The Great MRT Fiasco... and a three-minute walk between 2 stations?

I'm back! Sydney was cold and it rained quite a bit, despite it being officially the start of summer there, but Angie and I had a really good holiday, thanks to our being pampered by Liane and CK. More on the quirky pics I took there, in a later posting.

For now, the top local news is of course last night's (15 Dec) Great MRT Fiasco which saw commuters stranded for hours on the North-South Line, as a result of a track malfunction. SMRT staff did not seem to have coped well, hence the chaos and confusion all round. There were angry birds out there all right...

In the midst of commuters' anger, SMRT went and put its foot in its mouth, instantly creating the local buzz phrase of the year: "income opportunity":

It sent out a message to its fleet of taxis, telling the cabbies there was an "income opportunity", as stranded train riders would be desperate to find ways and means to get home. Sheesh! SMRT later apologised for the gaffe, saying the wrong template had been used. It should have been "service disruption", SMRT added. Here is insing.com's story on this Great PR Gaffe, the sideshow to the Great MRT Fiasco:

http://news.insing.com/tabloid/smrt-s-message-to-taxis-enrage-commuters-further/id-08213f00

There'll be more media stories on this fiasco in the next few days. All agencies, from the LTA to the transport operators to even the media, were caught flat-footed.

There will be an inquiry, with foreign experts tapped. Do we need them? Already, Singaporeans are coming up with sensible critiques and recommendations. SBS Transit should not be feeling smug, that its train operations were not hit. One netizen observed that SBS Transit could have mobilised its own fleet of buses and other vehicles to help.

To me, the key lesson all-round is the quick evacuation of people from affected train stations as soon as possible. As well, steps should be taken to keep unsuspecting commuters from getting into stations. TV and radio, and the social media, should also be deployed to keep the public up to date. This was a malfunction. It could have been worse.

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One picture, on the "fiasco", in the front page of today's ST (16 Dec) intrigued me:

The caption to the picture said commuters took the three-minute walk through the tunnel stretch between City Hall and Dhoby Ghaut stations. Think abou it...

A three-minute walk, along dimly-lit tracks? On a normal day, when you are in the train and going from one of these stations to the other, how long did the journey take? Just under three minutes?