What’s behind the screen
There’s a lot missing with the capabilities of public transport passenger information systems.
Of course, it takes two hands to clap. Capabilities that have been built should be put to good use; but do those capabilities even exist in the first place?
The hardware
This is a story of missed potential; as always.
The standalone nature of each MRT line means that cross-publication of next train timings between components of MRT interchange stations didn’t happen until the DTL. And of course, as is typical with the LTA’s project-based approach, no effort was made to bring older interchanges along the NEL and CCL up to standard, with the sole exceptions being at Outram Park and Marina Bay where work had to be done to integrate the TEL anyway.
Of course, SMRT has invested plenty in its own systems, and on SMRT’s systems, it’s possible for disruption information on other lines to coexist with operation information for the currently unaffected line. Yes, information display can be a bit strange, but that just takes a software change, and it isn’t the end of the world.
Of course, these could change. The NEL’s systems seem particularly neanderthal when the LED boards only show the next 1 (one) train, unlike other lines where two can be shown. The Punggol Coast extension, and CCL Stage 6, may provide an opportunity to modernize these as part of related systems upgrading works. Similarly, communications systems upgrades to take place on the NSEWL should also ensure there is no feature regression from the capabilities SMRT has built.
But where there’s a missed opportunity is the Sengkang-Punggol LRT. Despite the upgrade works necessary for 2-car trains, there’s been no effort to upgrade passenger information systems. The new platform indicators at Sengkang station’s new stopping points still look like they’re meant for fitting the one-line scrolling dot matrix signs. And those scrolling dot matrix indicators won’t even show when the next train is due, forget showing arbitrary information about events elsewhere on the network. (edit 7/7: unplanned events! Planned changes are apparently shown.)
Fernvale station is thus the only Sengkang-Punggol LRT station with next train screens. It probably helps that it’s the only station with side platforms, which means one has to decide which train they want to take. After all, the if the clockwise train arrives first, it can still get you to Sengkang station despite taking a longer route, if the anticlockwise train is much further away.
And of course, there is also the significant blind spot of not making this information available outside the public transport system. Passenger crowding indicators in the MyTransport app don’t display any data for TEL stations and Canberra station; lift maintenance warnings also don’t appear to be updated on a timely basis. On the contrary, Taipei has real-time locations of trains, and both Taipei and Hong Kong show loading indicators of various train cars not only in-station but also in-app— Hong Kong expanding this feature as new trains are introduced on its various lines.
The software
Under the new non-fare revenue contracts being pursued on the TEL, the advertising operator has installed additional screens of its own at the TEL stations. At high traffic stations like Orchard, it can seem somewhat over the top. But yet, it appears that there haven’t been many takers, so these screens are stuck running Asiaray’s corporate videos.
There are some precedent — like how SMRT has had its own fixed advertising panels around for forever, or how Moove Media (SBST’s advertising arm) have also been putting up similar advertising screens at places like the Bugis DTL transfer linkway.
Yet it is curious that similar digital platforms are not used to their full commercial potential. Of course, SMRT’s next train information systems are able to show advertisements, even on the Circle Line. Say what you want about the design quality of information screens on the C151B and C151C trains, but that space is being commercialised too. But it appears that newer LTA-designed lines and train fleets don’t make next train or in-train screens available for advertising, showing only the same LTA public service announcements and corporate videos.
The small LCD screens on board DTL trains have been running the same safety videos non stop, perhaps with the occasional ad, for the past 11 years.And of course, similar screens on the C751A and C751B trains have since been deactivated; they are not being replaced, and the new route map/next station screens above doors on the refurbished NEL C751A trains are also looping those PSAs as well, the older mid-cabin screens being removed as part of the refurbishment works.
Maybe SBST just drew the short end of the stick. Moove Media’s rate cards and Asiaray’s website don’t show anything related to digital platforms supplied by the LTA, only those installed by the advertising companies themselves. Did the LTA even build the capabilities for arbitrary extra content to be shown? I think not.
And of course, building capabilities also goes the other way. Future contracts that allow advertising operators to install their own digital screens should take a leaf out of SMRT’s playbook and require the rail operator — or the LTA’s Land Transport Operation Centre— to take over part of the digital screen to show rail disruption information, with payments prorated depending on when these screens are activated for disruption management purposes.
