Comment by delta_p_delta_x

13 hours ago

I wish they hadn't got rid of STARIS 1[1]. It was highly intuitive and informative, and showed you everything you needed at a glance, and was visible from nearly anywhere within the carriage.

In fact I am not very happy with the little things when it comes to LTA.

They ruined MRT wayfinding with highly abstract symbols[2] in the new Thomson-East Coast Line, so much so that station staff have had to regularly supplant it with ugly printed signs that aren't standardised. They also changed from using alphabetical exits to numbered exits, with no listing of nearby landmarks. Older stations still have this wayfinding, but I suspect they will be replaced in short order, as everything in Singapore is wont to be.

Speaking of standardised, LTA have two corporate typefaces: LTA Identity, and Ocean Sans. They stopped using both and moved to Stroudley, which just looks bad, with ugly vertical terminators on the 'a', 'e', and 'g' glyphs. Ocean Sans is simultaneously superbly readable and yet very distinctive, something very few fonts have achieved.

I must also be in the minority but I do not like the new map[3]; it makes the city centre too cluttered. I much prefer the one from ~2010[4], which is quite reminiscent of the London Underground's map. In fact I believe they could've simplified it further by getting rid of station codes. Which passenger needs to know Dhoby Ghaut is NE6/CC1/NE24? Even as a (self-professed) transport nerd I don't really care.

I have other rants about the giant stroads, weird cycling paths, and their decision to use 'anticlockwise' and 'clockwise' for the full Circle Line, but that is neither here nor there, and I think other creators discuss that better than I ever could. Singapore's public transport is great, no doubt, but it could be so much better still. It needs trams.

[1]: https://blog.sgtrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/c151-st...

[2]: https://www.sgtrains.com/guide-wayfinding.html

[3]: https://blog.sgtrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/05-sm-2...

[4]: https://blog.sgtrains.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/03-Netw...

3 comments

delta_p_delta_x

Reply
mook  10 hours ago

> In fact I believe they could've simplified it further by getting rid of station codes. Which passenger needs to know Dhoby Ghaut is NE6/CC1/NE24?

I believe they're usually for people who can't read the language (typically, tourists). NE6 is a lot easier to memorize for people who can't pronounce Dhoby Ghaut (think people from China or something that isn't used to reading Latin alphabets).

The code + number system is also easier for tourists / people new to the area to know which stations are on the same line, and to find them if you don't know the map (just find any station on the same line and look for the correct number on the line).

ValentineC  12 hours ago

> their decision to use 'anticlockwise' and 'clockwise' for the full Circle Line

I saw this on a banner a few days ago:

https://imgur.com/a/gMZXYRs

I don't know what kind of groupthink is festering within LTA, but I'm guessing someone who shouted the loudest got the rename through, and the no-blame, face-saving culture meant that they have their hands tied for a while.