SINGAPORE'S INLAND TRANSPORTATION

Abstract

Transportation and communication in any country at all are indispensable. It would be highly unthinkable of what would happen to an economy if this feature is totally removed, even temporarily. No doubt, the economy will be an invalid, more so if it is a relatively big country. However, even in a small economy like Singapore, transportation is of tremendous importance, linking sources to destinations in every sense of the word. In Singapore, lots of attention have been lavished on inland transportation after the formation of the Ministry of Communication in 1968, mainly because Singapore is such a small island and she is left with absolutely no chance to utilise land space liberally for transportation purposes. To build and construct roads, expressways, bus depits and terminals, Mass Rapid Transit rails, tunnels, depots and stations, needs lots and lots of studies and more studies, careful considerations and reconsiderations, debates, arguments and so forth, to really convince the relevant authorities that the implementation of such projects would be of utmost importance and strongly justified, firstly to the public in terms of service and convenience and secondly to the economy in terms of efficient utilisation of land space. As such, this Academic Exercise hopes to present a compact view on the inland transportation system as a whole in Singapore, including the latest addition to the mode of public transport, MRI, which will be discussed in Chapter IV. Chapters II and III look into various Government policies regarding private cars and taxi and bus services, with a view to improve the transportation system, the improvements on taxi and bus services as well as the future outlook of SBS when MRT starts rolling in before this decade is over. Chapter V gives a brief account on inland cargo transportation and its importance to an open economy like Singapore. Each of these chapters, has a small conclusion on its own, related to the issues raised in the corresponding chapter and hence in Chapter VI, only a general review is done on the various policy implementations. Chapter VI also gives a brief account of the uncertainties and challenges facing the bus service and the MRT in the years or even months to cane, when the MRT trains start whizzing by. On top of that, it gives undue recognition to the indispensable cargo transportation. Finally, it is to say that, no doubt, Singapore can still improve on the transportation system but at present, she boasts of having one of the best transportation system with the help of the many successful schemes and measures undertaken by the Government.