The wetware
Building these capabilities will be useful.
According to ST, feedback on the ground during June 3rd’s lightning strike and power trip was that information was poorly distributed, resulting in large crowds at Choa Chu Kang and Yew Tee spilling onto the roads, waiting for the free bridging buses, as posted on various social media. This may have happened because people didn’t get the message about the disruption.
SMRT needs to intervene upstream if it wants people to use alternate lines — the alternative to Woodlands from the far west being to continue on to Buona Vista, then take the CCL to Caldecott, and then the TEL to Woodlands. That means making announcements early on on the EWL — not only at Jurong East itself, but also on eastbound trains approaching Jurong East.
The localized approach to disruption handling will no longer work as our MRT network expands and alternative routes are available by rail instead of kicking everyone out to the bus stop. Yes, they may be longer, but you’ll still get home by train instead of having to take your chances on the bridging bus.
Perhaps the LTOC can and should be responsible for passing on information — contacting all passing bus drivers as well as informing passengers on other MRT lines, also taking over information displays and digital ad space to show disruption information. On automated lines, the LTOC may also be able to request the activation of extra trains to deal with diverted passenger loads. This may reduce cases where an individual MRT line itself is too preoccupied with trying to solve the current issue and cannot clearly communicate any updates with travellers.
The current strategy for disruption signage only reinforces a message that the MRT is that unreliable, and spread undue fear about whether people can truly rely on the rail network — similar criticisms have been levelled at the intensity of messaging about crime on public transport. It is then unsurprising when people think of the alternative to the NSEWL as bus 178/187 and not detouring via the TEL (and CRL in future), they then scream when the LTA wants to do things to bus 178/187. Or to show how useful bus 871 to Beauty World might be, for Bukit Gombak residents to avoid Jurong East.
Perhaps they can start by taking down fixed disruption signage, and instead only show them in times of need using digital signage and pulldown screens spread out throughout stations. Signage can then be redesigned to emphasise alternative rail routes instead of asking people to ride buses since the displays are dynamic anyway. With data, they can perhaps also show alternative routes common from that station, where someone takes a train first then changes to a bus elsewhere, spreading out the impact of everyone trying to go the same way on bus routes that cannot handle such a peak.
For what it’s worth, I didn’t see many of them around TEL4, so there’s progress on that end.
Abnormalize the normal
This should extend to bus services as well. SBS Transit maintains a platform where it alerts on delays to bus services, both in its app, social media feed, and on display screens in its bus interchanges; Tower Transit will also publish the occasional alert on its social media feed.
But perhaps just like every other city, Singaporeans have long come to accept the effect of traffic congestion and accidents. Not just car drivers, but people in buses, too. Should we, though?
Similarly, it’s a bit perplexing that the LTA’s MyTransport app rarely shows information for even planned bus diversions, as is being done for the upcoming National Day rehearsals and NE Shows. Of course, current bus management and fare collection system are already unable to show timings during days like these as well, so you can just go to the bus stop and wait for the bus to appear… or you can take the train. It remains to be seen whether new bus management systems will be able to resolve this issue.
But more immediately, the LTA can solve all these problems by establishing some kind of data feed from its @LTATrafficNews feeds to MyTransport and other bus apps. If an accident or some other delay to road traffic is reported on any roads with bus routes running on them, a similar public transport alert should be raised on MyTransport.
Though even with planned disruptions, not all are rosy.
Google restoring bus operator colours may be a tacit admission of that reality — that there is no one single official source of information on bus operations. That’s where fansites like Land Transport Guru come in, but that’s not a job they should be doing.
The LTA would do well to improve the messaging here. Technology allows them to do interesting things. Not only to surface upcoming road delays in the app, next-generation bus management systems can also show such information pertaining to the route inside the bus itself, or to show more realistic bus waiting and travel times after accounting for congestion and traffic light cycles. People can then decide whether or not they’re going to try taking the bus.
After all, what’s the point of integrating public transport management under the LTA, if they don’t even do this?
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