GrabTaxi deactivated my account due to suspicious(!) activity

I have started to use GrabTaxi approximately 1 year ago and initially I liked an alternative way to call a taxi (in Sengkang, it is difficult to find a taxi, even if you call the lines). But since then, I have not used it frequently for several reasons such as Uber, the rude behavior of taxi drivers (when booked from GrabTaxi) and so on. Last time I remember was months ago.

Then last week, I suddenly got this message from GrabTaxi :

"We found suspicious activity after an analysis of the validity of your booking history. As this is against the code of conduct, we have to deactivate your access to the GrabTaxi app. You can appeal via this form: ...."

Suspicious activity? What? I don't remember anything. But then i googled for the message and found out a few people who had the same message after they did not take the car they booked. So I remember the last one.

I wanted to go from Compass Point to city and booked a taxi by GrabTaxi while I was in thw queue. Then the queue moved fast and I found a taxi and took it (it was very urgent). I opened GrabTaxi app but could not cancel the booking (the button simply did not work!). I tried many times and after that I called the taxi driver and apologized. He did not seem to bother a lot (queue for taxi behind me was long anyway). Maybe he was cheerful in the call but complained about me.

The only other problem I had was with a driver months ago which I did not bother to complain (instead I stopped using GrabTaxi as the first option to get a taxi). My daughter was sick with 39 degrees C fever and she was vomiting so we decided to go to KKH. I used GrabTaxi to call this guy. He came late, he stopped behind the apartment and insisted us to walk to him instead of him driving to lobby (later he drove to the lobby). He was rude and then when we wanted to put a bag on the front seat and he refused, we decided to pay him and left the car after going only 50 meters. Maybe it was not enough for him and after leaving a sick kid with 39 degrees fever, he also wanted to complain about me.

I realized the taxi drivers care much less about the service quality when they are called from GrabTaxi. So I started to use it as a last resort. But still it would be nice to have it.

GrabTaxi deactivated my account due to suspicious activity

Anyway, I filled in the form but in internet I can see that they do not bother to reply you. If the "suspicious activity" is only the last transaction where I could not cancel a booking because of their app (I will assume this is the case until they reply my message), then I prefer to not use them. Anyway, I loved Uber and I started to use it instead of GrabTaxi long time ago. Hopefully their customer service is not as bad as GrabTaxi's. 

Downtown Line Stage 1 is up and running

A new announcement has greeted commuters in some MRT stations today: "Change in this station for the Downtown Line." First 6 stages of this new Singapore MRT Line is now open: Bugis, Promenade, Bayfront, Downtown (connects the southern part of Marina Bay where developments such as The Sail @ Marina Bay and the Marina Bay Financial Centre lie to the current CBD), Telok Ayer and Chinatown. Official opening of Downtown Line is this Saturday.

Opening of the Downtown Line was not free of problems: a train fault disrupted servicefor about 15 minutes. The fault took place at around noon near Bayfront station, and delayed train service from Bugis to Chinatown.

The Downtown Line (DTL) is the fifth Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore. The 6 stations opened yesterday were Stage 1. Stage 2 will be opened 2+ years later in 2016 and Stage 3 will be opened in 2017.

Downtown Line Stage 1 (shown inside red rectangle here) is open

Tap-and-Scoot

Singapore-based low-cost long-haul airline Scoot unveiled Tap-and-Scoot that allows a seamless journey from public transport to Scoot flights! Scoot introduced Tap-and-Scoot today, an new technology allowing guests to enjoy a seamless journey from bus or MRT to Scoot flights. This new partnership with EZ-Link will enable guests to hop off the bus or MRT at Changi Airport and directly board on Scoot flights without checking in at the counter! Details will be announced shortly and Tap-and-Scoot will be rolled out on 31 April 2013, pending details such as erection of gantries and tapping machines for payment at Changi Airport will be announced soon.

The EZ-Link card is a contact-less smart card based on the Sony FeliCa smart-card technology and used for the payment of public transportation fares in Singapore, with limited use in the small payments retail sector. Established in 2001, it was promoted as the means for speedier boarding times on buses. An Adult EZ-Link card costs S$12, inclusive of a S$5 non-refundable card cost and a S$10 card value. EZ-Link cards are sold, distributed and managed by EZ-Link Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of Singapore's Land Transport Authority.

