NEEDS OF WHEELCHAIR-BOUND AT MRT STATIONS AND ON BOARD TRAINS

NEEDS OF WHEELCHAIR-BOUND AT MRT STATIONS AND ON BOARD TRAINS: 11.

Assoc. Prof. Kalyani K Mehta asked the Minister for Transport whether there are plans to (i) educate the public on civil courtesy towards wheelchair passengers riding the MRT trains especially upon embarkation and disembarkation; (ii) enforce the 'yellow lines' rule on MRT platforms so that embarkation and disembarkation are organised; and (iii) put up signs to indicate where a wheelchair person should 'park' in the train so that public consideration can be given towards his or her needs.

Mrs Lim Hwee Hua (for the Minister for Transport): Sir, since the early 1990s, our rail operators have regularly implemented public education initiatives, such as courtesy programmes, roadshows, school talks and learning journeys, to promote courteous behaviour on the MRT. These have so far not specifically focused on civil courtesy towards wheelchair-bound passengers using the MRT. However, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is working with the rail operators to facilitate greater usage of our MRT by wheelchair-bound passengers.

On provision of signs to indicate where a wheelchair user could "park" his or her wheelchair in the train, I am pleased to inform the House that for the Northeast Line (NEL), this is already done as the trains have a designated recess area for wheelchair users. There are also signs at designated platform screen doors to guide wheelchair users to the train car with such a recess area for their use. Similar signage will also be introduced along the North-South and East-West Lines where recess areas for wheelchair users have been provided on SMRT's older trains as part of its train upgrade project over the next two years.

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Assoc. Prof. Kalyani has also asked whether there are plans to enforce the yellow queue lines. As it is with all matters concerning civic consciousness, there is practical difficulty in enforcing commuter behaviour. Nonetheless, station staff patrolling the platforms will advise commuters to follow the yellow queue lines, and regular announcements will continue to be broadcast to remind commuters to give way to alighting passengers.

Assoc. Prof. Kalyani K Mehta (Nominated Member): Sir, from the feedback that I have received from my students at NUS where I teach, as well as members of the public, at peak time, it is really very chaotic at our MRT stations, especially where there are interchanges, and sometimes I think the safety of passengers is at stake here. As we have made our MRT stations more friendly to physically-disabled persons, I think we need to do the software aspect, now that we have a bit more hardware. I have seen in Hong Kong that they have more staff at the train platforms, and they enforce the yellow lines. So, perhaps for a start, we could think of some idea like that. I personally had an example where a tourist really showed his disgust at some ugly behaviour of Singaporeans when they would not allow a wheelchair-bound person to alight and the person was stuck in the train because of the crowd.

Mrs Lim Hwee Hua: Sir, I agree with the Member's comment that there is certainly room for more public education and for commuters as a whole to be more civic-conscious.