SINGAPORE: Officers from the National Environment Agency (NEA) carried out surveillance outside Ai Tong School in Sin Ming, after receiving complaints from nearby residents about a late-night or pre-dawn din caused by idling engines, especially from buses parked outside the school.

In a statement to Channel NewsAsia on Thursday (Jun 1), NEA said it has also taken enforcement action against some of the drivers.

Under environmental regulations, it is an offence to leave engines of a stationary vehicle running other than in traffic conditions.

Residents of Bishan Point condominium told Channel NewsAsia that the school buses parked overnight on Ai Tong’s premises have their engines running for 10 to 15 minutes at a time before they enter and exit the school gate.

IDLE ENGINES A CONSTANT DISTURBANCE TO RESIDENTS 

When Channel NewsAsia visited the condominium between 9pm and 11pm on Tuesday night, three buses were parked at the car park of the school at Bright Hill Drive. Despite it being the second day of the school holidays, residents said the noise from idle engines was a continued source of disturbance.

One resident on the fifth floor said he is woken up by the noise when buses leave the school at about 5.30am, and again when they return as late as midnight.

“Before they leave the school, (the bus drivers) have to turn on the engine, drive close to the big gate, alight from the bus, open the big gate and drive out. Once they have driven out, they will park again just outside the condominium and alight to close the gate. The whole time, they leave the engines on, which can be as long as 15 minutes.”

The resident said the cycle repeats when they return at night. He said he wrote in to the Education Ministry sometime last year to ask if the school parking space was being used for commercial parking. He said he has not heard back from the ministry, after an initial response saying they would look into the issue.  

“I don’t have an issue if they return by 10pm or even 11pm, but leaving the engine on when they return at midnight for that duration is too much.”

Another resident on the 17th floor also said his family’s sleep is disrupted when buses roll out of the school early in the morning and drivers leave the engines on while they walk out to close the gate.

But other residents said it was part and parcel of living near a school. One parent said residents should put up with the noise, as many moved for their children to have the opportunity to attend the school.

A security guard at the condominium told Channel NewsAsia he receives calls from irate residents in the morning, when the engines of the buses rumble outside. “They will ask me to tell the drivers to turn off their engines and even write down the licence plate numbers so the residents can make a complaint,” he said.

“If I have seen the drivers before, I will approach them and tell them nicely to turn off the engine while they open the gates to drive in or drive off. Some are willing to do it, some are not.”

NEA said it received three cases of public feedback on idling vehicle engines from residents since the start of the year. Two involved cars of parents waiting along Bright Hill Drive while the third was about a bus parked outside the school.

NEA said it worked with the school to distribute educational pamphlets to parents and bus drivers to raise awareness about not leaving the engines of their vehicles idling.

“In addition, the school management has assisted in educating the parents and bus drivers to switch off their engines when vehicles are stationary, and has also requested its parent volunteers ensure that there are no idling engines within the school compound,” the statement read.

NO COMPLAINTS RECEIVED: AI TONG SCHOOL

Meanwhile, Ai Tong School told Channel NewsAsia it has not received any feedback about school buses leaving their engines idle. It urged affected residents to get in touch with the school directly, so that it can work with them to resolve the issue. 

“We will work closely with the bus operators to minimise any disruption caused by the buses to neighbouring residents,” the school’s principal said in a statement. 

When asked if it would allow the buses to continue parking on its premises, the school said they are allowed to do so under the Overnight Parking Scheme, a collaboration between the Land Transport Authority and the Education Ministry that started in 1983. Under the scheme, registered school buses are allowed to park overnight on school premises. 

The school said the scheme alleviates the problem of illegal off-street parking by school buses. The Singapore School Transport Association (SSTA) said more schools now provide buses with parking space on their premises, as long as it does not endanger or cause disturbance to students and residents living nearby. 

Additionally, SSTA’s executive secretary Jeremy Ng said most bus drivers are aware of the rules and will not abuse the privilege of parking on school premises as it gives them the convenience of not having to park at heavy vehicle lots in more isolated places.

In June last year, NEA introduced stiffer penalties for errant drivers leaving their engines idle, with repeat offenders facing a fine of S$100 each time, up from S$70 previously.

