MRT Trains Will Have a ‘Priority Cabin’ Next Year & People Who Need Seats Would Have an Identifier

By
George Yang
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The year is 2021. You’ve not been taking the train for years because you’re rich enough to own a car. But that fateful day, your car broke down and you’re using a Huawei phone, so you don’t have Grab in your smartphone.

You go to an MRT station, take the lift up and see that everyone around you seems to be pregnant. Soon after, a few seniors walk past you with a smile, and a man in a wheelchair wheeled beside you.

You wordlessly remind yourself not to sit on any seat, if not you’d be seeing yourself on STOMP. Even if the seat isn’t a priority seat, you’d avoid—

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—then you look up, and see the big sign: “Priority Cabin.”

“Hey, you how many months liao?” a pregnant lady suddenly says to you.

You shiver and reply with a poker face, “Oh, five months le.”

What she didn’t realise is that you’re a guy who’s had too many fried chicken wings in the last few months.

Now, the part about Huawei is fake (hey, you never know…), but the priority cabin thingy is very real.

Because yesterday, Senior Minister of State for Transport Janil Puthucheary announced the plan for Land Transport Master Plan 2040, which is a long-term plan to improve transport needs in Singapore.

And priority cabin has just become a reality.

Priority Cabin: Announced in March & Confirmed Yesterday

Lest you think this is somewhat new, you’re wrong.

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Back in March, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Baey Yam Keng has already spoken about a trial for a priority cabin in one of the rail lines.

During yesterday’s announcement, more details about this, together with other initiatives (which you can read here), were revealed.

For a start, here’s a list of people who would belong to the “priority group”: pregnant women, seniors, wheelchair users and parents with young children in strollers.

According to Janil Puthucheary, it’s “one way of making our transport system more inclusive.”

The priority cabin would, of course, be near the station lift.

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You might be wondering: what about able-bodied people? Would they be thrown out of the train if they step into the priority cabin, or would their image automatically appear in STOMP?

Apparently, normal commuters can still be in the priority cabin, though if they’re gracious enough, they shouldn’t be there if someone else needs the cabin more.

“Please Offer Me a Seat” Identifier

You’d have come across jokers who say, “I pay for the ride so I deserve a seat. And this isn’t a priority seat.”

But soon, they might need to think twice.

LTA is going to provide a “Please Offer Me a Seat” identifier to people who need a seat, so if any joker still refuses to give up his seat, that badge (should be a badge, right? Can’t be a cap mah) would be consistently reminding him of his ungraciousness.

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But honestly speaking, the best-est benefit of this is that we won’t be giving up our seat to a lady who merely had too many chicken wings.

Trust me, as someone who has given up a seat to a lady who’s not pregnant, the embarrassment is beyond words.

(P.S. I guarantee you I’m not humblebragging about my kindness, though I’d like you to know that I just gave up my seat to a senior yesterday)

Priority Queues

By the end of this year, there’ll also be a priority queue for seniors, expectant mothers, wheelchair users and parents travelling with strollers in all MRT stations.

And by 2021, this priority queue system would be in all bus interchanges, too.

I don’t know about you, but this is about time.

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]