If all these so called ministers are really that serious in
listening and helping, public transport would have been longed
improved many years back. They should have gone in person to
see how badly managed the bus and rail network is being managed
now. And the increasing population is adding pressure and woes to
many aspects in the country's infrastructure, including public
transport.
Even if they expand the system in future, with the increasing of
population in future, relying on one mode of system, will not only
add to more overcrowding but more gridlocks as well. Not to
mentioned more fare increases in order to recoup back the losses of
building and maintaining such expensive systems.
Seriously, they do only see the surface of every problem. Let's
look at the bolded part for examples.
Not enough bus captains. Have they ever wondered why not many
Singaporeans wants to drive buses? Pay structure wise is low. Even
if the working hours can be long, if the pay structure can be
improved even further, more Singaporeans might be interested. And
the recognition of such jobs like bus captains, waiters, cab
drivers, etc, have the government done enough? All these are
service lines which the service sector will be the main
propellor of the Singapore economy in future.
If long haul routes are affected by other traffic conditions and
new bus services add more jams to the existing roads, then why not
build a comprehensive guided bus system, which only allows
for PUBLIC buses to use, and do not add to more traffic woes
to the existing roads? Building such systems are more flexible and
cheaper than light rail and public bus services can be almost
uninterrupted by other traffic conditions.
Obviously, they are just side stepping problems, for their own
agenda. And shifting from one problem to another problem to avoid
solving the root problem.
Too bad....productivity is the by-word here. It's not that the
ministers failed to recognise that the pay is too low, but because
profits is really at the top of their minds.
So how? Encourage FTs to step up to the challenge, pretend to be
shocked that the people are fed up with the depressed wages and
pressure on the infrastructure and then proceed to implement
"them-and-us" policies.
Just about everything screws up. What we're left with is
essentially an increasingly divided and at the same time, crowded
society, and where the by-word is "competitiveness" (life is a
rat-race!).