NEA said it took enforcement action against more than 6,000 errant motorists last year. Reasons given by offenders included parents waiting for “a short while” to pick up their children from school and bus drivers turning on the air-conditioning before school dismissal to cool the bus interior.

SINGAPORE: Officers from the National Environment Agency (NEA) carried out surveillance outside Ai Tong School in Bishan, after receiving complaints from nearby residents about a late-night, or pre-dawn din caused by idling engines, especially from buses parked outside the school.

In a statement to Channel NewsAsia on Thursday (Jun 1), NEA said it has also taken “enforcement action” against some of the drivers.

Under environmental regulations, it is an offence to leave engines of a stationary vehicle running other than in traffic conditions.

Residents of Bishan Point condominium told Channel NewsAsia that the school buses parked overnight on Ai Tong’s premises have their engines running for 10 to 15 minutes at a time before they enter and exit the school gate.

IDLE ENGINES A CONSTANT DISTURBANCE TO RESIDENTS 

When Channel NewsAsia visited the condominium between 9pm and 11pm on Tuesday night, three buses were parked at the car park of the school at Bright Hill Drive. Despite it being the second day of the school holidays, residents said the noise from idle engines was a continued source of disturbance.

One resident on the fifth floor said he is woken up by the noise when buses leave the school at about 5:30am, and again when they return as late as midnight.

“Before they leave the school, (the bus drivers) have to turn on the engine, drive close to the big gate, alight from the bus, open the big gate and drive out. Once they have driven out, they will park again just outside the condominium and alight to close the gate. The whole time, they leave the engines on, which can be as long as 15 minutes.”

The resident said the cycle repeats when they return at night. He said he wrote in to the Education Ministry sometime last year to ask if the school parking space was being used for commercial parking. He said he has not heard back from the ministry, after an initial response saying they would look into the issue.  

“I don’t have an issue if they return by 10pm or even 11pm, but leaving the engine on when they return at midnight for that duration is too much.”

Another resident on the seventeenth floor also said his family’s sleep is disrupted when buses roll out of the school early in the morning and drivers leave the engines on while they walk out to close the gate.

But other residents said it was part and parcel of living near a school. One parent said residents should put up with the noise, as many moved for their children to have the opportunity to attend the school.

A security guard at the condominium told Channel NewsAsia he receives calls from irate residents in the morning, when the engines of the buses rumble outside. “They will ask me to tell the drivers to turn off their engines and even write down the licence plate numbers so the residents can make a complaint,” he said.

“If I have seen the drivers before, I will approach them and tell them nicely to turn off the engine while they open the gates to drive in or drive off. Some are willing to do it, some are not.”

NEA said it received three cases of public feedback on idling vehicle engines from residents since the start of the year. Two involved cars of parents waiting along Bright Hill Drive while the third was about a bus parked outside the school.

NEA said it was worked with the school to distribute educational pamphlets to parents and bus drivers to raise awareness about not leaving the engines of their vehicles idling.

“In addition, the school management has assisted in educating the parents and bus drivers to switch off their engines when vehicles are stationary, and has also requested its parent volunteers to ensure that there are no idling engines within the school compound,” the statement read.

NO COMPLAINTS RECEIVED: AI TONG SCHOOL

Meanwhile, Ai Tong School told Channel NewsAsia it had not received any feedback about school buses leaving their engines idle. It urged affected residents to get in touch with the school directly, so that it can work with them to resolve the issue. 

“We will work closely with the bus operators to minimise any disruption caused by the buses to neighbouring residents,” the school’s principal said in a statement. 

When asked if it would allow the buses to continue parking on its premises, the school said they are allowed to do so under the Overnight Parking Scheme, a collaboration between the Land Transport Authority and the Education Ministry that started in 1983. Under the scheme, registered school buses are allowed to park overnight on school premises. 

The school said the scheme alleviates the problem of illegal off-street parking by school buses. The Singapore School Transport Association (SSTA) said more schools now provide school buses with parking space on their premises, as long as it does not endanger or cause disturbance to students and residents living nearby. 

Additionally, SSTA’s executive secretary Jeremy Ng said most bus drivers are aware of the rules and will not abuse the privilege of parking on school premises as it gives them the convenience of not having to park at heavy vehicle lots in more isolated places.

