HANDICAP-FRIENDLY SMRT BUS INTERCHANGE

Photo: SMRT Facebook Page

SMRT arranged for a special familiarization tour of the Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange for its the wheelchair-bound and visually impaired Woodlands residents on Monday morning.

The tour allowed for the special group of patrons to acquaint themselves with facilities such as ramps, tactile paving, and priority queue zones at boarding areas, to help find their way before the temporary bus interchange is open to public.

Members of the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) and Handicaps Welfare Association, were accompanied  by Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC, Amrin Amin.

Photo: SMRT Facebook Page

“This morning, we boarded and alighted buses, tried handicapped toilets and went up the ramp. I found wheeling-up the ramp the hardest part.”

Mr Amrin had requested to make the visit to the temporary interchange on a wheelchair to understand the perils faced by the handicap residents.

“I am happy that we got round the temporary Woodlands Bus Interchange on our wheelchairs with ease,” he added on a Facebook post.

The temporary Woodlands Bus Interchange will be operate starting 12 March as the current Singapore bus interchange is to be refurbished.

SMRT to hire 1,200 more personnel to improve public transport services

Photo: Mark Cheong for ST

SMRT is looking to introduce more structured career paths and better remuneration for bus captains and engineers, alongside enhanced human resource initiatives by the company to expand staff strength and upgrade them. 

Photo: Joyce Fang for ST

In the train services, SMRT plans to increase staff strength by 700, an increase of some 15 per cent. In bus services, it is to increase staff ranks by 500, or 20 per cent, the bulk of them bus drivers. In doing so, SMRT wants to put more buses on the roads, therefore reducing commuter waiting time.

SMRT has been facing with intense competition to hire bus captains, with the entrance of Go-Ahead and Tower Transit, new operators under the government contracting model. To remain competitive, SMRT is considering tweaking the pay structure for its bus captains.

SMRT’s Vice President for Human Resources, Mr Gerard Koh said: “We are watching to see whether our current structure will attract a fair number of bus captains." He added that SMRT may possibly introduce enhanced health and fitness benefits, and receive up to S$3,000 under a staff referral scheme and sign-on bonus, on top of the current basic salary of $1,625. Senior drivers can expect two to three more days of annual leave, all drivers, enhanced medical care with plans to build an in-house clinic at one of the bus depots.

SMRT is also beefing up training, with the signing a memorandum of understanding with the University of Birmingham that will see jointly conducted courses at the SMRT Institutes.

“Ultimately, the hope is to drive better services for the customers,” said SMRT Vice President for Human Resources, Mr Gerard Koh.

While SMRT is in discussion with National Transport Workers' Union (NTWU) on the final details, it expects to start rolling out its personnel schemes from April 2016.

Minister Khaw Boon Wan showing his appreciation to SMRT staff for the upcoming Chinese New Year holidays!

Minister Khaw Boon Wan visited Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange and Woodlands Depot yesterday to show his appreciation to our staff who will be working through the upcoming Chinese New Year holidays.

He met up with Bus Captains and many other bus operations support staff to wish them good health and prosperity for the coming year. At the Woodlands Depot, he visited the Bus Operations Control Centre, the nerve centre for SMRT’s bus operations island-wide. He also dropped by a Taxi Drivers Vocational License class in session, and then proceeded to visit the taxis auto services bay and Customer Service Centre to meet and greet with SMRT Taxi partners.

Do show your warm appreciation to our staff when you see them over the CNY weekend! 

Watch Chef On Wheels on Channel 8 tonight at 8pm! SMRT's Bus Captains will be featured!

In Chef On Wheels, celebrity chef Sam Leong and his family, together with Pornsak, the host of the show, take their mobile kitchen to prepare dinners for people in various occupations who make important contributions to society. By doing so, they hope to show their appreciation and spread some positive energy.

Our Bus Captains have worked tirelessly behind their wheels to serve the public, bringing people from one destination to another, and they were in for a treat!

