The CNY holidays are a great time for reunion amongst family, relatives and friends from all ages & walks of life.
The insignificant nobody me heard of a story from one of my friends. He is an abiding lawful citizen, gave up his car & used public transport instead, & even followed LTA's directives to use the Simplygo card.
As he feared losing his card, he only topped up minimally - $20. Each time, even if that card - WHICH DOES NOT SHOW BALANCE VALUE, he was still able to pass thru gantries as the card would regain the value back by deducted the amounts owed, often less than $5.
WIth the EZ Link card, it shows balance value & one can find an appropriate time to top up the value, often during less peak hrs, etc, but sadly NOT the SIMPLYGO card.
As he is fastidious about costs, he often never bothered about checking the value as he would top up regularly.
A few days ago, due to the festivities, he did not realize the amounts he spent on basic travel, & after walking a distance from any top up machines at MRT, he boarded a bus, but was politely denied entry as his SIMPLYGO card showed only that his card had no value, which he NEVER encountered before.
He walked all the way back to the MRT station, about 20 mins walk, & found out that his card still had balance of $3, which could still be used for travel on a bus costing only a mere $1.50 journey.... top up, walked another 20 mins back to the bus - stop, with another 20 mins wait till another time scheduled bus arrived...
The insignificant nobody me was intrigued, & bought the same SIMPLYGO card, at lowest min value, travelled Singapore for the fun of it as it was holiday season, & found out what he said was true - less than $3 WHICH WAS NEVER REFLECTED in the SIMPLYGO card, it led to EMBARASSING situations between the bus driver & me, as well as the LOSS OF PRECIOUS TIME TO FIND ANOTHER TOP UP MACHINE...
It is comprehensible that one of the advantages of SIMPLYGO system allows a user a debt form privilege to continue one's journey unheeded, limited to a few dollars. However, when millions travel daily, that debt would be in millions of dollars, which could earn overnight interests. Worse still if a passengers simply throws away the card & use another, then those millions dollar would not be recoup back, & honest taxpayers or shareholders of that insane company would have to bear the losses.
Ultimately, the point is - SIMPLYGO system had not been a well thought out ideal, pushed thru by a now charged in Court ex - minister of transport for corruption.
No doubt perhaps the SIMPLYGO system was cheaper & meant to enhance unheeded travel, but it had NOT been thoroughly tested for its bugs. Now it will cost hard working taxpayers $40 million to revert back to the BETTER EZ link system. How much more had been spent on the SIMPLYGO systems which is a proven failure? And WORSE - it is now a guessing game on the remaining value of a card which does not show value & precious time lost?
Whomever proposed the SIMPLYGO system as well as the vendors of such system should be SUED, for the regression of supposed progress of transportation means for Singapore which seeks to limit car growth.
The insignificant nobody me heard of a story from one of my friends. He is an abiding lawful citizen, gave up his car & used public transport instead, & even followed LTA's directives to use the Simplygo card.
As he feared losing his card, he only topped up minimally - $20. Each time, even if that card - WHICH DOES NOT SHOW BALANCE VALUE, he was still able to pass thru gantries as the card would regain the value back by deducted the amounts owed, often less than $5.
WIth the EZ Link card, it shows balance value & one can find an appropriate time to top up the value, often during less peak hrs, etc, but sadly NOT the SIMPLYGO card.
As he is fastidious about costs, he often never bothered about checking the value as he would top up regularly.
A few days ago, due to the festivities, he did not realize the amounts he spent on basic travel, & after walking a distance from any top up machines at MRT, he boarded a bus, but was politely denied entry as his SIMPLYGO card showed only that his card had no value, which he NEVER encountered before.
He walked all the way back to the MRT station, about 20 mins walk, & found out that his card still had balance of $3, which could still be used for travel on a bus costing only a mere $1.50 journey.... top up, walked another 20 mins back to the bus - stop, with another 20 mins wait till another time scheduled bus arrived...
The insignificant nobody me was intrigued, & bought the same SIMPLYGO card, at lowest min value, travelled Singapore for the fun of it as it was holiday season, & found out what he said was true - less than $3 WHICH WAS NEVER REFLECTED in the SIMPLYGO card, it led to EMBARASSING situations between the bus driver & me, as well as the LOSS OF PRECIOUS TIME TO FIND ANOTHER TOP UP MACHINE...
It is comprehensible that one of the advantages of SIMPLYGO system allows a user a debt form privilege to continue one's journey unheeded, limited to a few dollars. However, when millions travel daily, that debt would be in millions of dollars, which could earn overnight interests. Worse still if a passengers simply throws away the card & use another, then those millions dollar would not be recoup back, & honest taxpayers or shareholders of that insane company would have to bear the losses.
Ultimately, the point is - SIMPLYGO system had not been a well thought out ideal, pushed thru by a now charged in Court ex - minister of transport for corruption.
No doubt perhaps the SIMPLYGO system was cheaper & meant to enhance unheeded travel, but it had NOT been thoroughly tested for its bugs. Now it will cost hard working taxpayers $40 million to revert back to the BETTER EZ link system. How much more had been spent on the SIMPLYGO systems which is a proven failure? And WORSE - it is now a guessing game on the remaining value of a card which does not show value & precious time lost?
Whomever proposed the SIMPLYGO system as well as the vendors of such system should be SUED, for the regression of supposed progress of transportation means for Singapore which seeks to limit car growth.
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