In June last year, NEA introduced stiffer penalties for errant drivers leaving their engines idle, with repeat offenders facing a fine of S$100 each time, up from S$70 previously.

NEA said it took enforcement action against more than 6,000 errant motorists last year. Reasons given by offenders included parents waiting for “a short while” to pick up their children from school and bus drivers turning on the air-conditioning before school dismissal to cool the bus interior.

SINGAPORE: A new bus terminal at Shenton Way will open at the end of the month to replace the existing terminal along Palmer Road, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Thursday (Jun 1).

The new terminal is located off Shenton Way, next to Bestway Building and directly opposite the Monetary Authority of Singapore building.

It will open on Jun 25, LTA said.

Unlike the existing terminal, it will allow for commuters to board.

The new terminal will have a priority queue zone, barrier-free toilets and 150 bicycle lots, said LTA, adding that bus drivers and staff members will have facilities including dedicated staff toilets and an air-conditioned staff lounge.

The bus terminal will also have a green roof, to provide additional greenery in the Shenton Way district, LTA said.

All 12 bus services operating from the existing bus terminal – Services 70, 106, 107, 128, 130, 133, 162, 186, 400, 402, 700 and 970 – will continue operating from the new bus terminal.

From Jun 25, the bus services will no longer call at the two bus stops along Palmer Road, which used to serve as the first boarding point for outbound services and final alighting point for inbound services.

Instead, the first boarding point for outbound services will be at the new bus terminal itself.

The final alighting point for inbound services will be the bus stop opposite MAS Building, directly outside the new bus terminal.

Starting Jun 25, a full-day bus lane along Shenton Way will be implemented outside the new bus terminal. It will operate from 7.30am to 11pm on weekdays and Saturdays, expect public holidays.

LTA said this would enable “faster and smoother journeys for bus commuters”.

SINGAPORE: Commuters along the North-South train line were told to expect up to 20 minutes’ additional travelling time in either direction during rush hour on Thursday (Jun 1) due to signalling checks, transport operator SMRT said. 

In an announcement on Twitter on Thursday evening, SMRT said this affects all stations along the line – from Jurong East to Marina South Pier.

The transport operator later added that free bus services were available between Jurong East and Choa Chu Kang stations, as well as City Hall and Ang Mo Kio stations. 

In an update at 7.17pm, SMRT said train services were progressively returning to normal speeds, and that commuters could expect an extra 15 minutes’ travelling time. 

Commuter Christopher Chai told Channel NewsAsia that a train was stuck at Novena station for at least 15 minutes. 

Another commuter, Priscilla Low, told Channel NewsAsia that Bishan MRT station was extremely crowded at about 6.40pm, as she tried to reach the platform. “But the crowd dispersed and the queue was cut short after the free bus service was announced,” she said. 

Commuters took to social media to express their frustration, with some saying they had waited 30 minutes for their train to move. 

A netizen who left a comment on Channel NewsAsia’s Facebook page said this is his second time experiencing a train delay in a week, due to the signalling tests. “2 times in the same week, some more (sic) during after office hours peak period! Well done SMRT!” said Facebook user Alvin Koh. 

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) recently announced a surprising fourth-quarter net loss, and pledged to review and transform its business. Much of the discussion following the news has centred on what SIA must do to reclaim its market share in a climate of increasing competition, and global political and economic volatility.

If SIA’s current financial woes continue, more people may question whether Singapore needs a national airline. SIA’s position may be tenuous, precisely because unlike other national carriers, it doesn’t enjoy the benefit of a market for domestic flights. And it has experienced fierce competition from the likes of Emirates and Qatar Airways, both of which have home airports offering a geographically more convenient stop between Asia and Europe or the Americas, as well as newly expanding regional airlines based in China.

But our view is that the relevance of SIA is more than an economic question.

IMPORTANT TO SINGAPOREANS AND FUTURE GENERATIONS

Consistently placed among the best airlines in the world each year, SIA has no doubt been a great success story, with many stakeholders who feel heavily invested in its future. Apart from its 12,000 employees in Singapore, the airline’s shareholders, business partners and regular customers are understandably anxious about SIA’s prospects.

