The Land Transport Authority plan to introduce a wider choice of cards to be used in public transport in 2009. This requires a big investments to change the readers in buses and MRT stations.
I think that this is a bad idea. It is wasteful. We are spending too much money in hardware. This should be avoided.
There is a perception competition will bring down cost. I doubt it, in this instance. After all, ez-Link is owned by the Government. It is easy to establish performance benchmarks for ez-Link. It is not necessary to have the market to establish it, especially as the market mechanism is likely to impose heavy cost.
I hope that the Government will drop this idea and avoid spending too much money, adding to inflation for the future years.
Dear Mr. Tan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. LTA should use the money to cover up opened drains, build pavements for pedestrians and improve road condition particularly in in some old private housing estates which are badly in need for such upgrading of basic facilities. They should visit places like Seletar Hills, Upp Bt Timah Rd, Dunearn Rd etc.
The LTA bureaucrats like hardware because it is obvious and so as to be "seen to be doing something" to justify their KPI and their pay. Software approach is less obvious even though maybe better but harder to "show and prove" hence may not be so favoured.
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