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Social Studies Issues Investigation: Stage 1 - Finding an issue to…

- - - - Regulate & oversee public transport services. To ensure their efficiency, affordability and accessibility for the public.
      - It empowers the Public Transport Council (PTC) to regulate fares, monitor service standards and resolve disputes to name a few.
        
        Fare Regulation
        
        Reviews transport fares - ensure that
        they are reasonable and affordable
        
        Or else the public will be up in arms
        
        Dispute Resolution
        
        To serve as a mediator for disputes
        between commuters and operators.
        
        To not result in conflict between both parties. This includes, but is not limited to boycotting; spreading false information; and discrimination.
        
        Monitoring Service Standards
        
        Ensure that only the most reliable and best quality services is proven and maintained. This also involves setting benchmarks for factors like service frequency, waiting times and cleanliness in general.
      - Powers: The Council has power to do anything for the purpose of discharging its functions under this Act or which is incidental or conducive to the discharge of those functions and, in particular, may —
        
        to appoint an agent to do anything which the Council may do.
        
        approve new bus routes or amend and delete any existing bus routes; and
- - - - The government is making the public transport system more accessible by expanding the amount of train stations there are, this will be seen by 2030 as majority of the households will live within walking distance of an (MRT) station. The govenrment has also improved accessibility by adding more buses and bus routes as part of the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP)
        
        This greatly decreases the daily travel time for commuters as well as the comfort of those who take public transport on a daily basis. As for the benefits of the BSEP, the convenience of not having to change buses on some occasions and the time saved from not having to wait as long for buses will greatly improve the appeal of taking public transport instead of driving or taking a private hire car/taxi.
      - Reliability: The government is making the transport system more reliable through ways such as investing more money into the upgrading of older lines. Over the years the amount of breakdowns that occur has also decreased greatly.
        
        By making these changes and improvements, the appeal to take public transport will once again increase and travel times will also be decreased. The appeal to take public transport will increase as users who previously had bad experiences with public transport or those who take public transport will have less to worry about.
      - Another feature that will drastically improve the accessibility of cyclist and foot pedestrians and other commuters in general is the creation of pavements that better connect your housing estate to the nearest neighbourhood centre.
        
        What this does is...
        
        ...it improves the livelihood and general ease of commuting in singapore regardless of the mode of transportation be it by foot, public transport or cycling.
        
        There will also be changes and improvements made to better the lives of those who require the use of mobility devices or wheelchairs. Changes such as making all buses wheelchair friendly and priority queues to help those with disabilities have been implemented at all MRT stations and bus interchanges. Another change that benefits pedestrians is the increase of lifts for overhead bridges near MRT stations and even more so for those near hospitals and polyclinics.
- - - - Conclusion: improving our transport system takes time. That's why we suggest making improvements in different phases.
        
        So, to solve the transportation problems in Singapore, we need to do different things at different times. We need to work with ride-sharing companies now to help people who need it the most. And in the future, we need to keep making improvements and building new things to make transportation better for everyone.
        
        One way to start is by working together with ride-sharing companies, like Uber or Grab, to help people who have difficulty getting around, like the elderly or people with disabilities. This can be done more quickly because it doesn't require building new things.
        
        At the same time, the government can also make changes to the rail system to make it better. This might take a bit longer because it involves making policies and opening up the rail market to more competition.
    - - Since Singapore does not have enough local experts to improve transport system, getting rail operators from other countries that can help share their knowledge as well as compete with the local companies and make them work harder can improve our railway system.