This might also be the case for many more Singaporeans who may or may not use the airline frequently. The Institute of Policy Studies’ (IPS) survey of perceptions of Singapore’s history released in 2015 found that half of the 1,516 Singaporeans surveyed were aware that the airline was established in 1972. Asked to rank the importance of SIA’s formation on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being “very important”, more than half expressed in their answers that this was a key milestone. 770 respondents gave an average score of 3.8 for the event’s importance to them and 4.0 for its importance to future generations of Singaporeans.

The survey basically places the formation of SIA among one of the more important events in Singapore’s history, as perceived by Singaporeans. This may be because historically, people have seen their national carrier as a symbol that represents their nation and this sentiment extends to Singapore and Singaporeans.

In this context, SIA is an important emblem, like the Singapore flag and national anthem, and plays a critical role in creating our sense of national identity, post-independence.

There is rich symbolism behind this emotion because of the strong association with the Singapore story. With the airline’s development mirroring Singapore’s nation-building journey from third world to first, Singaporeans take pride in the success of SIA as it speaks well of Singapore as a whole.

Likewise, Singaporeans are particularly concerned when serious accidents happen to SIA. Further analyses of the IPS survey found that Singaporeans perceived the SQ006 Taipei crash and the hijack of SQ117 as disasters that tested our national resilience and ability to overcome tumultuous challenges as one people, one nation. Even if we were to discount the SIA factor as a reason why Singaporeans feel so strongly about these events, the fact is that at these historical milestones, SIA was there.

The airline is also part of the Singapore individual and collective memory. Since its launch in 2011, the Singapore Memory Project has invited Singaporeans to share their memories. Interestingly, many older Singaporeans reminisced about SIA flight attendants gracing national events such as the National Day parades and the Singapore Tourism Board’s Merlion Week in their signature sarong kebaya uniform in the 1980s to great fanfare.

NATIONAL SYMBOL TO THE WORLD

Besides its social and cultural value to Singaporeans, SIA is also a national symbol of sovereignty. With its midnight blue and rich yellow livery and stylised “bird” logo on the tail fin, the carrier can be easily identified in major airports globally. While many foreigners may not have visited Singapore, the iconic SIA brand colours and logo seen in the media or in airports overseas contribute to the increased awareness of our city-state and projects an image of professionalism, high standards and warmth.

With destinations as north as Stockholm and as south as Christchurch, the airline further reflects Singapore’s ambition to be connected internationally.

Alongside the Merlion and Marina Bay Sands, the Singapore Girl serving SIA customers on board aircraft, has become one of Singapore’s most internationally recognisable images. She has also been immortalised as a waxwork by Madame Tussauds twice, first in 1993 and again in 2015.

SIA also functions as a tourism ambassador. Foreign passengers on board SIA can learn about Singapore’s cuisine through their in-flight meals. In 2015, SIA served Peranakan delicacies to celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday. Last year, SIA introduced Teochew delights such as steamed pomfret and braised duck with rice, bringing Singapore cuisine to the world.

INNOVATE AND CONTINUE TO BE A POSITIVE SINGAPORE ICON

For those who might say that we are romanticising a Singapore institution that has passed its days of glory and should take a hard-nosed look at its business performance, perhaps it is useful to remind ourselves of SIA’s history of having overcome past economic challenges. In 2003, SIA experienced record losses due to the Severe Acute Respiratory System (SARS) outbreak, which led to falling demand. Retrenchment and pay cuts ensued.

To combat declining profits and increasing competition from both the Gulf carriers and Asian low-cost carriers, cost-cutting measures were introduced since 2013. At the same time, the airline strengthened its foothold in the budget airlines segment with Scoot, and expanded its regional network.

Given the intense competition in the airline industry today, what more can SIA do now? How should it innovate to continue to be a positive icon of Singapore internationally? We remain hopeful that SIA can weather this storm and continue to do Singapore proud.

Like ourselves, Singaporeans, frequent fliers or otherwise, will be looking forward to hearing SIA’s business transformation plans beyond its re-integration of SIA Cargo.

Without a doubt, Singaporeans hope that SIA continues to be a source of national pride, comfort and joy, whenever we see the familiar blue and yellow stripes fly in from a distance.

Paveena Seah is a Senior Research Analyst at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s IPS Social Lab. Petrina Chew is a Research Assistant in the Economics and Business research cluster at IPS.