Tempers flare as taxi issues mar first day of S'pore Airshow
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TODAY reports: Some visitors and exhibitors had to wait as long as 2.5 hours for a taxi, leading some to call for organisers Experia Events to allow taxi bookings for the next five days. Those on bicycles and personal mobility devices were also turned away from the airshow.
- Posted 17 Feb 2016 07:09
- Updated 17 Feb 2016 07:10
SINGAPORE: An arduous wait for taxis - stretching past the two-and-a-half hour mark for many - incurred the wrath of trade visitors and exhibitors on the first day of the Singapore Airshow on Tuesday (Feb 16), with some calling on organisers to allow taxi bookings for the next five days.
In a first for the biennial event, organiser Experia Events had forbidden taxi bookings to manage traffic congestion. Instead, visitors have to queue for a cab or hop onto shuttle buses ply the route between Changi Exhibition Centre - where the show is held - and the Singapore Expo and selected hotels.
Taxi rides from the venue are subject to a S$10 surcharge while shuttle bus rides cost S$8 each way. Bicycles and personal mobility devices (PMDs) are also prohibited, TODAY learnt, as some who arrived on them were turned away.
Among them was Mr Lim Kok Yong, project manager for DSO National Laboratories. “I was forced to turn back, had to park the PMD elsewhere then return again. But we weren’t notified of this,” he said, adding that he had cycled to the previous show in 2014. Mr Lim and his colleagues waited more than 1.5 hours for a taxi. “They disallowed bookings but now they have created another problem,” he said.
Organisers had set aside five lots for taxis to pull over, but only one or two were occupied at each point in time. Only at around 7pm on Tuesday - two hours after the show ended - did commuters see a steadier stream of taxis, mainly premium taxis such as Mercedes Cab and Chrysler Taxi Cab.
Staff on the ground were seen urging those in the taxi queue - many of them sweating in their suits and ties - to catch the shuttle buses. Buses run every 15 minutes, with the last bus leaving at 7pm. Asked why bicycles and PMDs were not allowed, they said: “We don’t have parking spaces for bicycles.”
One local exhibitor who declined to be named said the queue could be better managed with barricades. “There appears to be five or six different queues merged into one. It’s quite chaotic,” he said.
An exhibitor with a German pavilion who has regularly attended the airshow since the 1990s said Tuesday's taxi situation was the “most poorly managed” she has experienced. “Tomorrow, I don’t know. We probably have to call a helicopter in,” she joked.
Asked whether it would be making changes to its traffic arrangements, Experia, which called the problem “unforeseen delays”, said it was working with taxi companies to provide a constant supply of taxis during the event. It will also ensure restriction notices on bicycles and PMDs are displayed on site and on the event website.
The Singapore Airshow will open to the public on Saturday and Sunday.
Read the original TODAY report here.
-TODAY/av
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Wahahaha...
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Airshow manciam become Taxi no show Show...hahahaha
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Airshow organizers are hiding the real truth. In actual fact, I believe our police determined that only taxis are allowed inside for security reasons. Pretty much like the rationale behind not allowing civilians to park their vehicles inside the police station, not even PMDs - SPF worried about car bombs going off in their basement carpark mah...
So talk so much cock for what, want to blame, go blame SPF for the taxi crunch. Throw back the problem to them and ask the mata mata to settle the airshow transportation. Otherwise just terminate the airshow since SPF worries so much about car bombs going off.
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Took a pax there,reach there accuse me of taking longer route.wtf let them rot!!!
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yes, i guess the news reporting can be more upfront.
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The main reason why they disallow on call is to deter Grab and über car from entering the site.......
So call protecting our taxi uncles rice bowl......
Never know, knnbccb, backside kena playout by taxi uncles, whahahaha.......
You all are just damn cb......
Tia gong, today better, by 6pm, all clear, all the taxi coy tio butter kao kao.......
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I encountered different situation this evening going there at around 7pm. Around 20 taxis were ahead of me in the queue which was not moving. I ended up jumping out of the queue to go to Changi Village for a meal and got a customer immediately after that.
Not quite worth it to go there unless you are really nearby. I drove from Seng Kang there but made a fruitless trip there.
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between 4pm and 5 pm i i know alot of taxi doing the air show
so i go to airport and get pick and go, no competitions from other taxis
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They need to resolve the traffic flow.
1. Drop off and pick up cannot be along the same lane on the left. The drop off point for cars, taxis and worse, buses is located just further in front of the taxi stand. So all kena jam in the morning. The drop offs should be located on the right further away where all the empty car park lots are (dunno why fenced up and reserved for who??).
2. Create more lanes or lots for taxi pick ups like in airport, MBS (during peak) or RWS(during peak). Double or triple loadings.
3. Pick ups for buses/shuttle service should be located away from the taxi stand.
Many taxis avoid going to the air show because of the perceived jam going in and going out. Those that drop off pax and got jammed in the morning thought that the situation is the same in the afternoon. So they avoided going there. The organisers need to solve this problem and the taxis will come.
Knn, organise for so many years liao, still cannot get it right.
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Originally posted by Pandanchen:
between 4pm and 5 pm i i know alot of taxi doing the air show
so i go to airport and get pick and go, no competitions from other taxis
You are wrong. On the first day, no taxis at all around 4 to 5pm. No jam. Taxis pick and go. One trip there equals 3 trips at the airport. My fren made 7 trips to the airshow that day.
