Move to cashless system for public transport in2020 or earlier

The authority has planned for public transport fares to be cashless from 2020, i.e. 3 years time.

I conducted a survey at The Wisdom of the Crowd.

Slightly more than 50% said that the operators should continue both options, i.e. cash and cashless, to cater to the elderly and tourists who are not familiar with the cashless system. 36% said that the cash option should be continued in case the cashless system breaks down.

http://www.wisdomofthecrowd.sg/chart.aspx?ID=223

I disagree with these two options. Here are my reasons.

a) The cashless system, i.e. EZ Link, card is easy to use by the elderly and tourists. The staff can guide them. After that, they will get used to it immediately.

I have travelled to several cities as a tourists and adopted their cashless system easily. This is also the experience of most people. If you can travel to another country, you can get used to their cashless system quite easily.

b) The incidence of a cashless fare system breakdown has not occured in several decades in Singapore. Even if it does happen one day, the cash option will not work. Imagine trying to collect cash from 1 million people in a day.


We should move towards the cashless option in 2020 or even earlier.