Tap-and-Scoot

Scoot operates medium and long haul no-frills flights between Singapore and Sydney, Gold Coast, Bangkok, Tianjin, Taipei and Tokyo, with Shenyang and Qingdao commencing in November 2013. Scoot's aircraft are operated in a two-class configuration, ScootBiz and Economy.

North-East Line breakdown on January 10 2013

North East MRT Line (NEL) service between HarbourFront and Dhoby Ghaut Stations went down today for half a day due to a power fault. According to SBS Transit, operator of the line, the fault happened at 9.51am which earlier caused a delay on the line and engineers traced the fault to wires in the Overhead Catenary System in a section of the tunnel between Outram Park and Harbourfront. And to enable repair works to be conducted, train services were disrupted at 10.14 am.

SBS Transit later announced that they are aiming to restore full service to the North-East Line by 4.30 pm before the start of evening peak:

We first experienced a power fault at 9.51am and this caused a delay of about 15 minutes.

We were able to narrow down the fault to a stretch between Harbourfront and Outram Park stations at about 10.14am and a decision was made to disrupt services between Harbourfront and Dhoby Ghaut stations so that our engineers could enter the tunnel to repair the stainless steel U-shaped bolt holding the cantilever arm of the overhead power cables. These bolts had recently been checked following the service delay in August 2012 and were found to be in good working condition.

Free bus shuttle services were activated and Goodwill Ambassadors dispatched to assist with crowd control and enquiries.

We currently have about 30 engineers on the ground working on repairs. We hope to have full service resumption by 4.30pm, before the start of evening peak.

We would like to apologise to all commuters affected by this disruption.

According to Channel News Asia, NEL services fully resumed at 4:35 pm although there was not any update on SBS Transit web site:


SBS Transit said all train services on the North East Line (NEL) fully resumed at 4:35pm, following a disruption on Thursday morning due to a power fault.

The North East MRT Line (NEL), a.k.a purple line, is the third Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore and is operated by SBS Transit (ComfortDelGro Corporation). The line has seen 3 distruptions in 2012. On March 15th 2012, a peak hour train breakdown occured between Dhoby Ghaut and HarbourFront MRT stations caused by faulty overhead power cables at the tunnel of the Outram Park station. On 17 August 2012, a power supply fault and a subsequent signalling fault led to a delay in train services by an average of 20 minutes in both directions. And on 20 December 2012, train services on the North East Line between Punggol and Little India delayed due to a train fault.

Meanwhile, The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has announced that it intends to peg the maximum penalty for each train disruption to a percentage of operators' annual fare revenue from the affected MRT line.

North-East Line suffers disruptions, SBS transit says it will repair the line after service ends

3 days ago on August 14th, there was an MRT breakdown on East-West Line which was probably not major enough to find its way to media. And today, North East Line (NEL), operated by SBS Transit, suffered disruptions and I had a very long journey on the line today. Although they announce the breakdown will just add 10-15 minutes to the travel time, the actual delay was as long as 40+ minutes at some times as Sbs Transit mentioned in its press release:

"Train service on the North East Line (NEL) has been delayed by an average of 20 minutes in both directions since the start of service this morning. At certain times, the delay was longer - at up to 50 minutes."

According to SBS the initial delay was coused by a fault in the traction power system where a stainless steel U-shaped bolt holding the cantilever arm of the overhead power cables broke in the northbound tunnel between HarbourFront and Outram Park Stations:

"As a result of the breakage in the bolt, power wires were misaligned. To avoid the risk of damage to the trains and overhead power wires, a section of the tunnel was closed. This meant that trains could only turnaround at one point in the tunnel - instead of two normally. 

To restore the Line to normalcy, the traction power system has to be shut down, thereby enabling engineers to enter the tunnel to replace the broken bolt. This however means that there will be no train services on NEL between HarbourFront and Dhoby Ghaut for a period of time - resulting in massive inconvenience to commuters. Management has therefore decided to undertake repair works, which are expected to last about two hours, after revenue service ends today. At about 2.45pm, a new fault in the signalling system was discovered. That resulted in a further delay of about 30 minutes in train services. Our engineers are currently working to repair this fault to ensure that service delays are minimised. 

We deeply apologise to all affected passengers for the inconvenience caused."
Source : Delay in the North East Line Train Service Due to Two Faults - A Power Fault and a Subsequent Signalling Fault

UPDATE : According to SBS Transit, normal train services on NEL resumes by Saturday morning:

The North East Line will commence operation this morning according to its regular schedule.
Engineers had worked through the night to replace the broken bolt and conducted realignment works and inspection of the overhead power cables. In all, 30 technical staff and 4 LTA engineering staff were involved in the works which took about 2 hours. 

