expectation. But if you include the massive hype and expectations set over the years — and the performance of the MRT system for the first 10 years — the current breakdowns, delays and obvious negligence in maintenance and how they are currently handled is what makes people here compla…

> if you include the massive hype and expectations

I think you've hit the nail on the head here. One thing that no-one has mentioned is the implicit social contract in place in Singapore - give the PAP basically total power, and everything will run perfectly. This rightfully sets an extremely high expectation, moreso than in other countries where a little government incompetence is tolerated, even expected.

I think this explains Singaporean's higher expectations/complaining vs other countries (in my experience).

Re: Singapore's electric car-sharing program hits the road

#38

Post by sho »

emmanuel_1234 wrote: post #21
vadimberman wrote: post #18

I moved to Singapore a few months ago. Frankly speaking, the venture sounds ridiculous. * the public transport is probably one of the best all over the world (even though the locals keep complaining), with completely driverless trains and accuracy that would make the Germans and the Swiss cry in envy. * like elsewhere in Asia, it's mostly about the price. Nobody except for the hipster expats gives a hoot about going…

>* the public transport is probably one of the best all over the world (even though the locals keep complaining), with completely driverless trains and accuracy that would make the Germans and the Swiss cry in envy. Try Hong Kong trains. A notch better, serving a much higher density population. I also recently moved to Singapore and must admit I'm a bit disappointed with the low frequency, short trains that Singapore…

> I'm a bit disappointed with the low frequency, short trains that Singapore deployed

I must admit I'm baffled by the short trains as well. In Japan it's common to see trains up to 11 carriages (from memory?) - absolutely massive things and they were still crowded. In Singapore half the lines only run 4 or 6 carriages and sometimes as low as 3! I can't fathom why, if they're already building a subway system, they'd handicap it by making it run such short trains (and they get very crowded). Doesn't seem too future proof.

And don't get me started on the number of doors, just 4 per carriage, which is a huge point of congestion and slows the whole line down. Japanese rolling stock typically has 6 or even 8 doors per carriage; much more efficient.

Re: Singapore's electric car-sharing program hits the road

#39

Post by sho »

jesterson wrote: post #22
vadimberman wrote: post #18

I moved to Singapore a few months ago. Frankly speaking, the venture sounds ridiculous. * the public transport is probably one of the best all over the world (even though the locals keep complaining), with completely driverless trains and accuracy that would make the Germans and the Swiss cry in envy. * like elsewhere in Asia, it's mostly about the price. Nobody except for the hipster expats gives a hoot about going…

You clearly need more time to spend here, your excitement will definitely go down. >> the public transport is probably one of the best all over the world (even though the locals keep complaining) Did you hear what are they complaining about? There is a lot of thing to complain. >> with completely driverless trains On Circle, DT/DT2 and Purple lines only, so not "completely". >> accuracy that would make the Germans an…

> On Circle, DT/DT2 and Purple lines only, so not "completely".

NS and EW lines are currently being upgraded to moving block CBTC which will allow full driverless automation. That's why there are those signs up right now about the early closures!

Re: Singapore's electric car-sharing program hits the road

#40

Post by robjan »

vadimberman wrote: post #24
jesterson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You clearly need more time to spend here, your excitement will definitely go down. >> the public transport is probably one of the best all over the world (even though the locals keep complaining) Did you hear what are they complaining about? There is a lot of thing to complain. >> with completely driverless trains On Circle, DT/DT2 and Purple lines only, so not "completely". >> accuracy that would make the Germans an…

> Did you hear what are they complaining about? Yep. > There is a lot of thing to complain. Nope. Not in comparison with the rest of the world. > MRT issues are happening very often, can't remember any other country with such amount of MRT problems. Have you ever ventured outside of Singapore, I wonder? Are you even aware that the 3-5 minute interval between trains, air conditioning, seamless connections with other t…

You are comparing a relatively new subway system with some quite old ones. A more apples to apples comparison would be with the Hong Kong MTR or the Taipei MRT, or even some of the Mass Transit Railways in Tier 1 cities in China.
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