The typical Singaporean response to anything that provokes outrage is… frustration? Nah, it’s to petition, of course, because holding protests at Speakers’ Corner is just too much work.
The Latest Thing That Singaporeans Are Angry About is none other than the recent spate of train service disruptions and delays along the North-South Line — an issue brought about by SMRT’s testing of its new signalling system, whatever that is. Oh, and more disturbances in the force are to be expected over the next couple of months, according to the public transport operator, so props to SMRT for giving us all a heads up, we suppose.
Nonetheless, disruptions to our commuting have taken on an exponential volume since 2011 — and to be fair, it is something to be mad about. As such, someone had the idea to make an anger-fuelled joke about it, by collecting signatures to nominate SMRT into the Guinness Book of Records for having the highest number of train delays in a year. Wonderbar.
But again, we find ourselves having to remind Singaporeans that we do fare way better than other cities when it comes to public transport systems, even if ours breaks down every once in a while. We’re just so used to efficiency that when train services go down, we make a big fuss out of it.