During the delay on Friday evening, a total of 210 Goodwill Ambassadors were activated to assist in crowd control and assist passengers with enquiries. 85 shuttle buses were also deployed from to provide commuters with an alternative to the train service that was operating at 7.5 to 8 minutes frequency. 

We apologise once again to passengers who were affected by the delay.
Source : Delay in North East Line Train Service Update 2

Singapore's 20 km North-East MRT Line 

The North East Line (NEL), also known as Purple Line in Singapore, is one of the world's first fully automatic underground heavy rail systems. The MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) line is operated by SBS Transit. The NEL has previously suffered breakdown twice: In 2006, a NEL train headed for HarbourFront MRT Station has stalled in the tunnel due to a loss of traction power and On 15 March 2012, up to 90,000 commuters were affected during a peak hour train breakdown between Dhoby Ghaut and HarbourFront MRT stations, caused by faulty overhead power cables at the tunnel of the Outram Park station that had snapped.[1]

[1] - North East MRT Line Disruptions

Public Transportation in Singapore : Singapore MRT

The major railway system spanning the entire Singapore is called MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) in Singapore and is one of the most important means to commute throughout the island. Whether you are living here or visiting Singapore for a short while it worth to use it since the taxis are hard to come by and buying or renting a car is quite expensive.

If you are planning to visit here, staying in a hotel near an MRT station is a very good idea which will save you time and money. There are many hotels right next to MRT stations to choose among and since Singapore is a small city state, you can even stay in a hotel relatively outside the city center; MRT can take you to your destination in a quite short time.

Currently there are 4 MRT lines in operation. The oldest one, North South Line,  which is the first MRT line in Singapore, starts from the south of the city and after spanning towards north, it ends at Jurong East MRT station. This line is called Red Line, due to its red color in the Singapore MRT map.
Second one, East west Line, which is also called Green Line, lies between the east and the west of Singapore island. This line has an extension between Singapore Changi Airport and Tanah Merah MRT station which connects Singapore airport and Expo to the city.

 North East Line, the first fully underground line in Singapore is fully automated and driverless and colored purple.

The forth and the last addition to the Singapore MRT system is the Yellow Line, Circle Line, is also fully automated. Despite its name, it is not a closed circle loop but shaped circle and starts from Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station and ends in Harbour Front MRT Station. This line has an extension which connects Marina Bay to Promonade and connects Gardens by The Bay and Marina Bay Sands casino complex to the MRT system.

Downtown Line is the next in line and its first stage is due to open in 2013.

Singapore MRT Map 2012 - Source : sgtransport.blogspot.sg

In the past 5 years, increased population, increased migration to city fringes due to ultra-high property and rent prices and run away COE prices limiting the availability of car ownership to many, the lines operates as sardine boxes in the peak hours and suffers from frequent delays and breakdown.  Still it is the only feasible transportation option for many.

Tips on utilizing MRT in Singapore

• If you are looking for a serviced apartment, hotel or hostel near by an MRT Station, go to the  http://www.nearby.sg, enter MRT stations name and then select Loadging --> Hostel/Hotel/Serviced Apartment from "Find Point of Interest".
• You can reach Singapore city center from Singapore MRT using the Green Line. You need to alight at Tanah Merah MRT Station and continue on the same line to which you can take a train on the same platform. Make sure that you take the direction which is marked as To City.
• Not all the trains on the Circle Line ends at Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station. Some ends at Marina Bay Sands so pay attention to the announced destination when you are taking a train on this line. If you are heading to Marina Bay Sands, and your train's destination is Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station, you can change trains at Promenade MRT Station.
• If you are new to Singapore, try to rent a place near MRT which will greatly reduce your transportation cost.
• The cheapest and most convenient places to rent a flat in Singapore are HDB/BTO buildings near MRT stations. A 3 bedroom HDB near an MRT station can be 24,000+ SGD per year cheaper than a same size private flat.

Share transportation in Singapore

As many of the residents in Singapore, I commute to work by MRT trains and buses. The public transportation in Singapore is quite developed but it has started to become less convenient in the past few years. Since COE prices are ultra high, a family car is not an option and taxis are too expensive and rare to find to use for everyday commute between work and home.

