But, in one single act, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has made it more difficult, particularly for the foreign businessman.

Imagine, the newly arrived businessman leaves his hotel, gets into taxi and says: 'Hitachi Tower, please.'

'Cannot.'

'Why?'

'Must alight at taxi stand.'

'But I don't know where it is!'

'Sorry, must ask.'

Safer? I find long queues of taxis now, causing road jams, confusion and increased pollution. 'On-call' taxis have no idea where to stop - in the queue, at the front, at the back? And their fares do not know where to go.

Quicker? Never. Twenty taxis used to pick up at the same time at 20 different locations. Now they have a single queue and it takes 15 minutes to pick up 20 passengers, assuming they've bothered to wait.

Other major cities like London and Paris have taxis safely picking up fares in the street. Why is Singapore different?

And it's even worse for the businessman leaving the office to go to Changi Airport, with suitcase. Where is the nearest taxi stand? Well, even I don't know and I've been in Singapore for the past eight years. And I simply can't find any of the new taxi stands in the Central Business District.

Singapore used to have one of the best taxi services in the world. Now, it is too expensive and too inconvenient. But perhaps that was the real objective. I have certainly given up and use the train now - but it takes me three times as long.

Duncan Edwards