Transport Connoisseur

“Not even CEOs use cars in Singapore,” I was informed by well-meaning friends and family back home. “The public transport is spot-on, excellent!”

As a young bride on a new adventure, public transport was not by any stretch of the imagination, the first thing on my mind that fateful day I left everything familiar behind and headed to this compact, contradictory island.

Two years and one job later, I consider myself quite a connoisseur of ‘de public transport system’ in my new home. Ah yes, I have been around all right! And I must say, contrary to popular opinion, it has its pros and cons.

First off, it’s cool, I mean literally cool. The air-conditioning may be suffocating at times, but at least there’s some respite on those hot tropical days, even if it means breathing in conspicuous amounts of carbon dioxide and god knows what other questionable substances of human and non-human origin. Secondly, it’s fairly punctual. My Swiss friends may think otherwise, but for those of us from places where you’re happy if the bus or train arrives at all, good enough!  Third, it’s clean; most trains and busses are fairly well-scrubbed with a few occasional lapses.

Travel during off peak hours can be decent enough. But my-oh-my; do things change come peak hours! Whether in a bus or train, if I happen to be going someplace between 5pm to 7pm and 7am-9am, I’m typically close enough to my fellow passenger to know what they had for their last meal, and believe me that’s not fun! The dangerous part though, for anyone who lacks the balancing skills of a trapeze artist, is having no place to hold on to in those rattling, jiggling moments of the train’s journey.

The only other alternative, taxis, are ridiculously expensive what with a peak hour surcharge to boot!

So what’s my overall verdict? Public transport in Singapore is certainly not the seventh heaven it was made out to be, far from it! However, it’s not as bad as some pundits here paint it either. It’s all a matter of timing!