But luckily there are other options which may be useful for many. For example, a popular mode of share transportation, bus pool is getting popular in Singapore. According to Estatebuzz, their latest bus pooling services has been a runaway success and in just 4 months, they have introduced 6 13-seater buses to ferry office workers from their houses to the city. And their 6th bus,  which has started running on June 5th 2012, a non-Shenton Way/Raffles Place bus!  The bus currently goes from Choa Chu Kang to Buona Vista, Science Park I and II and then on to Mapletree Business City on Pasir Panjang Road. Their 5th bus is from Woodlands to Beach Road, Suntec and Raffles Place and 4th is running this morning from Choa Chu Kang to Beach Road, Suntec and Shenton Way.


You can check the shared transportation services offered by the company in this web site sharetransport.sg. The service was launched in March 2012 and offers an alternative transportation option for commuters. With these buses you can have a more direct route than public buses, avoid sardine box mode of transformation in the rush hours and pay much less than taxis. Each passenger pays S$ 95 to S$110 per month or $4.5 to $5 per day. 


"It's popular because the buses are customized according to the passengers on board. We pick passengers up at the places that they live and drop them off at their work buildings." says Moh Hon Meng, Chief Executive of Estatebuzz:


Mr. Moh said he may start an evening service soon and expects to run about 50 buses in all by the end of this year. Finance Manager Vejaya Letchumi, 52, takes the service from Choa Chu Kang to her Beach Road office. Her journey time is now about 30 minutes, down from an hour or so when she takes a public bus or the MRT.
She said: "Now I can get to work on time. The MRT has occasional delays, while the buses are crowded and get cought in traffic. This option takes the most direct route and can avoid areas with traffic jam."


And on the bonus side you can sit and you will not have to commute face to face with a stranger in trains packed like sardine boxes.

Share transport in Singapore by bus pooling - Source : sharetransport.sg

You can easily use the service by signing in sharetransport.sg. You can either try to use and existing route or enter transportation requests (from where to where, what time, etc.). If the service can match you with 12 other people with similar transportation requirements, a new route can be opened. Here you can see the existing routes and schedules.

The service also offer carpooling like Limo/Taxi Charter sharing, cost-share car pool, ad hoc taxi pool. 

See also:

Car sharing in Singapore	Rent a Supercar in Singapore

How to get to Marina Bay Sands?

Marina Bay Sands is one of the two integrated resorts(*) which is the most easily seen and accessed due to its location. Although it is at a very central location (constructed on downtown reclaimed land to be developed in the next ten to twenty years), it may a little be tricky to arrive there if you are not using a taxi. Marina Bay Sands is located at the Bayfront Area and the easiest public transportation mode to there is the newly opened Bayfront MRT Station (MRT = Mass Rapid Transit, used in Singapore for metro/subway) located in the Marina Bay area. This station is on the Circle Line Extension between Promenade and Marina Bay.

If you are coming via Promenade MRT station on the circle line you should leave the train at Bayfront MRT Station, not Marina Bay MRT Station. Second thing you need to be careful is that the final destination of the MRT train you will take from Promenade MRT Station. A train going to Dhoby Ghaut is followed by each MRT train heading to Marina Bay station from the same gate. Pay attention to the screens and take the one going to Marina Bay station if you are heading to Marina Bay Sands.

If you are coming from red line (i.e. Orchard Road, Novena, Newton and above) you can head to the Marina Bay Sands Station, the first station of the red line,  North South Line, and then change to Circle Line (Yellow Line) and reach Bayfront MRT Station.

If you are heading there by taxi, you can calculate the cost by taxi fare calculator. Currently, taxi fare calculator shows a 25 minutes taxi trip which costs 19.41 Singapore Dollars from Singapore Changi Airport to Singapore Marina Bay Sands.

Taxi fare from Singapore Changi Airport to Singapore Marina Bay Sands as of late Feb 2012

(*) You may ask what integrated resort is. Integrated resort is a casino and facilities sugarcoating it (usually a shopping mall and a gamblers-inn). The term is invented in Malaysia to hide the main attraction from the consciousness and is also adapted in Singapore probably for the same reason).

Train Crowding in Singapore expected to ease

I take MRT to work every day from Tanah Merah MRT station on East West MRT Line. Although Tanah Merah is the 4^th station to the city center, the cars nowadays are sardine can full starting from just the second MRT station, Tampines. SMRT, the operator of the MRT trains on this line, I guess is pushing itself to the limits, it is nowadays also very common to have long delays on the MRT trains.

