Showing posts with label transportation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transportation. Show all posts

Monday, 25 August 2014

Bus Fare in Singapore

很久以前,寫過一篇關於新加坡的士費用既文章。主要說新加坡的士實際收費比香港平,雖然近日有新見解,日後再談 - 今日想講既係新加坡的巴士。

話說一天,跟一班朋友 Happy Hour,朋友來到時的第一句是坐了一架兩個站要 S$5.5 (~HK$ $34) 的巴士。細問一下,才知道朋友坐了一架 Premium Bus 來。

雖然這 Premium Bus 外形跟其它巴士一樣,服務時間只有早晚繁忙時段,走的地方也只是住宅區到商業區,以我家附近的 531 / 541 (East Coast / Bedok 到 Raffles) 計萛,只有大既 10km 左右(由中環到太古城大既 8km 左右),收費 S$5.5,沒有分段收費。

同一個價錢,在香港可以坐一次半 968X - 單程: $23.4,即由鰂魚涌經西隧汀九橋過大欖隧道到元朗,全程 41km,等於一個馬拉松。比多 HK$7 坐 A11 由北角經西隧汀九青馬去到機場都得。仲有回程半價,即係坐晒來回連 Roadshow Loop 左 27 次 都係比 HK$60,仲有 HK$10 找。

跟新加坡其它巴士比,531 / 541 收取高昂的價錢換來的是走公路。打個比如說,好似平時由太古城坐巴士去中環,所有巴士都會行英皇道皇后大道,得 531 / 541 會上東廊行告士打道。

當然,唔坐 531 / 541,在新加坡都仲可以坐 196,分段收費。同我的情況而言,Ez-Link 價S$1.37 (~HK$8.5),現錢價 $1.90 (~HK$11.80),10km 左右的距離,中間有 24 個站,車程大約 45-60 min。相比由西環坐 18 到北角 9.2km,都係 HK$5.2,車程時間相差不遠但係就平 63%。如果坐 18P / 18X 就會快好多,都係收 HK$5.2,同 531 比差 6 倍。

選擇題是:
1: 我比 $34 用 10 min 返到公司 / 屋企。
2: 我比 $8.5 用 60 min 返到公司 / 屋企。

如果假設沒有這個問題,我可以睡多一點,早點回到公司,晚一點下班,或早一點回到家。即是,用到既時間多左。

關於新加坡巴士,其實可以寫的事什多,待續。

*以 2014 年 8 月 25 日 S$1 = HK$6.2 萛。
* S$ / HK$ exchange 1:6.2, 25th August 2014 rate. 

Monday, 3 May 2010

Taxi Fare in Singapore

Up till now, 1 year and 6 months in Singapore. There are few things identified cheaper than in Hong Kong.

Taxi Fare is one of the these few things, although most of my friends in Singapore (Either HK or Singaporean) do not agree.

Let's take a look to Singapore Taxi Fare.
http://www.visitsingapore.com/publish/stbportal/en/home/getting_around/transportation/taxis.html

In summary, the major cost are:
1: Flag Down: $3.00
2: $0.2 for every 385 / 330 meters.
3: Peak hour / overnight surcharge.
4: CBS / Airport surcharge.
5: ERP surcharge.

Taking the SG-HK exchange rate today (9-Nov-2009): 5.58. So it means:
1: Flag Down: HK$ 16.8
2: HK$1.1 for every 385 / 330 meters

In HK, taxi fare is much simple.
1: Flag Down: HK$ 18
2: HK$1.5 for first $HK70.5 and HK$1 after the first $HK70.5

If we convert to a comparison, the it will become.
1: Singapore: HK$2.85 (First 10km)/ 3.3 (After first 10km) for every 1km
2: Hong Kong: HK$7.5 (First 9km)/ $5 (After first 10km) for every 1km.

So it means Taxi fare in Singapore is definitly cheaper than Hong Kong.

It is a common mis-understanding, like the MTR in Hong Kong is more expensive than MRT in Singapore...

Saturday, 18 July 2009

Garuda Indonesia II (Featuring CX / SQ)

After checking the safety record of Garuda Indonesia, then, out of curiosity, I checked the safety record of Cathay Pacific. I have been their Gold member for quite a while. There was a time I took their flight every week.

