OK, you expect a whole lot of new trains to show up in the depot
as a Christmas present? I know Santa can teleport but...
I know how you feel. I take SBS feeders in Jurong East, Jurong
West and the MRT on the EWL. It is unbelievably packed. It's almost
like the MTR in Hong Kong between Prince Edward and Central.
OK, look. The massive population increase in Singapore has
outpaced the growth of the MRT. There is nothing that can be done
so quickly. You can plonk a million people in Singapore in a few
weeks. You cannot build another 30 trains in a few weeks.
Yes, that was bad planning, pulling so many in such a short
space of time. But what can we do?
1. Buy more trains so we can run more frequently, like every 2
min (30 tph).
2. Upgrade the signalling and ATO so we can run more
freqeuntly.
The second is the faster option; however, at the moment, it
won't help, because the signalling can cope with increases.
What's left? The first option, buy more trains.
That is what SMRT is doing, hence the arrival of the C151As to
supplement that C151s, C651s and C751Bs on the EWL/NSL.
Coming back to my Christmas present prod, trains cannot be
purchased *like that* off the shelf in NTUC FairPrice. Even buses
take time, but that's about a year and few months. It takes a few
years to roll out a new fleet of trains.
Conclusion: it's on the way. You can't speed it up. In the
meantime, you can...
1. pray for salvation
2. curse the government
3. thank the heavens we have a reasonable MRT that is quite
fast, quite clean and not that crowded compared to HK, Japan,
Russia, etc., not on a loud, fuming rattletrap of a bus with broken
aircon and a leaking roof stuck in 4 hr jams.
Happy MRT-ing.
