LTA's reply is simply crap! Public buses are meant for transporting the masses and in fact help to reduce the demand for precious road space. Imagine a bus with modest average capacity of 30pax. If these 30 pax were to abandon public transport and own a car; say 3pax per car; meaning 1bus:10 car, which is occupying more road space and creating more pollution? It's just a lame excuse to milk more $$$! Who knows? the updated PTC guideline to force operators improve service freq is another ploy to milk more ERP $$$?

Originally posted by ^tamago^:

"Meanwhile, Prof Hensher yesterday advocated axing ERP charges for public buses. Operators in Singapore must pay the tolls. He said public buses should be exempt, especially when the authorities are trying to get more people onto public transport.

The LTA, responding to media queries on his suggestion, said public buses have to pay ERP because they occupy road space like other vehicles and contribute to congestion.

SBS Transit estimates that it paid $1.5 million in ERP charges in the first half of this year, while SMRT paid $1 million over the year which ended in March."

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_298995.html

What now?

any cheap photography shops to recommend? I thinking of buying an ND filter. approx how much it costs?

any photography shops to recommend for cheap and good items? I thinking of buying an ND filter 4x. approx how much it costs?

I thought SBST has withdrawn svc 115? How come its still in service?

Originally posted by shinkansen:

If there is no police report made or concrete prove. We should ignore it. I suspect that It might be other rival company send someone to make a false report.

If the person is found to make a false allegation against Transtar and the latter brings the case to court, the slanderer shall be prepared to be sued and make a public apology, pay for damages + court and lawyer fees incurred by Transtar. You can often find notices of public apology in the newspapers of slanderers and so on.

I’ve ever been staying in Australia for 3 years. I wonder how come their road sweepers, construction workers, rubbish collectors, cleaners, cashiers are majority locals and mainly white men?

And I have not yet come across families with a foreign maid serving them at home, or supermarkets flooded with maids, maids bringing children to school, etc etc. Probably I believe they generally got better employment terms and conditions, shorter work hours and hence got enough time to look after their own kids. I mean a better quality life isn’t it?

As for Singapore’s high property prices, I believe construction/renovation costs only amounts to a small fraction. Majority of the escalated costs are caused by the developers and investors, esp those who speculate the properties and also land costs. I ever heard of a developer who recently simply buy and sold an office building and made off a tidy profit of more than $120million in just a year! And the end user oftens end up footing the high price.

Originally posted by dfs24:

I do know that Transtar actually converted a First Class bus to a Premium bus. Think it is AFC3333. I am not sure how the premium buses are as I always stick to First class when travelling on Transtar. I usually end up on the Single Deck MB (Mtrans), and agree that the aircon filter can be quite noisy, but the aircon is always freezing cold.

I once tried Five Star tours, and got onto a rickety old single deck Scania. The interior had shell flat seats but it was worn out, at least 4 PTV were not working, and two seats cannot recline. The emergency exit was letting hot air in, and the driver like left his underwear next to the door of the bus. When the bus was climbing steep parts of the highway, the air con had to be switched off. We were like overtaken by all the other buses. Lastly, there was a lot of "illegal" stops. Oh, and the driver knocked into a road sign at a rest stop. That's why I'll never go with 5 stars again. The only plus is that the seats were soft and comfortable.

I avoided Konsortium as there was a period of time they were suffering from a lot of crashes.

Generally, I only go for transtar first class, because I don't know of other companies which do SIN-KL non stop. Also, no other companies offer 2 seats abreast on the bus, and transtar first class programmes on PTV are really good. But I'll be happy to try Grassland next time, since it has much positive reviews.

 How about trying this Transtar bus? There's a nicely dressed bus waiter on board too!:

Originally posted by AEW5001:

AFT555 u mean? n u r seating at e rear? That bus uses DD-style A/C.

 

i worked for Grasslang bef. Boss wants e bus to be clean all e time. Note that since last year, they have been refurbishing their 27-seaters with new seats n livery. however didnt like their top speed to be capped at 110kph. 120kph (max for all buses) is my preferred option.

 

i took bef MAN 24.400 (great acceleration in just short while), 18.310, B7R, UD JA450S (my fav),

n e Scania SriMaju 380 Hi-deck.

i took that hi-decker, AFV3998 on 20/3/07 from Ipoh at 10pm. e interior seats r yellow, n e nylon covering is exactly e same as e B9TLs. was at 120kph n i couldn't hear much from e engine. it more than compensated e 20min delay bef e start.

 

I was sitting somewhere in the middle. The single-decker was a blue colour Transtar: AGF9229:

For trips to Genting, do note that the first alighting point is in front of Highland Centre and final stop at First World bus terminal.

Besides the popular Yong Peng stopover, I think the upcoming popular stopover is at Restoran Kim Guan in Air Hitam (refer to my earlier posts).

I asked Transtar when booking for my trip to Genting recently and the lady who attended to me said that usually hi-deckers are deployed for Genting trips that starts off in the morning. My return trip was Transtar premium single-deck. the seats looks grand and good but unfortunately not as comfortable as the typical sofa type. and the air-con filter was so noisy throughout the journey. even our public buses are not as noisy.

I ever tried an old Konsortium bus to Penang beginning of this year and was comfortable.

So far, I still feel that Grassland buses are generally more comfortable and the buses are relatively new.

Any differing opinons?

Malaysia Special

Stopover at popular restpoint for Interstate buses at Yong Peng

First World Bus Terminal (Genting Highlands)(on a clear day!):

Stopover at Restoran Kim Guan (Air Hitam)(usually for return trips):

Malacca - Town Bus Service:

Melaka Sentral Interstate & Domestic Bus Station (Bastuah Sdn Bhd parking bays):

Malacca - Panorama Melaka:

I saw a London Bus operating as tourist bus in Malacca recently. I failed to take any photo as I saw it passing by from the opposite road.