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if airport $3 surcharge got taxi why not airshow with $10 surcharge. is taxi driver inform of the demand? may be kena cheated before so dont believe liao
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Lanjiao lah, Airshow is a long way in leh, 10 years ago $10 surcharge, now also $10 surcharge, you think kopi still $0.60cts ar??? knn, buay zi tong and expect driver to bite the bait...ka ka surcharge up $20 lah, you will see more cab than paxs there.
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Organisers ease cab crunch at air show
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Singapore Airshow visitors watching an aerobatic flying display yesterday. On Tuesday, visitors were left waiting for over an hour to get a taxi. Experia Events said it had alleviated the situation by increasing the frequency of shuttle bus services and working with the Land Transport Authority to encourage more taxis to ply the trade show.ST PHOTOS: MARK CHEONG
Singapore Airshow organisers yesterday moved to solve a cab crisis which had left visitors waiting over an hour for a ride home on Tuesday.
Some at the Changi Exhibition Centre event had to wait up to 21/2 hours due to the high demand.
Experia Events said it had alleviated the situation by increasing the frequency of shuttle bus services and working with the Land Transport Authority to encourage more taxis to ply the trade show.
By 5pm yesterday, the waiting time for a cab was around 30 minutes while ushers directed those who did not wish to wait to shuttle buses connecting to Singapore Expo, where more transportation options such as buses and the MRT were available.
An hour later, the waiting time had been reduced to around 10 minutes, and by 6.30pm there were no queues for taxis or shuttle buses.
The measures will be in place this weekend when the event opens to the public.
Organisers attributed Tuesday's long waiting times to the high demand during peak periods and an almost 10 per cent increase in visitors from the 2014 show.
On-call taxis, as well as services like Uber and Grab, were blocked by Experia to avoid the traffic congestion that occurred in previous years.
Mr Max Smetannikov, chief executive officer of a public relations firm, waited less than 15 minutes for a cab yesterday.
On Tuesday, he had waited more than a hour before giving up and taking a shuttle bus instead.
"There were no cabs then," he said .
Mr Tisanut Ratanarat, chief executive officer of an aviation firm, said Tuesday's queue was the worst he had seen in several years of attending the air show but added that the situation had "improved tremendously" yesterday.
Some visitors, however, felt that more could be done.
Ms Shireen Lim, a programme manager in a technology company, said that the $10 surcharge for taxis from the venue was "exorbitant".
The 39-year-old also urged organisers to allow visitors to ride bicycles and other personal mobility devices to the venue.
"I live nearby, I should be able to cycle in if I want to," said Ms Lim.
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Cab crunch ease leow, bo kangtao leow
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Actually, overall, there's no problem of taxi, critical time is 4-5pm when the show just ended plus our SG typical change shit time.......
Aiya, 1st world country, 3rd world transportation lor.......
People cum spent billion buying aeroplane, happily walk out to taxi stand, knnbccb, no taxi, whahahaha.......
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Originally posted by bowah:
Lanjiao lah, Airshow is a long way in leh, 10 years ago $10 surcharge, now also $10 surcharge, you think kopi still $0.60cts ar??? knn, buay zi tong and expect driver to bite the bait…ka ka surcharge up $20 lah, you will see more cab than paxs there.
haha!i heard geylang also from $40 up to $50 n some can use visa...true bo??
ppl wear
may b they still wearing
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Premier taxi
press 20 times location charge (50 cents x 20) = $10
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Originally posted by Keepthechange666:
Actually, overall, there's no problem of taxi, critical time is 4-5pm when the show just ended plus our SG typical change shit time.......
Aiya, 1st world country, 3rd world transportation lor.......
People cum spent billion buying aeroplane, happily walk out to taxi stand, knnbccb, no taxi, whahahaha.......
where got problem? it is about, planning, $ n communication. why td go there to pick up pax when they get the same fares everywhere. tink $10 very huge. shuttle bus already $8. why waste time n money to get $10.
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Originally posted by bowah:
Lanjiao lah, Airshow is a long way in leh, 10 years ago $10 surcharge, now also $10 surcharge, you think kopi still $0.60cts ar??? knn, buay zi tong and expect driver to bite the bait…ka ka surcharge up $20 lah, you will see more cab than paxs there.
last taxi fare increase is 2011. he2nce taxi fares value has been dropping.
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Originally posted by Alvin87a:
haha!i heard geylang also from $40 up to $50 n some can use visa...true bo??
ppl wear
may b they still wearing
Visa another 10% more, only licensed chicken shops..to cater foreigners mah. Dun go now, now still CNY, mark up price. DIY. -
Just for a few dollars surcharges, you get paxs who are angry, late and hungry. So, you can imagine if you get into a jam or slightly wrong road or road that is not in their normal road only...all temper flared. So it is still better to go AP, you get happy tourists, business peoples and traveler who greet you like God after the airshow flying show.
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Originally posted by peterpan212:
where got problem? it is about, planning, $ n communication. why td go there to pick up pax when they get the same fares everywhere. tink $10 very huge. shuttle bus already $8. why waste time n money to get $10.
Well, Experia Events claim that they are doing taxi a favour by disallowing Grab neh neh and Über from coming in......
I told them TD mentality jin strange one, just like you, unappreciative one, why bother about them?......
Bang bang table, ended up limo counter also taken out.......
$10? I told them, you all are waiting for disaster to happen only.......
Anyway, the 500 BMW only got to work double hard lor, sway, you all taxi how lian mah.......
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Simi airshow... I drives nite not affected. .. Only benefits is sometimes get call at 5am to ates dunno what fcuk security Co in West coast road.
