Thats was a one off thing for me. Usually I would prep enough
time to take 171 to school from Yishun, like 90 minutes incl wait
time.
MRT wasnt very punctual either. When I started working in town,
a train ride from Khatib to City Hall that was supposed to be 30
minutes usually ended up as 50 minutes. There were very frequent
halts between stations from Novena and City Hall and yes, the train
was packed like Sardines at all times during morning peak. Each
halt would take anything from 10 seconds to 5 minutes. Even if
there were no halts, the trains would run very slowly ~20km/h.
Thats why I chose to take 851 when possible (and 850 was cancelled
after MRT came out, otherwise I could have taken that too).
Of course back then there were no Facebook to put complaints
about MRT to. All complaint letters sent to SMRT would have been
sent directly to the recycle bin. Complaint letters sent to ST
Forum would also be selectively not published.
U long time never take MRT seriously. Everytime i took MRT during
peak hours recently, they chiong the MRT. U must be damn unlucky to
hop onto a train that is travelling very slowly. I have personally
never experience a slow train during peak hour and yes i commute to
work using MRT when i was working in Sentosa. If it is slow then
one off incident only. And i took buses to work and i regretted it.
I wake up early oso no use coz of congestion at traffic lights,
certain areas. I hardly took MRT but when i took MRT during peak
hour, it have never ever fail to please me with their speed.