The last major accident was 15-Jun-1972. I was not on this earth yet. That accident killed 81 people. It was caused by a exploded bomb under a seat when flying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathay_Pacific#Incidents_and_accidents

In wiki, it also indiciated other incidents dated from1948-1972.

Nothing really interesting, but CX awarded "This was the first hijacking of a commercial liner in the world...."...,

When I was about to sleep, "What about SQ?" popped up in my head. With all these some kind additional and duplicated, security and safety checking and even the crews claimed all these just because of our safety....

The list in aiddiaster.com was actually much shorter... only 1 major accident.

However, it was on 31-Oct-2000, it seemed to me very close... and I could probably trace what I was doing that day....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_airline#Incidents_and_accidents

31 October 2000 – Singapore Airlines Flight 006 operated by a Boeing 747-400, crashed at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (now Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport) in Taiwan killing 83 people aboard and injuring 71 people during heavy rain caused by Typhoon Xangsane. SQ006 was the first fatal crash of a Singapore Airlines aircraft and the first fatal crash of the Boeing 747-400.

The scary part was, this incident was nothing to with multiple baggage scanning (before immigration, before boarding) and duplicated document check. (counter, before boarding, boarding).

In wiki, it also contained a link to SilkAir, which is an airline based in Singapore. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines Airline... I think this is a budget version of SQ.

I clicked the link about incidents again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SilkAir#Incidents_and_accidents

On December 19, 1997, SilkAir Flight 185, operated by a Boeing 737-300 and piloted by Captain Tsu Way Ming, plunged into the Musi River in Sumatra during a routine flight from Jakarta to Singapore, killing all 104 people on board. The Indonesian NTSC ruled that the cause of the accident could not be determined, while the United States NTSB concluded that the incident was "consistent with ... intentional pilot action".

And it seems that is nothing related to the pessengers or airport security.

Finally, I checked Air India...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India#Accidents_and_incidents

There was no major accidents after 1990. The one on 1990 caused no fatalities. But their record in 80's was terrible....

If we plot a graph about number of incidents aganist time, we will get this one:



Interesting....

After talking to someone, said that to be fair, the fleet size does matter. I agree and I try to find the incident rate... I could find some reference and the result was not very suprise... According to the above.

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/rates.htm

DISCLAIMER These accident rates should not be used to provide an assessment of an airline’s safety profile or future risk of an accident. These rates are derived from past accidents and not an estimate or prediction of future risk. There are many additional factors in judging the safety of an air carrier which are not included here. These rates are not meant to endorse or condemn any particular airline or group of airlines nor are they intended to persuade or dissuade use of any particular airline. The accident rates and method of calculation of the accident rates are solely the opinion of this web site and the creator is not responsible for how this information is used and will not be held legally responsible for any consequences arising from the use of this information. There are numerous commercial organizations that provide complete and extensive safety ratings of commercial air carriers.

For the regoinal ranking in Asia, it was listed as follows. The number in the blanket after is the global ranking.
1: All Nippon Airways (8/88)
2: Japan Airlines (10/88)
3: Qantas (12/88)
4: Hanin airlines (What is it?) (24/88)
5: Air New Zealand (25/88)
6: Cathay Pacific (29/88)
7: Malaysia Airlines (36/88)
10: Air India (45/88)
11: Dragon Air (49/88)
16: Garuda Indonesian (73/88)
18: Singapore Airlines / Silkair (78/88)
19: China Eastern Airlines (79/88)
22: China Airlines (88/88)

SQ is just slightly better than 華航... oh my god!

Friday, 17 July 2009

Garuda Indonesia

As usual, I was going to Jakarta and just returned to Singapore.

The unusual was I had taken Garuda Indonesia. It was because the SQ flight so full from Sunday to Tuesday for any flights with any class code. And I was also in waiting list of Garuda in the beginning...



First time taken Garuda Indonesia, which is the national airline of Indonesia. When I needed to confirm the ticket, I was feeling a bit un-safe but then anyway. Flight was confirmed.

In the weekend before travel, I met a friend, He told me that Garuda' last accident was 2007. So he wished me a safe trip....

