SG Complains

Do not consider SMRT’s appeal

According to AsiaOne News:

I REFER to last Friday’s report, ‘SMRT appeals against $387k penalty’ (March 21), in which the transport operator appealed to the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to reduce its fine for an accident which caused delays in its service on Jan 21 this year.

I read with dismay at how the SMRT tried to appeal against the fine by stating what had been done to mitigate the damage caused by the seven-hour delay it had caused earlier this year.

This accident is clearly due to SMRT’s negligence as its workers had failed to engage the proper brakes on the repair train which led to an accident that caused thousands to be late for school and work.

Instead of being forthcoming and paying the penalty, I am disappointed that the SMRT should ask for the fine to be reduced. Being a daily commuter, I fully understand the anguish and frustration when one is late for school or work because of a train disruption.

The agony of watching the clock tick on while waiting for the train to move; or looking at busloads full of people and being unable to board, can be extremely distressing.

I urge the relevant authorities not to consider SMRT’s appeal as such negligence cannot be excused, especially from one of the providers of our ‘world-class transport system’.

Shen Shifa

- SMRT is unfortunately one of the only Train operator in Singapore, LTA should give out more license to new operators to increase more variety of transportation medium to induce competition. If this operator happen to use this fine as excuses to increase fares then the future of average income Singaporean will be really tough.