End of a dream

And then there were six.

Six taxi companies in Singapore, that is.

In 2018, HDT Singapore Taxi became the Republic’s seventh and smallest taxi operator. However, it has lasted just two years.

HDT Singapore Taxi has become the first taxi business to fold amid the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, with the Land Transport Authority this week accepting its application to close.

The electric taxi operator said it had been “wrestling with the slowing growth” of the business since the start of the year.

About 90 taxi drivers and four back-end staff were let go, an HDT spokesman said, attributing the decision to the “prolonged, debilitating impact” of the coronavirus on the industry.

It said it is restructuring to focus on other green transport solutions, like electric buses and trucks, as well as the leasing of electric vehicles.

The company, which was granted a full taxi service operator licence in 2018, is the smallest taxi company in Singapore. It operated about 100 electric taxis, and had said it wanted to expand its fleet to 800 by 2022.

Unlike the more flexible models of other taxi and private-hire companies, which treat drivers as self-employed, HDT employed its cabbies and paid them salaries, with perks such as annual leave and contributions to the Central Provident Fund (CPF).

Those retrenched will be paid a month of salary for each year of service, on a pro-rata basis. Drivers will be given their annual wage supplement, have their Medisave accounts topped up till the end of the year, and be given a one-off retrenchment benefit “as a gesture of gratitude”, the company said.

Mr Ang Hin Kee, executive adviser to the National Taxi Association and the National Private Hire Vehicles Association, said HDT’s employment model meant it has had to bear a bigger burden of the crash in the taxi market this year.

He said that, ultimately, drivers could not “deliver the targets” to match the salary paid by HDT.

There has also not been much of a clamour among cabbies for HDT’s employment model, with many preferring to be self-employed and have more flexible rental.

“At the end of the day, it’s about the market losing 40 per cent of ridership demand. There are no tourists and no nightlife and very few entertainment venues,” he said.

Demand for taxis and private-hire cars during the two-month circuit breaker in April and May was almost non-existent. Even now, with the economy slowly reopening, ridership continues to hover around 60 per cent to 70 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels, severely impacting drivers’ - and taxi companies’ - revenue streams...

Credit: Vulcan Post.

So much for HDT Singapore Taxi being Singapore’s only taxi operator to have wholly electric-powered vehicles, and pay its drivers fixed salaries with CPF contributions. These novelties didn’t help it survive the city-state’s worst public transport ridership crisis in decades.

One piece of transport trivia for posterity - what does the “HDT” in HDT Singapore Taxi stand for? Hold Dreams Together.

Before the move

Come 6 December, Jurong East Temporary Bus Interchange - next to Jurong East MRT Interchange - will close and shift to a nearby site.

This will be the third version of a bus interchange in the Jurong East area.

Jurong East Bus Interchange first opened in 1985, directly north of the MRT station, which opened three years later. The bus interchange was at the junction of Jurong East Street 12 and Boon Lay Way.

The area around Jurong East MRT Interchange in 1991. Jurong East Bus Interchange was to its north.

An aerial view of Jurong East Bus Interchange sometime before 2011, facing west. Credit: Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The interchange served the area for 26 years, until 2011, when it moved to the present site on the other side of the MRT interchange.

The land freed up by the move allowed for the construction of the condominium complex J Gateway, Westgate, and Jurong East Mall, otherwise known as Jem. Most of Jurong East Street 12 was expunged for these landmarks, and the part of Jurong East Street 13 serving the new temporary bus interchange was renamed Jurong Gateway Road.

The area around Jurong East MRT Interchange in 2020. Credit: Streetdirectory.com.

After 6 December, the site of the temporary bus interchange will be redeveloped for the Jurong Region Line and an Integrated Transport Hub, which should be completed by 2027. This means the third version of Jurong East Bus Interchange will last just seven years.

Today, I visited the temporary bus interchange to take pictures of the place before it moves.

Jurong East Temporary Bus Interchange has seven boarding berths, B1 to B7.

Credit: Land Transport Guru.

Tower Transit, the anchor operator of the bus interchange which falls under the Bulim Bus Package, has put up signs in the interchange and stickers on its buses announcing the impending move “across the road”.

What I love about bus interchanges is the continuous movement of buses and passengers. Buses pull in, passengers disembark or board, they move out. The activity never stops.

The new terminus of the northeast

The upcoming Punggol Coast MRT station will be ready by 2024, with about 40 per cent of construction work completed as of yesterday.

Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung gave this update at a ceremony to mark the completion of tunnel boring works from the existing Punggol station to the future Punggol Coast station yesterday.

The new station had initially been slated for completion in 2023, but this has been delayed owing to the coronavirus pandemic. The project is a 1.6km extension of the North East Line.

Credit: The Straits Times.

Yet another victim of the COVID-19 pandemic - the station’s completion will be delayed by a year.

When open, the station will connect commuters to the still-developing Punggol Digital District, a business park that will be co-located with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) campus.

Mr Ong, in his speech, said the MRT station was an essential component of the space.

“There is no point building a new district that people cannot get to. Just look at places like Tokyo Station in Japan, Piccadilly Circus Station in London and Grand Central Station in New York. They are synonymous with the vibrant and prosperous districts that they serve.

“I hope the upcoming station will become synonymous with the good jobs, quality education and smart lifestyle that Punggol Digital District brings,” he said.

Punggol Coast MRT station is expected to be used by more than 75,000 employees of the new business park, students and residents in the area.

It is part of the Government's plan to expand the rail network from around 230km today to 360km by the early 2030s, and to bring eight in 10 households within a 10-minute walk of a train station.

The business park in Punggol, being developed by JTC Corporation, will offer more than 28,000 new jobs in fields such as cyber security and data science.

The tunnelling works finished yesterday were completed using two tunnel boring machines, each fitted with sensors to monitor the progress in real time to ensure precision and minimise disturbance to the surrounding infrastructure.

Mr Kok Poh June, JTC group director of new estates division 2, said the station is at the centre of the Punggol Digital District and that those within a 10-minute radius will be able to access it under shelter, whether by pedestrian overhead bridges or underpasses.

“It makes it very convenient for the commuters to travel to the MRT station. We focused a lot on the three-in-one integration between the SIT campus, the MRT station and the business park,” he said...

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A construction site for Punggol Coast MRT Station, as seen from an LRT train travelling from Punggol MRT Station to Sam Kee LRT Station.

Come 2024, Punggol MRT Station will no longer be the northern terminus of the North East Line. All the best to Punggol residents who are used to getting seats on city-bound trains...

All the best too to Sengkang residents who currently “bounce off” Punggol station to get a seat on their trip to the city...

All good things must come to an end!