Actually it was not that bad when I was flying from SG to JKT. And it was just a bit bumpy when returning from JKT to SQ.

Tonight (Last nigjt), I was looking for the safety record about Garuda Indonesia. The result was actually interesting...

http://www.airdisaster.com/cgi-bin/airline_detail.cgi?airline=Garuda+Indonesia

What a long list! The last accident was actually 3-July-2007. The link above only indicated 1 crew was killed. But then when I checked with google and wiki. I found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garuda_Indonesia#Incidents_and_accidents


Garuda Indonesia Flight 200, a Boeing 737-400 flying from Jakarta, crashed and burst into flames on landing at Adisucipto International Airport, Yogyakarta at 0700 hours on 7 March 2007. 21 people were killed.

Luckily, I was able to return to Singapore, in one piece.

The above was actually no suprise.

To be continued... 

By the way, there was a bomb attack in Jakarta this morning... 

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

SQ SMS Check-in

Singapore has recently launched a SMS Check-in Service, which draws my attention immediately. You can find the link here of you can see the text below: 

Singapore Airlines is pleased to offer you SMS Check-in service designed to reduce hassle and offer more convenience should you be on the go.
To take advantage of this facility, you need to be a Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer or PPS Club member. When you log-in to your KrisFlyer account, access  “My Booking Alerts” and register for a personal flight alerts profile. 
To check-in, simply reply with the given code in the check-in notification sent from “SQAlert” and you will receive a check-in confirmation message when you are successfully checked-in for yourself. 
SMS Check-in is currently available for flights operated by Singapore Airlines with the exception of flights departing from Colombo.  The service is unavailable for mobile phone subscribers in Canada, Japan, Korea and USA.

For me, this is kind of innovative service because it is really better to check-in with mobile, especially when I am in oversea where internet connection is not obvious. The process is simple, just replying a SMS. It is done.

But then, the next question coming is, why I need to do an early check-in?
To reduce hassle, which is answered in the above already.

However, how do we present the boarding pass? Perhaps one day, the Singapore airport and some more airports allow to use a bardcode (or something else) on the mobile as the boarding pass, it could be the solution. Technically is possible and it is not very costly. But I don't see this will happen because part of the check-in process is visual check. This can't be done by a mobile device. In addition, even if I have checked in with mobile but I arrive the airport late. At the counter, will the airline still help me to print the boarding pass? I doubt. Or they have just released by seat because I did not show up in time.

The second reason for an early check-in is to select a seat, but I don't think this can't be done by SMS.

So? Do I need a SMS check-in?

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Airfare: CX vs SQ

在一個偶然的情況之下,去了 Cathay 和 Singapore Airlines 的網頁。
在現今的經濟情況下,幾乎所有的航空公司都有不錯的優惠。始終,無論個人或公務而出外的人都少了。而所有的新聞都說明航空是艱難的一年。

看看 CX 的海嘯價,注意以下貨幣是新加坡圓:
從香港人看來,沒有什麼特別之處。星加坡曼谷 S$150 (HK$ 765),星加坡台灣 S$380 (HK$1938),星加坡日本 S$480 (HK$2448),星加坡上海 S$430 (HK$2193),星加坡美國 S$950 (HK$4845)。
我只可以說,超值。星加坡日本 $2448。從前這個價錢由星加坡回香港都不夠,現在加送日本。

再看看 Singapore Airline:
從香港人看來,這一個是震憾價。
星加坡東京 S$798,星加坡上海 S$838,星加坡北京 S$938,星加坡台北 S$838。星加坡 Los Angeleus S$1498。注意的地方是,去東京是最少二人同行,所以價錢平一點。

有趣的地方是,星加坡台北 S$838,CX 是 S$380。用同樣的錢,CX 是二人同行還有錢來買免稅品。到上海也差不多差兩倍。

很有趣的現像。

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Bus Service in Singapore

在星加坡,公共交通工具既選擇不多。只有地鐵,巴士, 輕鐵,的士。
跟香港不一樣,沒有電車香最重要的小巴。

雖然香港地方小,但如果只是由巴士香地鐵,去好多地方都會變得好不方便。
例如西貢,如果西貢人只可以坐 92號,我想西貢沒有現在的多人居住。

小巴的定位是介乎地鐵 / 巴士既大型交通工具香的士的一個平衡。

星加坡的巴士,雖然是實施分段收費,但是感覺在這兒坐巴士好像比香港的全程收費還要貴。
好像以下我經常坐的巴士的收費表,最低收費 S$1 (~HK$5.2),最高 S$1.9 (~HK9.88)。而只係坐三個地鐵站,就要 $1.4,香港已經可以由黃大仙坐到出尖沙咀。



