It's ironic how I'm reading a book about Murphy's Law and then Murphy's Law comes up and bites me in the a$$ when I least expect it.

Last Monday, when I decide to leave home earlier than I usually would, the bus and trains all come on time. And then this morning when I decide to leave at my usual time, train services get disrupted.

I go to Pasir Ris MRT Station, only to see a woman yelling that train services has been disrupted betwen Pasir Ris and Tanah Merah (that's 4 stops for you) and so we would have to go by shuttle bus to Tanah Merah MRT Station before we can get on the train. Of course, that means that Tanah Merah MRT Station would be extremely crowded. If you take into account the population living in Pasir Ris, Loyang, Tampines and Simei (the 'towns' affected by the disruption), you'd have a sizeable portion of the Singapore population affected by this disruption, all unable to get to work, school or any other appointments on time.

I left home at approximately 7.55am, got on the bus towards Pasir Ris at 8.05am, reached Pasir Ris MRT Station at 8.15am. Of course, I found it a little strange that there would be so few people on the bus towards the train station but back then I didn't know that the trains weren't working. So i reach the train station and FINALLY realise that the trains are down and we're all stranded. I try to get on the shuttle bus that would take the stranded commuters to Tanah Merah MRT Station (where the trains actually work), to realise that the bus was so crowded there was no way to get on the first one and when I finally did get on the 2nd bus, it would take them 20 minutes to get the bus doors to shut and another 40minutes or so just to drive to Tanah Merah MRT Station without making any stops (normally this would take 20mins or less, but the morning peak hour jam made it worse).

By the time I alighted at Tanah Merah MRT Station, it was 9.15am (45 minutes before my lesson). On normal days, it would take about 70mins to get from Tanah Merah MRT Station to my school, but knowing that this station is going to be extremely packed, the travelling time would no doubt be extended to something like 90 minutes. I ended up taking a cab to school, making myself $20 poorer in the process (thankfully I had just withdrawn some cash from the ATM yesterday).

At least I was lucky enough to find a cab driver who would speed just to get me to school on time. :) He was basically my hero for the day 'cause without him, I would be at least 30mins late for class, most probably more. In addition, he gave me a discount on the final cab fare (but I am still $20 poorer, which is 10% of my monthly allowance so if that doesn't drive home the point that I simply cannot afford to keep taking cabs to and fro school, I don't know what will).

The fact is that the fact wasn't disseminated in an efficient manner, which led to what is possibly thousands of commuters being stuck in the train stations during the morning peak hour rush. The public transport operators need to get their act together for this and actually cooperate. Firstly, commuters should have been informed before they hopped onto buses that would take them to the train stations, signs could have been placed at the front of buses communicating the train disruption to commuters who were on their way to the train stations so they could make alternative arrangements and travel to an unaffected station. In addition, why was SMRT the only operator to provide shuttle buses for stranded commuters? SBS Transit which is the largest bus operator in the country should have at least helped out by volunteering a few of their MANY buses to help shuttle the stranded passengers out of the affected areas. Surely they can afford to spare a handful of buses. The sheer number of passengers stranded meant that a LOT of buses would be needed. Commuters shouldn't have been made to board the shuttle buses from a minor road near the train station at Pasir Ris knowing that the 2-lane road would be completely blocked off by commuters swarming and shoving to get on the buses, that's why we have a bus interchange at Pasir Ris. Board from the interchange, people, and place the signs at the interchange so we don't have to walk to the train station to find out that we can't board the trains. The shuttles also took a longer than necessary route which resulted in us spending unnecessary time on the road.

I can say that the people who are likely to be the happiest from this strange turn of events would be the cab drivers. For the past few weeks, cab drivers have been unable to find passengers due to the hike in cab fares (brought on unilaterally by the cab companies and not the drivers), for the first time today, they're finally getting a decent amount of business, primarily because the train operator screwed up.

And all this happens just when the government talks about making the public transportation system more efficient and affordable. The irony.

EDIT: The news just reported that the service disruption affected 57,000 people. That's close to one-eighth of the Singapore population for you.