Imagine that you work in a business that is essential, and had to get to the office at 8am.
The first bus comes, but it doesn’t stop. The second comes, but it doesn’t stop as well. The third comes and it stops…but then moves off after the bus driver counts his fingers.
Then you saw this and realised that you might as well walk to the MRT station instead:
But is this true?
Unfortunately, despite us hoping that it’s fake news, it isn’t.
Instead, the poster was merely put up prematurely…and there’s a chance that this might occur.
It seems like we’re facing new problems every day, aren’t we?
Poster Made Its Round on the Internet
Yesterday, it was revealed that safe distancing measures would be implemented in public transport, and despite us knowing the objectives of it, we raised our hands in objection.
How the heck can essential workers get to work in time then?
It seems like it’s yet another problem that authorities all over the world face: how much compromise should one make to solve this COVID-19 problem?
However, waiting for the next train shouldn’t be too much of a hassle since the frequency of trains is high, but it’s a different story for buses.
If you’re down on your luck, you might have to wait over 20 minutes for the next bus.
SMRT Clarified It was For “Internal Reference”
It turns out that from today onwards, there’s still no limit on how many people can board a bus.
Yet.
SMRT Buses bus operations director Vincent Gay has responded to CNA’s queries, and he said, “One of my staff put it (the notice) up prematurely for internal reference…The notice has since been removed.”
So yes, that poster was indeed been seen in public.
And it’s unknown whether that would really take effect in Singapore, as SMRT is now in discussion with LTA on the limit of passengers in a bus.
Just for your reference, this means that a bus like this can only hold a maximum of 16 passengers…
…a bus like this can hold 25…
…and a long bus like this can hold 32.
According to SMRT’s website, a normal bus can take about 88 passengers, a double-decker bus can take about 134 passengers and a long (bendy) bus can take about 131 passengers.
So we’re talking about almost 80% reduction in its load.
The question is this: have 80% of us telecommuted or stopped working altogether?
