Your Letters

Tackle congestion at some MRT stations

SMRT may have completed the replacement of sleepers but there are other improvements it must undertake to enhance commuters' experience ("Project to replace MRT sleepers done"; Dec 25, 2016).

Congestion at some MRT stations is one area that has been overlooked.

For example, walking through parts of Raffles Place MRT station during peak hours is an unpleasant experience.

Retail stalls at the concourse of Basement 1 reduce passageways to less than 2m wide. When people stand in front of the stalls, there is little room to pass.

The passageway to the Robinson Road exit is lined with ATM machines, and queues often block most of the passageway.

Was the station, which was built about 30 years ago, designed to cater to today's crowd and retail arrangements?

I dread to think of the consequences should there be an emergency like a fire.

Another area SMRT could look at is the single-journey ticketing machines at some stations, which are slow and obsolete.

It is not wrong for SMRT to maximise its revenue, but it has to be clear as to what its core mission is.

Government policies discourage private transport in favour of public transport.

But public transport must be a reliable and good alternative. Such obvious areas needing improvement must be addressed.

Ho Swee Huat

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on January 01, 2017, with the headline Tackle congestion at some MRT stations. Subscribe