Singapore Transport System Ranking

[Dallii]

SINGAPORE - When it comes to getting around the island, Singaporeans apparently have a worse journey experience than do commuters in New Delhi or Kuala Lumpur.

 

The Republic ranked 18th in a survey of 23 cities on public and private transport journey experiences.

 

Copenhagen, Seattle and Sydney had the most satisfied commuters, according to the inaugural Journey Experience Index by business research and consulting firm Frost and Sullivan.

 

Singapore scored 54.5 points, below the global benchmark of 61.

 

Those travelling on public transport indicated a higher level of discontent: Out of 740 public transport commuters and 674 private transport commuters polled here, 77.5 per cent and 57 per cent respectively were dissatisfied with their journey experience.

 

A comparative breakdown for the other cities was not immediately available.

 

However, one reason Singapore did not do better in the index could be the relatively high percentage of journeys made on public transport, as cities with higher car usage tended to record greater satisfaction in the overall journey experience, said Mr Vivek Vaidya, Frost's Asia-Pacific vice-president of its automotive and transportation practice.

 

The index gave equal weightage to four areas: Timeliness in reaching one's destination, value-for-money, convenience and overall journey experience.

 

Mr Vaidya said the main frustrations of public transport commuters were overcrowding, switching between different modes of transport as well as getting to and from their homes and train stations.

 

Car owners said their journey times were predictable, but groused about the lack of value-for-money, with charges such as Electronic Road Pricing, he said.

 

Transport analyst Lee Der Horng of the National University of Singapore was surprised that Singapore ranked below cities such as Beijing and Kuala Lumpur.

 

But the findings suggest room for improvement in bus services here, he said.

 

A significant percentage of commuters get to train stations by bus, and "now that we have more MRT lines, transfer between (different) modes becomes more and more common", he said. Train services are relatively predictable whereas buses, which are subject to road and traffic conditions, are less so, he added.

 

"So, how to eliminate those uncertainties in bus services - that's what the operators and regulators should pay extra attention to," he said.

 

Frost's findings vary from a customer satisfaction survey commissioned by the Land Transport Authority, the results of which were released earlier this year.

 

Of 3,100 public transport commuters polled last October, 92.2 per cent were satisfied with service, according to the latter.

 

Respondents gave an average service rating of 7.3 out of 10. Commuters were asked to rate satisfaction levels in eight areas including comfort, waiting time and reliability.

 

Associate Professor Lee noted that the two surveys' methodologies were different and should not be compared.

 

In reply to queries, the LTA told MediaCorp it was doing its best to increase the transport system capacity and will spend S$60 billion over the next 10 years to expand the rail network.

 

Since last June, when LTA began quarterly reviews to improve heavily utilised bus services, 51 services have been improved through higher frequency and deployment of higher-capacity buses.

 

"The LTA will also continue to build new road infrastructure to cater to travel demands," a spokesperson said.

 

-TODAY/rt

 

 

Source

Edited May 16, 2011 by Dallii

[C-K]

Actually, the public transport here is much better than KL & New Delhi. The traffic condition here is also far better.

 

The only problem is just that

- the prices we pay for the so-called 'public' transport do not justify the service quality we receive.

- the cost of car ownership (car price, roadtax, petrol, erp, fines) here is said to be the highest in the world but still our there're still traffic jams everywhere.

 

 

 

[Seaweed]

I agree with you...To pay SGD 1 for a 5km MRT ride as compare to paying SGD 0.2 for the same journey...of course it is natural to expect more out of the SGD 1...That's why we need the kind of brains to improve our public transport system instead of someone who only know how to create a nice P&L...the government also say we must stay competitive by increasing our value while at the same time keeping salary in control...but I don't really see the public transport keeping fare in control while increasing their own value...worst that fare keep going up...value keep going down...P&L always "healthy"!!!

 

It is not about they not running a good show...but for the show they directed...they don't deserve that fat salary...

 

I proposed our transport minister to take a challenge...what challenge...very simple one...do a survey of of people's satisfaction on transport now...do it again with them in 5 yrs time...if the score don't go up....please quit....simple...and all your salary go down the drain...unless he still expect to be pay millions a year for not doing a good job...and in fact it is serving your people and not serving the money to begin with....

 

Edited May 16, 2011 by Seaweed

[Dallii]

pricing has always been the problem. the distance fare worked a bit, but it's only a small step (at least it's bigger than just raising ERP prices). But i agree that if transport ministers cant improve the level of satisfaction in Singaporeans, then maybe a new idea should be thought of, rather than incremental stuff like raising ERP or lower COE etc. Everyone knows how to do that, why pay a minister to think of that?