New signs to guide commuters at stations

By Amelia Tan Hui Fang, The Straits Times, 12 May 2012

THE Land Transport Authority (LTA) is putting up new signs in two MRT stations to study how effective they are in guiding commuters, especially during service disruptions.

City Hall and Chinatown MRT stations have been chosen for the three-month pilot programme - from next month until August - because they are used by many commuters.

Feedback will be gathered from the public and train operators so that the signs can be improved before they are rolled out islandwide, tentatively by the end of the year.

One of the major complaints from commuters in the wake of two major service breakdowns last year was the lack of information on alternative transport options.

An LTA spokesman said it will work with train operators SMRT and SBS Transit to put up various signs to enable commuters to quickly resume their journeys during train breakdowns.

There will be permanent signboards providing information on the routes of buses that serve bus stops outside the station.

The various MRT lines will be colour-coded and a bus service will be marked with the relevant colours to link it to the stations it can take commuters to.

The signs will be placed at all MRT exits.

Another type of sign will direct commuters to bus stops or interchange stations which offer free shuttle services in the event of a service failure.

The multilingual signs will clearly state which exit to go to, as well as the routes the buses will ply.

They will be placed in the stations, at covered linkways and at the bus stops targeted for the shuttle services. This would ensure that drivers know exactly where to pick up people.

The study will also evaluate the use of portable signs bearing bus information which will be placed at strategic locations in the stations.

The lightweight 1m-by-2m signs are large enough to enable many commuters to check out the information at the same time.

Station staff can place these signs in under 10 minutes, when needed.

The spate of MRT train breakdowns since December last year has drawn flak from commuters.

The breakdown on the North- South line on Dec 15 affected 127,000 commuters during the evening peak hour. Another disruption two days later affected 97,000 commuters.

An ongoing Committee of Inquiry hearing into the December breakdowns heard that crowd control in affected MRT stations was lacking then.

LTA hopes that the three new types of signs can ease the workload of the station staff, freeing them up to handle other pressing issues during service disruptions.

Feedback can be provided to the LTA via its website at www.lta.gov.sg, its hotline on 1800-2255-582, or by directly approaching station staff.