Forum: Explain what happened during SimplyGo U-turn
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The announcement that commuters no longer need to switch to SimplyGo as the Land Transport Authority reversed its decision to scrap the older ticketing system by June was unexpected (LTA shelves plan to replace older public transport payment cards with SimplyGo by June, Jan 22).
After money was spent on a supposedly well-thought-through initiative, another $40 million will be spent so that commuters can continue using ez-link and Nets FlashPay cards for public transport.
It was reported the funds will be spent on maintaining and replacing the hardware of the card-based ticketing system. The authorities should still give a breakdown and account for the money spent.
In addition, the hiccups commuters experienced in the upgrading process are disappointing.
It was reported that people could not use some of the SimplyGo app’s features and passengers faced difficulties in upgrading their ez-link cards to SimplyGo cards after the news of the conversion broke.
I hope the authorities will explain clearly to commuters what happened during this U-turn.
Ng Lee Kwang