Find out more about their jobs and the delicious dinner whipped up for them on Chef On Wheels on Channel 8 tonight at 8pm!

Transport operator SMRT grew third quarter net profit to S$36.9 million, on the back of improved profitability in its taxi and rental segments.

SMRT’s net profit for the third quarter of FY2016 is up 63.5 per cent from a year ago to S$36.9 million, largely on the back of improved profitability of its taxi and rental segments.

In a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Monday (Jan 25), the transport operator also said that Q3 group revenue increased 4.6 per cent to $327.6 million due to broad based revenue growth.

Under its non-fare business, which includes the taxi and rental segments, operating profit for the quarter increased 20.3 per cent to S$33.7 million in the quarter.

As for its fare business – which includes trains, LRTs and buses – SMRT posted Q3 operating profit of S$11.6 million, up five times from a year ago. This was largely due to higher revenue, training grants, reliability incentives and lower diesel costs for the bus operations, as well as higher revenue, funding from the Public Transport Security Committee and lower depreciation from the rail operations.

However, SMRT cautioned that on a year-to-date basis, its rail operations are still loss-making, with a combined a loss of S$1.1 million in FY2016 – as the “increase in operating expenses outpaced revenue growth”.

It also warned that expenses “will continue to increase due to intensive maintenance and renewal programmes of the ageing (rail) network”, and that “fare revenue will be impacted by the 1.9 per cent fare reduction and commencement of Downtown Line 2 from 27 December 2015”.

“We continue our steady performance in our non-rail businesses but the rail business remains challenging due to higher operating costs associated with improving rail reliability,” said SMRT’s president and Group Chief Executive Officer Desmond Kuek, adding that the firm remains focused on multi-year programmes to renew and upgrade the ageing rail network.

He elaborated: “While there is more to be done in reducing major train disruptions, we are encouraged that our consistent efforts in enhancing the reliability of the network have seen results. As a key reliability indicator, service delays longer than 5 minutes for every 100,000 kilometres improved from 1.80 in 2011 to 0.71 in 2015, the best performance achieved on the North-South and East-West lines in the past decade.”

SMRT also said that it is “making progress in its discussions with the authorities on the transition to a new rail financing framework”.

The firm’s shares closed almost 0.4 per cent lower today, at S$1.38 apiece.

SMRT's first Customer Experience Innovation Conference

1. SMRT Corporation Ltd, Singapore’s premier multi-modal land transport provider, held its first Customer Experience Innovation (CXI) Conference, marking a significant milestone in its efforts to raise its level of customer experience through innovation. The conference brings together thought leaders in service excellence from various industries to share new and effective methods to increase customer engagement and satisfaction.

2. Complementing the conference was an exhibition that showcased projects introduced by SMRT to improve commuter experience. Shown for the first time, the SMRT Active Route Map Information System (STARiS) 2.0 will enhance the travel experience for commuters travelling on North-South East-West Line (NSEWL) trains by displaying comprehensive station information to help commuters navigate through the station to street level upon arrival, and point out landmarks in the vicinity of the station. The STARiS 2.0 system will be available on new NSEWL trains that are expected to come into service this year. 

3. With a panel of 10 distinguished speakers and moderators from Singapore and abroad, the CXI Conference is part of SMRT’s Service Excellence efforts to inspire and motivate more than 500 of its executives and managers to be more innovative and to raise the standards of service delivery to improve the travelling experience for the more than 3 million commuters that journey with SMRT every day on its buses and trains. 

4. The CXI Conference also welcomes senior members of the Public Transport Council, the Land Transport Authority, the Employment and Employability Institute, SPRING Singapore, and local transport industry experts. 

5. SMRT has put in place a range of infrastructure renewal and upgrading programmes such as its sleeper replacement, re-signalling and third rail change out projects. SMRT is also carrying out mid-life refurbishment and end-of-life extension programmes for all its trains. In addition, more new trains are being added to the fleet to improve overall capacity. 