Last week there were 2 delays. I was so pissed of that (not about delays but lack of any warning sign outside the MRT boards about these delays) I have decided to find an alternative way to work. Many thinks MRT lacks competition and alternatives (which is true) so these guys really do not have so much pressure on them to increase their service quality. But I think this does not mean they are not trying to do best they can. SMRT announced that the minimum time between two trains can be 120 seconds due to signalling constraints on EW line. I have spent time to check the time between two trains during peak hour and it is really 120 seconds +-5 seconds. It seems like the current inconveniences are caused more a combination of factors such as fast population rise, exodus to city fringes due to high rental/sale prices of properties and of course high car prices.

Anyway, I have found out a bus from the bus station just outside of my HDB to the station just out of my work. The problem is the time it takes to arrive to work. With MRT + walk it takes 45 minutes from door to door. With this bus, it takes 1.5 hours! But I was so unhappy with the MRT service and day by day increasing crowd, I tried to give a chance to this SBS bus. One man less would be good for MRT riders and a SMRT probably deserved to lose one customer with last week’s delays.

I have to wake up half an hour earlier and I arrive to my workplace 15 minutes later. But I can sleep on the bus and even can go through my emails and reply them so I do not loose so much time from sleep and work actually. Unfortunately this setting works only in the morning and when I am heading to my office. Still, it works and I will stick to it for a while.

Tanah Merah MRT Station

The times I really need to get an MRT in peak hours, I choose to go back all the way from Tanah Merah to first MRT station Pasir Ris and get a train from there. As long as there is not an elderly or pregnant woman to give seat I can seat all the way to city centre. Most of the time I give away the seat (never saw someone sitting at the priority seat doing so!) but still I enjoy being away from the door which is more comfortable than the door side.

Luckily, it seems like the relief is on its way and it is not only the opening of the west arc of the circle line:

“Transport Minister Mr. Lui Tuck Yew noted that the frequencies during the peak hour are limited with the signalling equipment but there is a possibility to increase it and the LTA and SMRT are finalizing their plans to improve their frequency and they will announce in due course”.

“With the completion of the Jurong East Modification Project and injection of five additional trains since May, Mr. Lui noted some improvements in the train loading along the critical stretches of the North-South and East-West lines. To increase capacity, 17 more trains will be added by December while an additional 13 trains will be added into the North-South and East-West lines around 2014 and 2015.”

 Source: Today 

Singapore transportation planning is data driven by business analytics

Singapore is small and densely populated and in this tiny island with 5 millions of people, 8.9 millions travel demands compete for very limited number of roads, taxis, trains, buses and private cars every day. By 2020, Land Transport Authority (LTA) expects the demand to increase to 14.3 million per day.  This huge extra demand cannot simply be satisfied by equal increase in travel resources given the available land size of the country.  Better planning and optimization of available resources is extremely important. [1]

For data driven policy making and planning, the data is already there. Each commuter in Singapore has a contactless smart card to pay for the public transportation fares. Each user tabs in and also out with this card when he takes a public bus or train. And every tab-in and tab-outs are recorded with details such as location and time. So the data showing the busy routes, busy times, bottle necks, etc. is there. But processing it into knowledge then informed decision is not straightforward. Just the sheer volume is a huge burden. Currently LTA captures 12 million records on public transport each day! This translates into 14 Terra bytes of more data each day! [1] How can they make convert this huge data to knowledge and then to decisions? Enter the world of Business Analytics.

Business Analytics (BA) “refers to the skills, technologies, applications and practices for continuous iterative exploration and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods. “[2]

Singapore MRT Train

LTA has recently implemented a business analytics system named Planet (short for Planning for Land Transport Network).  Planet allows LTA to have insight into the usage patterns of public transportation system and enables data driven policy and planning decisions.

This Business Analytics system cost 10 million to LTA and developed by Teradata, a vendor specializing in data warehousing and analytic applications.

Some useful information rendered out from this system[3]:
• MRT is most crowded between 8 am to 8:20 am and 6 pm to 6:30 pm in weekdays.
• By 9 am in a weekday, crowd on MRT trains drops to 44 per cent of peak load.
• Bu stops at Somerset MRT station on Somerset Road and Toa Payoh Swimming complex are the busiest ones.
• Woodlands, Tampines and Yishun MRT stations are the busiest stations to top up ez-link cards.

[1] - Transportation Innovation 
[2] – Wikipedia Business Analytics
[3] – The best times to travel on public transport - Business DL, The Strait Times