Many of you who need to switch trains at the Jurong East terminal must have noticed this. Just as the train you were in was coming to a stop at the station you must have felt so glad that there was another train waiting on the other line to continue your journey. Perfect timing. Such efficiency must be acknowledged as it makes train connection so smooth and pleasant for the commuters.
Then the annoying and dastard thing will happen. As the doors of your train opened, the doors of the waiting train would close. For those commuters who dashed across the platform they would only see the train moving away, leaving them behind to wait for the next train. Perfect timing every time.
The good thing now is that with the free trips in the morning, this is now a thing of the past. The whole platform would be so crowded that it would take three or more trains before one could hop on to the train. The agony of seeing an empty train moving away when you alighted is replaced by the agony of a full platform of commuters and more waiting time.
There is another uncanny perfect timing incident that happened recently arising from the haze problem. The City was covered by haze for about a week and getting hold of a face mask was top priority. We got our face masks with compliments from the thoughtful company. And an interesting remark was made at that very moment. ‘The haze is going away.’ The issue of the mask was the sign that it would not be needed any more, just like when we were issued with a personal thermometer during the SARS crisis. After receiving the thermometer, the crisis subsided.
I think many people got their face masks just in time for the haze to go away. I am sure the 200,000 who got their face masks free too did not have the privilege to put them on. The sky is clear the next day!
Uncanny perfect timing ya. Lesson learnt. If they want a crisis to go away, do the necessary, like issuing the masks quickly, and the crisis will go away as it will always do. And the reason why the dengue problem is not going away is that they have not issue insect repellant to every household.
Keep the mask for the next haze.
ReplyDeleteBecause for sure there will be a next haze, as long as the root cause of the haze is not solved. It is a not matter of whether but when.
Just as for sure PAP will win again at the next election, as long as opposition parties are not ready to be govt. It is not a matter of whether but when will be the next election.
It is very difficult synchronize 2 metro at the intersection station, if you would want the train to arrive at intervals of 2-2.5 minutes.
ReplyDeleteTo do such synchronization would require engineers to carry out a lot of optimization of system engineering. It will also reduce margin for error.
If the waiting time in between is above 4 minutes, that could be done.
PAP will still win lah, haze or no haze, free masks or no, train timing perfect or not, train platform crowded or not, SARS or no SARS, free thermometer or no, dengue or no dengue, insect repellant or no etc etc.
ReplyDeleteOnly when WP say it is ready to be govt, then it will be hard to say whether PAP will still win or not.
Synchronizing mrt train do not add much benefits since the next train is maybe 90s behind you, the more pressing matters is throughput and by increasing frequency will reach a point where frequency cannot be increased. The only other ways is to increase capacity of the train, I have no idea why smrt rejects the proposition when all our train carriages are self propelled
ReplyDeleteU are so concern about trains synchronisation..............
ReplyDeleteJust be thankful if there is no more breakdown and you are able to reach your stations SAFE & SOUND! Thank you ...............
@veritas
ReplyDeleteIs it technically difficult for the two trains to be synchronized to allow transfer of pax for 30 to 40 seconds?
Not tech savvy, so ask U. Thank You!
I am not a Rail engineer. But base on my work on some synchronization problem, engineer always give buffer.
ReplyDeleteIf your train arrive every 2 minutes and you want 2 train of different lines to arrive at the same time, it may take a lot of effort to optimize the system.
You will leave very little margin for error, and that is very undesirable for all engineering problems.
In engineering, many things is possible. But in Rail problem, my foremost concern in this situation is no longer synchronization. Its realibility and safety.
If you are able to send a train at 2 minutes interval, why worry about synchronization. The most is let the train chaning passenge walk across the platform and wait for another 1 min 30s. That is not a long time.
That simplify my problem.
If trains arrive at interval probably 4-5 minutes intervals, it will be easier to make them synchronize at interchange.
ReplyDeleteWhat can u expect with an ex saf general in charge? He likes to see people performing BMT on the platform via the cameras? Brains or brainwash? You decide.
ReplyDeleteWhy lead a stressful life?
ReplyDeleteWhy rush fm one train to another? Train synchronisation? etc...
Slow down slow down. You better listen to me, slow down before it is too late!