SINGAPORE: On Nov 14, Twitter user @jookuang was one of many commuters who took to the social media site to tweet about a delay on the North South Line. Tweets from commuters highlighted an additional travelling time of between 10 and 15 minutes.
Media reports also carried news about the delay, saying stations had announced a train fault near Toa Payoh station. However, on train operator SMRT’s Twitter page, there was no corresponding information.
Indeed, @jookiang signed off his tweet by saying train operator SMRT “has yet to tweet about this”.
SMRT’s Twitter page also gave no indication of the delay on Wednesday (Nov 22), when commuters on the East-West Line said there were announcements on the platform of a track fault near Clementi, and to expect an additional 10 minutes of travel to Jurong.
The two incidents were among a number of disruptions in November that were not highlighted by SMRT on its Twitter feed, prompting criticism from some commuters about the lack of real-time information.
A check by Channel NewsAsia revealed about five incidents during the month involving train delays or track faults that were highlighted by commuters and reported by the media, but not announced on SMRT’s social media platforms.
Where it would regularly provide real-time information to commuters on Twitter to add a 10 or 15-minute travel time to their journey in the past, its Tweets for the month before the train collision at Joo Koon station appeared to mostly inform commuters if there was a need to add 20 minutes or more to one’s travel time.
The scene at Buona Vista MRT station on Tuesday evening (Nov 22). (Photo: Winston)
Channel NewsAsia has reached out to SMRT to check if there has been an active change in its social media policy.
Meanwhile, transport experts are divided on whether there is a need for public transport operators to be more proactive about informing commuters even if delays are relatively short.
For Dr Lee Der Horng, a transport researcher at the National University of Singapore, even a 10-minute addition to travel time as a result of a disruption should be shared.
“The issue now is that there is a gap between the engineering announcements, say for example five minute, ten minute (delay) and the commuters’ perceptions,” Dr Lee said.
“You might say it’s 10 minutes, but the commuter may be experiencing a 20-minute addition to travel time.”
Dr Lee said that’s because it depends where the commuter is, and where the service disruption occurs. If the commuter is at the same station as the disruption, it may be accurate to count it as a 10-minute delay.
“But the service disruption is not only at the point but also along the line,” he said.
“If I am at Newton, where it was 10 minutes at Bishan, the moment the train starts to move towards here, that may become a 15-minute delay.”
With location-based services more common now, Dr Lee said it should not be too difficult for SMRT to introduce this to “different commuters at different stations or locations”.
“Maybe somehow SMRT feels (if it’s a delay of) 10 minutes, you don’t need to know. But I, as the commuter, am physically suffering from the 10-minute delay. SMRT is basically leaving it to the commuters to speculate and that is no good,” Dr Lee said.
But Dr Walter Theseira, transport economist from the Singapore University of Social Sciences said SMRT’s lack of presence on Twitter may not be an issue if it is pushing information through other channels.
Dr Theseira said SMRT’s lack of presence on Twitter may not be an issue if information is still pushed out through channels such as LTA’s MyTransport app. (Screenshot/ LTA MyTransport)
He cited the Land Transport Authority’s MyTransport.SG app, which provides transport-related information such as bus timings, train commuting guides and traffic news. It also provides commuters with notifications on train disruptions and delays.
“My guess is that the number of people who have the app is probably far greater than those who subscribe to SMRT’s Twitter feed or who check SMRT’s social media channels,” Dr Theseira said.
“Honestly, I think it’s more logical and more efficient for commuters to get their information from the app than from any one company’s social media feed, for the obvious reason that as a commuter, you don’t really care who has the delay.”
Dr Theseira said what commuters care about is where the delay is and how it will affect them. If SMRT is pushing the information through a transport app that is considered reliable when it comes to notifications, Dr Theseira said what platform the train operator uses to relay this becomes less important.
