SM(a)RT
The public transportation system here is called SMRT — Singapore Rapid Transit. I don’t know what the “M” stands for, but it may be “Metro.” I hope it is “Mass,” however, because then the abbreviation could be written SMaRT. This is a great system.
First off, as I noted earlier, all the forms of public transit — subway and buses, mainly, but also some shuttles and other things — are linked together, so a common kind of card gets you access to everything. You can just keep adding money to it.
On the subway, you can also buy what is called a “standard ticket.” This is also ingenious. A standard ticket is not just a piece of paper with a magnetic stripe (which would end up becoming litter). It is a plastic smart card that operates the same way as the long-term passes that people buy and add money to. Isn’t that expensive? Well, no, because the MRT system collects these cards and reuses them after wiping the memory.
The way they ensure that you turn in your card is that you are required to pay a $1 deposit to get the standard ticket, and this is returned to you only when you feed the ticket back into the machine at the end of your trip. So if it is going to cost $2.50 to get across town, you have to pay $3.50 to get the standard ticket, and then you get $1 back at your destination.
It’s brilliant. The cards get recycled so there’s no litter, the MRT system only has to have one kind of card reader in the stations, and people are less likely to lose their ticket because the plastic smart card is larger and heftier than one of those tiny paper tickets.
First off, as I noted earlier, all the forms of public transit — subway and buses, mainly, but also some shuttles and other things — are linked together, so a common kind of card gets you access to everything. You can just keep adding money to it.
On the subway, you can also buy what is called a “standard ticket.” This is also ingenious. A standard ticket is not just a piece of paper with a magnetic stripe (which would end up becoming litter). It is a plastic smart card that operates the same way as the long-term passes that people buy and add money to. Isn’t that expensive? Well, no, because the MRT system collects these cards and reuses them after wiping the memory.
The way they ensure that you turn in your card is that you are required to pay a $1 deposit to get the standard ticket, and this is returned to you only when you feed the ticket back into the machine at the end of your trip. So if it is going to cost $2.50 to get across town, you have to pay $3.50 to get the standard ticket, and then you get $1 back at your destination.
It’s brilliant. The cards get recycled so there’s no litter, the MRT system only has to have one kind of card reader in the stations, and people are less likely to lose their ticket because the plastic smart card is larger and heftier than one of those tiny paper tickets.
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