After having lived with it for two decades, I no longer question it: Any trip towards Punggol MRT, and out of the estate, requires me to take the LRT first. 

I’ve always known at the back of my head that my estate is sort of a special one-out-of-three. (Or three-and-a-half.) Only Sengkang and Bukit Panjang also have full LRT loops, while the latter also has a single-line that connects to Choa Chu Kang MRT station.

But since I’ve been relatively shielded from the woes of commuters on the other end of Singapore, I never realised how badly planned out the LRT system in Bukit Panjang was. 

This video that I had saved in my 'Watch Later' playlist for more than a year (I'm the worst at procrastinating when it comes to my own interests and hobbies...) goes into all of the issues in a really engaging and witty manner. 

Mostly, a lot of criticism over the years has been directed at the fact that the system was built as an afterthought to an estate that had already been independently developed - rather than integrated into its design from the start. Reliability woes didn’t help, and in all, it seems that a lot of money has been sunk into its upkeep over the years. 

I'll be the first to say that I'm no public transport or urban planning expert. As such, I don't really have anything meaningful to add to the video except for the fact that there were a couple of interesting concepts that really caught my attention:

1) “Access penalty”

In explaining why he thinks buses may be superior, the video creator brings up the point of an ‘access penalty’, which refers to the time required to get from the station entrance to the vehicle. 

As a regular LRT-taker, I’ve never quite been able to put into words the reason why taking the bus is just an overall more comfortable experience, but I feel like this concept does it quite well. 

Bus stops impose virtually no access penalty on commuters - you simply get onto the bus (Image credit: Unsplash/isaac.)

Because LRT stations are elevated quite high up, quite a fair bit of climbing and descending is required with any trip. It’s actually worse for those with mobility issues because the lifts on my line somehow operate slower than the average ones - and you need to take two of them separately to finally reach the platform level. 

On days when I’m simply too exhausted after work and there’s no proper ‘reporting time’ for getting home, I prefer just waiting for the bus at the interchange. 

2) The LRT is technically not ‘light rail’-like 

Light rail is conventionally understood to have two characteristics. It’s a) surface-level, and 2) ‘Steel on steel’, or steel wheels on steel rails.

Our LRT trains, you’ll notice, are rubber-tyred - and of course, very far off the ground. As such, the video creator goes on to make the argument that there's been some level of mis-branding with what we know as the LRT today. 

Manchester's trams are an example of what light-rail is technically supposed to look like (Image credit: Unsplash/Hala AlGhanim)

And finally, as a third, not-video-related surprising fun fact that surfaced as I was digging down this rabbit hole...

3) Singapore almost got a fourth LRT line

I also learned that the government initially intended to build another LRT line in the Western part of Singapore, to connect NTU to Jurong East.

It has since apparently been canned, with the route subsumed (or expanded, depending on how you think about it) into the Jurong Regional Line, which will be a proper MRT line. 

Putting things into context

Again, I think a lot of the criticism towards LRTs in Singapore is isolated within the Bukit Panjang area, which the video in question - and also the following one that gives a quicker but no less effective overview - make sure to caveat. 

Sengkang and Punggol both had their LRT systems conceptualised within their town plans for day one - and so, these have been far less problematic (although they also remain notoriously difficult to navigate for first-timers). In their defence - and as daily LRT-commuter, there’s also one good reason why I choose to take the LRT instead of the bus route running parallel to the MRT station (62) no matter what: Regularity. 

Since our LRTs are automated and programmed according to regular intervals, you know for sure that the next ‘train’ will arrive by a certain time even if you’ve seen it just depart when you reach the platform. 

It does remain intriguing nonetheless that the LRT model hasn’t been replicated anywhere else in Singapore, despite the fact that new estates continue to be sprouting up. 

Thoughts on what else Singapore can do to better its last-mile public transport support?

- Matt

(Cover image credit: Unsplash/Jeyakumaran Mayooresan)