Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
| Monday, May 18, 06:17:53pm | [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, [5], 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ] |
| Subject: ERG Transit trials could as early as July GPSA six-month trial is scheduled to start between next month and September.similar to the current Giro one, | |
|
Author: SingaporeIts guests can also use their room card keys, which are ez-link enabled, to travel on the bus and train. |
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: Tuesday, June 17, 02:49:43am http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,195112,00.html Bus fares set to go right on track Days of being charged too much may end if a system that updates fare stages automatically does well in trial runs By Goh Chin Lian TRIAL runs on 200 buses fitted with a satellite-based bus tracking system that is supposed to eliminate overcharging when bus drivers forget to update fare stages, could start as early as the end of the month. What is GPS? Ez-link card made easier to use EXPECT less fuss when paying for a concession pass and topping up the ez-link card: • Students and full-time national servicemen can now buy their monthly concession TransitLink passes at its 77 add-value machines islandwide. The machines are in MRT stations, bus interchanges and bus stops. Before, the passes could be bought only at ticket offices and had to be encoded manually on an ez-link card. Users must have an ATM card that allows them to use Nets to pay for the passes. • Those who use the ez-link card will soon be able to link it to their credit card. The scheme is similar to the current Giro one, where the ez-link card is topped up automatically when its value drops below a certain pre-set level. A six-month trial is scheduled to start between next month and September. DRIVER DEPENDENT: Bus drivers have been manually updating the fare stages buf if they forget to do it or make a mistake, commuters can be overcharged. AUTOMATED SYSTEM: The new set-up - a box behind the driver's seat relies on satellites to keep track of the bus' position. -- PHOTOS: STEVEN LEE The success of the tests, expected to take a month, will determine when the automatic updating of fare stages using the global positioning system will be rolled out on all buses, a Land Transport Authority (LTA) spokesman told The Straits Times yesterday. Bus fares here are calculated according to the number of fare stages travelled. Bus drivers have had to manually update the fare stages since commuters began using the contactless ez-link card in April last year. Sometimes they forget, or do it wrongly, resulting in complaints from some passengers about being overcharged. Setting up and testing the new system began last November. It was installed in all the 4,000 buses here between then and this April. So far, contractor ERG Transit Systems, which provided the ez-link system, has conducted the initial tests and corrected software bugs. Last Friday, it began trying out the programs on two buses. And if the software passes the test, trial runs to check the system's reliability could start by the end of the month, the LTA spokesman said. The LTA said that the system is being paid for out of the $300 million earmarked for the ez-link system, but did not say how much it cost. Meanwhile, the ez-link card is set to have more commercial uses beyond paying for public transport. Information technology service provider Chowiz, which is behind a range of ez-link-related services in schools and food-court chain Kopitiam, is now talking to fast-food and other food and beverage outlets about using the card. Currently, people can use the cards at Hotel Phoenix's The Food Shop and the Kopitiam outlet at Jurong Point mall, as well as pay for fines on overdue books at the Sembawang Community Library and library@orchard, and make purchases at some school canteens. Tourists can also use it to get discounts at tourist attractions and restaurants. Hotel Phoenix general manager Noel Hawkes said 20 to 30 out of 300 customers a day, including locals, pay for doughnuts, curry puffs and other savoury food at its cake shop with the card. The hotel also has special deals for card-carriers. It now offers a latte and curry puff for $1.80 to those who pay with the card. The combination would otherwise cost $4.80. Its guests can also use their room card keys, which are ez-link enabled, to travel on the bus and train. Mr Hawkes said the hotel will continue to use the ez-link technology at its cake shop and rooms, but has no plans to extend it to its other restaurants as customers prefer to pay for more expensive items with credit cards. Kopitiam's Jurong Point outlet, which has been accepting the card at only its drinks stall for about half a year, extended its use to its dessert and fruit sections two months ago. About 4 per cent of the drinks and between 1 and 2 per cent of the desserts and fruits are bought using the card. The food-court chain is looking for ways to increase the card's usage, said its corporate communications manager, Ms Low Wye Yee. It has already earmarked some outlets in the downtown area and new towns such as Sengkang to introduce ez-link technology, but this will depend on the success of the Jurong Point outlet, she said. Chowiz business development manager Emily Lim said that a 'big food and beverage outlet' is considering the system as means to track its employees' attendance and their temperature records. Organisations such as the LTA, TransitLink and SMRT already use the card to control employees' access into their premises. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| Subject | Author | Date |
| Satellite-tracking system to be ready by DecemberThe new system is part of a $300 million ez-link contract given to ERG, | 'If all goes well, we should start by December | Thursday, October 16, 09:53:44am |
| Yes I take note of dates--okay?--Singapore revvved up a bit December--I love keeping things like this--in December--I'll get contacted by someone to say--shhhhh Singapore (NT) | Yes I know I found it with webferret six months ago---so did everyone else.(or at leat brokers and margin lenders did and intelligent traders and investors did.) | Thursday, October 16, 10:02:46am |