Originally posted by tintinspartan:

Woah! Where is the picture of this routemaster taken?

 

Genting Highlands Outdoor Theme Park.

By simply passing on the costs of further concessions to adult fare paying passengers is likely to hit them extra hard esp those low income earners whose income are not considered low enough for transport vouchers; which i believe form a large bulk. Public transport fares ought to be affordable even to lower income full fare paying passengers, and it doesn't mean that full fare paying passengers coz they are working are rich enough to further absorb concessions through higher fares.

Average salaries for oridinary citizens have in fact fallen across various sectors due to greater competition for limited jobs with foreigners willing to take lower pay and greater job demands. Look at price of HDB flats as compared over the years vs salaries! And why are we reminded by our govt again and again gone are those days we can happily look forward to retirement at age 55. Now policy is to work as long as you live!

Working adults have their problems too and i believe many full fare paying commuters earning barely to sustain their daily needs. Salaries goes to monthly repayment of significant amt of HDB home & renovation loans, S&C charges, phone, elec, water bills, household items, food, cash allowances for ageing parents (worse still parents who are ill and need medical attention), etc etc.

Taxing car owners to help keep public transport affordable, though not a popular idea, is still a suggestion not to be dismissed. Cars are contributing to environmental pollution, occupying much of constrained road and parking space esp during peak hours. If car owners are feeling the pinch of taxes to help subsidise public transport, it may be an effective solution to encourage car owners give up on their cars for public transport.

I feel that if employers treat their maids well and as a human in the first place, would they still try all out to take revenge on their employers by spitting saliva onto their food, practice black magic etc etc? After all, i suppose they are here to make a living and not here to create trouble for anyone.

If your employer were to vent his frustration on you simply because he's in bad mood, how would you feel? And imagine yourself in a foreign land all by yourself, facing your abusive employer the entire day for everyday and unable to quit your job and change employers! Worse still, the whole family treat you like dirt! How would you feel?

I heard from photographers that using Neutral Density (ND) filters can help to photo the new Scania buses during bright sunlight with slow shutter speeds to prevent the picture from becoming whiteish due to overexposure? And ND filters are available in different filtration levels. Anyone tried on this?

Year 2009 calender with old bus ticket design. (from Dec 2008 to Dec 2009 calender)

Bought from level 2 Esplanade shop selling Singapore's Heritage items. Available in 4 different colours; selling for $9.90 each.

question is who's going to absorb the extra costs for granting more travel concessions to poly students? definitely not the transport operators as they are doing a business and is already currently absorbing so much concessions to a significant percentage of the commuters. They are also not welfare organisations!

Pass on the costs to full-fare paying passengers?  then the middle class will suffer; esp those who do not qualify for transport vouchers but earn little salaries which i believe form a large bulk of the population.

or how about impose additional taxes on car owners and these collections be channeled to absorb public transport concessions, keep fares low and affordable, improve our public transport system?

I saw a lady about 50++yrs old at opp Sengkang Compassvale a few hrs ago shouting and screaming at her maid saying she hated the noodles the maid bought and threw it damned hard onto the grass patch behind the bus-stop. The maid lowered her head and humbly picked them up again and  walked a few metres behind that old woman. I strongly feel that one should treat another with respect regardless of nationality, status etc. If the maid is so-called "stupid" or does something wrong, why can't we tell them nicely? Why must some of us behave in such a babaric manner? I've heard of employers complaining the maid's stupid and so on. To put in more crudely, if the maid is not "stupid" or clever enough, would she still be working as a maid? If they are not good enough for them; very simple, don't employ any maids la!

I wonder if this is the reflection of typical type of treatment and behaviours local employers treat their maids? The maids got to abandon their families and go overseas to help support their families with some at young age of 20++ where most of our locals are still studying and need not worry on financial or other aspects of life. When these maids arrive in a foreign land, they face the uncertainty of how their future employers are going to treat them, got to stay with the employers, work long hours, unable to resign when they cannot tahan their employers, got despised by some people, etc etc. Imagine the tremendous stress they are facing! No wonder i read of maids killing their employers and so on. I wonder if employers treat them humanely in the first place, would our newspapers would still be flooded with news of employers got murdered by maids and so forth? And for that miserable few hundred of dollars worth of salary, the maids got to work extra hard, denied leave and benefits that we ordinary citizens would normally get from our employers?

And when sporeans go abroad for study or work, i often hear people complaining of racial discrimination etc. But do we ask ourselves how some of us treat our foreign workers?

 

I'm working in the construction industry with lots of china workers. Based on my direct work experience with them, i feel that they are not as negative as what most sporeans perceive them to be. They are quite polite (provided you show them some degree of respect) and are diligent in work and uses initiative and I prefer them to other foreign construction workers so far. I believe the same for china BCs, as most china nationals that i know of are ready and willing to adpat to our culture and style of living when they work in spore.

the smuggling culprit may not necessary be the driver. may even be external parties who got into the bus while off service.

are there any premium svc using KPE?

interested in trains and railways - esp Melbourne's & Sydney's interstate and metro trains. the vast railway network, its operations etc makes railway so interesting and interest to pursue and find out more.

Seeing commercial aircrafts at airports take off and landing. The feeling is unique. I specially missed the old former viewing galleries at Changi Airport Terminal 1 & 2 where can see the planes and runway so clearly. Now is like ****.

 

 

The external step below the autodoor is also auto concealed when the door closes and vice versa.