Posted: 19 March 2012 0656 hrs
SINGAPORE: Former SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa has
continued to share her side of the story on her personal blog, with
a post on Saturday on how her leadership helped to raise SMRT's
revenue, preventing "huge fare increases".
Ms Saw, who resigned in January after two major train service
breakdowns on the North-South Line in December, said one of her
main tasks when she joined the company nine years ago was to
improve the bottom line.
"This was the first time I was faced with a business whereby costs
escalated quickly but revenue did not grow at the same pace.
Ridership was growing at a steady but slow two per cent annually,
with limited or no fare increase," said Ms Saw, whose retail
background and suitability to run SMRT had come under fire in the
wake of the breakdowns.
As the company "can never cut corners" to improve margins, the
"most obvious opportunity" was to make full use of its station
assets - the space.
Ms Saw said the monies brought in from maximising retail and
advertising space benefited commuters. SMRT managed to raise
commercial revenue from S$28 million to more than S$100 million,
"averting the need for huge fare increases".
Other key challenges when she became CEO included improving LRT
services, which were suffering multiple stoppages, and managing the
merger with TIBS.
"Delving deeper, we realised that the LRT was run as a separate
company, not only legally but also in every way. For example, the
strong SMRT train team was not involved in the running of the LRT
trains," she said. "Thus, it was not surprising that the young LRT
team was in over its head. Its actions were mainly stop-gap
measures."
The company's train management eventually merged with SMRT, and
problems like its "badly-commissioned geoloc system" and
complicated power system were tackled.
As for the TIBS merger, which faced resistance due to "turf pride",
Ms Saw said this was eventually resolved by consulting all its
staff on defining its mission.
Ms Saw also addressed the criticism to her starting a blog, saying
the negative comments did not surprise her.
She wrote: "Friends ask me to respond but I don't feel a need to.
If you have enjoyed what I've posted so far (and I know it's not a
lot), thank you for reading. If you have not found it interesting,
then perhaps an alternative blog or website might better suit you.
I leave it up to you."
Her last day at SMRT is April 5.
- TODAY