6. Alongside these important steps to improve network service and reliability, SMRT has also introduced many customer service improvement initiatives, such as mobile charging points, enhancements to electronic displays of train and bus arrival timing, digital way-finding panels and priority queues at its MRT stations and bus interchanges.  

7. Addressing participants at the start of the conference, President and Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Desmond Kuek said: “SMRT has won numerous national-level Service Excellence awards over the past few years – including the prestigious Singapore Service Excellence Medallion, the Singapore Experience Awards for Customer Service, and the Contact Centre Association of Singapore’s Annual Awards. We are determined to continue to serve and excel in improving the experience of all our customers. We look forward to learning and sharing with experts and leaders in Customer Experience and Innovation. Innovation is as much an idea or act, as it is a state of mind.  We can apply this in end-to-end service delivery in a commuter’s journey, from before he or she even steps into the network, with way-finding, passenger information services and physical signages, to consumer amenities in the retail shops and advertising spaces as he makes his way through the transit network, to every single commuter touch-point that make for a more enjoyable journey.”  

8. This event underscores SMRT’s commitment to serving its customers better by adopting industry best practices and through innovative uses of technology. SMRT will continue to work with the community and industry partners to improve service touch points and deepen engagement with commuters who use its trains, bus, and taxi services to make travelling on its island-wide multi-modal transport network a truly enjoyable experience.

New display panels will be installed in SMRT trains in the second half of 2016

The SMRT Active Route Map Information System (Staris) 2.0 was on display on Thursday (Jan 21) at the public transport operator's first Customer Experience Innovation Conference, held at the Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability.

The conference, attended by 500 SMRT staff, featured presentations by nine speakers from various organisations on the topic of service excellence.

It also showcased other technological innovations aimed at improving customer service, such as a new passenger information system at bus interchanges.

SMRT Customer Experience Innovation (CXI) Conference

We kick off today's conference with a welcome address from Mr Desmond Kuek, President and Group CEO, and Mr Ng Bor Kiat, SVP, Technology Management Office and Systems & Technology speaking on the topic of "Enhancing the Customer Experience with SMRT".

Better connectivity, less crowding, shorter waiting times with the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP)

1. As of 31 December 2015, about 760 Government-funded buses have been added to the public bus network as part of the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP). This has provided better connectivity, reduced crowding and shortened waiting times for commuters. Commuters can expect a total of 1,000 buses to be added by 2017. 

Nine new/extended bus services in 4Q2015 to enhance connectivity 

2. Between October and December 2015, seven new bus services were introduced, i.e. SBS Transit Services 47, 117, 118 and 258, SMRT Service 979 and City Direct Services (CDS) 664 and 665. Two existing bus services – SBS Transit Service 49 and SMRT Service 983 – were also extended. A total of 61 new buses were deployed for these routes. These new and extended bus services have improved connectivity for residents of Bedok, Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong East, Jurong West, Marine Parade, Punggol, Sembawang, Tampines and Yishun. They bring the total number of new or extended services under BSEP to 54. 

3. Commuters can look forward to more new routes in Eunos, Marine Parade and Yishun by March 2016. One new route, SBS Transit Service 382, which serves the new housing developments in Punggol West, as well as key amenities such as the new Punggol SAFRA Clubhouse, has started operations on 3 January 2016. More new routes will be announced later. 

80 weekly trips added to reduce crowding and shorten wait times

4. To reduce crowding and shorten waiting times, seven additional buses were deployed to improve five  bus services during morning and evening peak hours in the fourth quarter of 2015. In all, 80 weekly peak-hour bus trips were added in this period. 

Improvements by Public Transport Operators

5. Separately, as part of the on-going quarterly bus service review process, SBS Transit and SMRT have also improved 13  bus services by deploying higher capacity buses and/or adding more bus trips along sectors that experience heavy ridership. In total, the operators have added 90 weekly trips during peak hours for these services in the fourth quarter of 2015. This is in addition to the 80 additional weekly peak-hour bus trips added by the Government under the BSEP during the same period.

