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20 Aug 2020  (225 Views) 
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Ministry of Transport


Improve communication with the public
I sent a message to the minister for transport on how to deal with complaints from the public when bus services have to be changed or withdrawn.

The minister referred to the Land Transport Authority. The service quality manager (SQM) of LTA replied to tell me that the LTA cannot publish the deficit on some services (which I have suggested) because the information is "commercially sensitive". She also said that they tried to call me by telephone but I did not respond.

I gave this reply to the SQM:

I hope that the Ministry of Transport makes it easy for the public to communicate by email or telephone.  I hope that this email reaches you.
Please do not give me the automated answer - which is distracting and unhelpful. 

In your reply to me, you said that the information about the financial results for each train and bus service is "commercially sensitive". I do not agree with this explanation - frankly I think it is a "rubbish explanation".

We are talking about a public service, with fares set by the government. 
There should be proper accountability and transparency.

If it is truly "commercially sensitive" and cannot be disclosed, I suggest an alternative approach.

You can publish the average number of passengers per bus for each service. If you really want to split hair, you can publish the average number of passengers per mile traveled for each service. 

You can rank the average passenger for each service from top to bottom. The services at the bottom are not run efficiently. 

When the public sees this ranking, they will accept that changes should be made to these services, either by reducing the number of buses, changing the routes, or withdrawing them altogether. 

When a decision is made about the changes, you will get the general support of the population, as they do not want to see fares increased to subsidize the non-viable operations. You will not get the kind of protest from the people affected by the change in the service. 

I hope that your ministry will consider my suggestions.

If you wish to talk to me, please be considerate. Send a WhatsApp message to me at xxxxxxxx (I hope that your ministry knows that there is such a service). We can fix a convenient time for a conversation.

I am sure that each civil servant is well paid enough to afford a mobile phone, and he or she is allowed to use it to contact the public to arrange a conversation.

Thank you for contacting me.

Tan Kin Lian
 


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