可能星加坡地平關係,這兒的巴士服務沒有香港的直接,很多時都會左穿右插。站與站之間的距離亦過近,令行車時間增長。還記得第一次在這兒坐巴士,本來是很近的兩個地方,竟坐了四十五分鐘,上車時睡著了到醒時還沒有到。

經歷過星加坡的地鐵和巴士服務,會絕對明白為什麼這兒的人愛駕駛。

最後,這兒的巴士服務,令我最能欣賞的是有一個用 SMS 查詢下一班巴士到站的預計時間,頗準的。使用方法是發一個由兩組數字組成的短信,第一組數字是巴士站號碼,第二組數字是巴是號碼。之後便會收到一個回信告知要查詢的巴士幾多分鐘後才到站。記下一些常用的巴士站號碼後,這一個服務什為實用。

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Singapore Taxi

One day in the morning, I was taking a cap in Singapore to go to customer meeting.

When I waved my hand, I saw that the cap coming toward to me was a bit, hm, the luxury one. But it does not like the normal limo taxi in Singapore. When the taxi stopped beside me, I checked the fare and it was only SGD 2.00 (~ HKD 10.00) expensive than normal one. No big deal, I got on board.

When I got on the taxi, I saw two small LCD TV on the pillow. Not a surprise and it usually shows information on the TV.

Then, the taxi driver suddenly asked me: "You want to sing?"
It was earlier in the morning so my response was like "errr? sorry?"
He said again: "Do you want to sing? I have a mic here and you can sing here. What songs do you prefer?"
It was earlier in the morning so I did not really have the mode to sing, then I just replied: "No thanks, but it is a brilliant idea to sing on the taxi."

After that, the driver started to introduce himself and he was very famous. Even BBC had a program about his idea then bili bala bili bala. Finally, the driver realized I am from Hong Kong. So he switched to Cantonese and asking me "Do you want to sing Beyond?"

This time I was impressed.

Without my intervene, he started to play the "大地".


 
It was fun. I did not sing finally but I did try out the mic and it was not bad. The driver said that some people even really booked his taxi because of this.
It was a fun experience.
By paying only additional HKD 10 then you could sing few songs before home. 
Imagine that you were taking this cab from Changi airport to the city, then it is totally worth it. 

Wednesday, 22 October 2008

A380

Follow the First time in Sydney dew days back, I was actually taking the A380 from Sydney back to Singapore - my first travel with this air giant.

The air craft is big, but comparing with Boeing 747 Jumbo (Not sure the exact name), but I only had seen this air giant with 5 seconds and I did not have many comments about it. One of the differences was that there were four entrances at the boarding gate - lower deck 1st and biz class, lower deck economy, upper deck 1st and biz class and upper deck economy. It is kind of confusing to some passengers...

The interior is new, very new, of course it is new the people would imagine. I made this comment because I got a chance to take the new "product" from CX also. The CX's interior was supposed to be new but all ............ hm.

The front panel provides a high resolution screen, a glasses and a cup holder, a USB and a LAN port. According to the menu, you can put a USB thumb drive to see the video, pictures, PDF document using the LCD screen. I did not try it but it is actually a good idea. But I have no clue about the use of the LAN... Perhaps it will provide an internet access some days later. There is a video in connector and I guess it is similar use to the USB port, but less use. One evolution is that there is a power socket under the arm rest which is very useful for me.
The A380 also keeps the magazine pocket while CX has moved it under the chair which is absolutely inconvenient. It comes with few empty small pockets for your personal belongings.





I was unfortunately taking the economy class this time but fortunately the A380 provides an additional compartment which I like very much. The room is big enough for the pillow, blanket and my laptop bag.



Finally, I guess the above comments do apply for all the new interior for all SQ fligths, it does not matter with an A380 or not. Haha.