Higher service levels with more BSEP buses
6. The BSEP was started in September 2012. Together with the buses injected by the public transport operators (PTOs) and the use of private bus operators to provide additional capacity through the City Direct Services and the Peak Period Short Services, the BSEP will expand the public bus fleet by about 35%. 

7. Commuters can expect better service levels and connectivity over time. By 2017, buses will be added to about 8 out of 10 feeder bus services. Connectivity will also be further improved with the introduction of 80 new routes.

8. With the additional capacity provided by BSEP buses, PTOs will be required to deliver higher service standards. Currently, 95% of feeder services are required to operate at 10-minute or shorter intervals during the morning and evening peak periods. This will be further tightened to 100% of feeder services operating at 8-minute or shorter intervals by 2017 when the BSEP is fully implemented.

SMRT, SBS buses will be diverted due to Thaipusam

Public transport operators SBS Transit and SMRT announced in separate press releases on Monday (Jan 18) that 24 of their buses will be diverted due to road closures for Thaipusam this year.

Twenty three of SBS' bus services - 7, 14, 16, 21, 23, 36, 64, 65, 66, 111, 123, 124, 125, 130, 131, 139, 141, 143, 147, 162M, 166, 174 and 175 - will skip 10 bus stops along Bencoolen Street, Bras Basah Road, Clemenceau Avenue, Middle Road, Orchard Road, Penang Road and Serangoon Road from 9pm on Saturday (Jan 23) to 3am on Monday (Jan 25).

SMRT's bus service 857 will also skip bus stops along Middle Road, Bras Basah Road and Serangoon Road during the same period, the company said.

SMRT to extend train and some bus service hours for Chinese New Year

Operating hours for the North-South, East-West and Circles Lines, as well as the Bukit Panjang LRT will be extended on Jan 16, with last trains departing interchange stations as late as 12.36am on Sunday morning.

SMRT train services (North-South, East-West, Circle Lines and Bukit Panjang LRT) and selected bus service hours will be extended on Saturday, 16 January for the Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations Official Light-Up and Opening Ceremony. Five bus services will also be temporarily diverted in Chinatown due to road closures.

Extended train service hours

Train Line	Departing from	Terminating at	Time of Last Train Departure
North-South Line	City Hall	Jurong East Marina Bay	12.30am*
		Marina South Pier	12.14am*
East-West Line		Pasir Ris Joo Koon	12.30am*
	Outram Park	Pasir Ris	12.23am*
		Joo Koon	12.36am*
Circle Line	Dhoby Ghaut	HarbourFront	11.55pm
	HarbourFront	Dhoby Ghaut	11.30pm
Bukit Panjang LRT	Choa Chu Kang	Bukit Panjang	1.26am*

* Early morning of 17 January 2016

Extension of bus services

Passengers on the last trains can connect to the following bus services at the timings below:

Interchange	Bus service	Departure of Last bus from Interchange
Bukit Batok	173A, 189A, 941, 945, 947	1.40am*
Choa Chu Kang	300, 301, 302, 307	1.30am*
Sembawang	859A	1.35am*
Woodlands	901, 911, 912, 913	1.30am*
Yishun	804, 812	1.45am*

* Early morning of 17 January 2016

Bus services temporarily diverted due to Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations Official Light-Up and Opening Ceremony  

SMRT bus services 61, 190, 851, 961 and 970 will be temporarily diverted on 16 January from 2.00pm to 11.00pm due to road closures for the Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations Official Light-Up and Opening Ceremony.

Please refer to the Annex for more details.

Passengers may contact the SMRT Customer Hotline at 1800-336-8900 from 7.30am to 6.30pm on weekdays (excluding public holidays) or visit www.smrt.com.sg for more information.