SBS are raising the price of travel again.
Surprisingly, profits are up SGD$4 million from last quarter although profit compare to the same quarter 2004, it is down by SGD$0.5 million. Another noticable profit line is that there is an incrase of 158% increase of profits for the year 2004 compared to 2003 which is a staggering SGD$30 million.
SBS is now a private company with government's interest in it. It does not really face a competitive market since it is a close and protected market. SBS provides the basic public transport in Singapore, so I gather it is towards the interests of the public rather than their shareholders. True, it is a private company and we should not let it be operating at a loss but with it operating at a bigger profit, shouldn't this excess profits be channelled back to those who need it? Prime examples are the hardworking bus captains and the poor and needy.
An increase in fares will suffocate the lower incomes and slowly strangle the middle class. Profits for shareholders are looked after but not the needy. Yes, SBS does provide transport vouchers for the needy but it is only for those who knows where to get them and able to get them.
Has SBS improved its services to the public? Better timing? more buses? Able to provide a general schedule for all to refer to? I have yet to see any improvement in these. Bus fleets are actually smaller now due to SBS down-sizing to increase profits. Timing is getting worse. Schedule is non-existent. What is worse? More bus services are trimmed away to force people to take its North-East Line which resultant in higher waiting time, travelling time and travelling costs.
SBS did selective comparison with other statistics and claims that cost of an average ride is about 65 cents which is more lower than some developed and neighbouring countries. However, most Singaporeans commuting on public transport takes an average of 2 rides to reach their destinations which bring the average costs of a trip to about $1.30. If the chosen countries by SBS, has an average of 1 ride per trip, the average cost per trip will be much lower than ours even if the average cost per ride is up to $1. This is also poor comparision as it is a selective and not representative comparision. We can certainly choose poorer countries with poorer exchange rate to show the opposite that our average cost per ride is much higher.
Even though the increase will be capped by 2.4%, multiple increases will make this cap invalid. Who knows when will be the next increase?
SBS financial reports
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Monday, May 16, 2005
End of EPL season 04-05
Last Sunday was the last match for the English Premier League Season 2004-2005.
Chelsea is the EPL Champions with a record of 95 points in the table. They achieved 29 wins, 8 draws and 1 loss. My beloved team, Arsenal is the runner-up.
Though Chelsea won by a gulf, it still have many records unbroken. They did not win the League unbeaten, Arsenal still maintaining a 49 consecutive unbeaten run which is about 1 and a quarter season long. Many will argue Chelsea won by 'buying' its way through with huge purchases, money supplied by Roman Abramovich. Claudio Ranieri formed the backbone of the Chelsea squad but broke the spirit with many changes throughout the season. Jose Mourinho forms a basic squad and sticks with it. The credit goes to Claudio Ranieri for its many good signings and Jose Mourinho just only stablises the squad with huge money backing. Once can only imagine when the money stopped, the club crashes. Afterall, it is a loss making club with abt 50 million pounds in losses for the season 04-05. This figure is set to soar for 05-06.
Relegation dogfight saw West Bromwich Wanderers staying in EPL while Norwich City, Southampton and Crystal Palace relegated to Championship League. Personally I wanted Crystal Palace and a lesser extent, Norwich to survive the drop but I must admit West Brom has improved by leaps and bounds to survive the drop with a big dose of luck with 3 other results going their way.
Till the next season in August!
Chelsea is the EPL Champions with a record of 95 points in the table. They achieved 29 wins, 8 draws and 1 loss. My beloved team, Arsenal is the runner-up.
Though Chelsea won by a gulf, it still have many records unbroken. They did not win the League unbeaten, Arsenal still maintaining a 49 consecutive unbeaten run which is about 1 and a quarter season long. Many will argue Chelsea won by 'buying' its way through with huge purchases, money supplied by Roman Abramovich. Claudio Ranieri formed the backbone of the Chelsea squad but broke the spirit with many changes throughout the season. Jose Mourinho forms a basic squad and sticks with it. The credit goes to Claudio Ranieri for its many good signings and Jose Mourinho just only stablises the squad with huge money backing. Once can only imagine when the money stopped, the club crashes. Afterall, it is a loss making club with abt 50 million pounds in losses for the season 04-05. This figure is set to soar for 05-06.
Relegation dogfight saw West Bromwich Wanderers staying in EPL while Norwich City, Southampton and Crystal Palace relegated to Championship League. Personally I wanted Crystal Palace and a lesser extent, Norwich to survive the drop but I must admit West Brom has improved by leaps and bounds to survive the drop with a big dose of luck with 3 other results going their way.
Till the next season in August!
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
4iq Test
| Your brain: 80% interpersonal, 120% visual, 100% verbal, and 100% mathematical! |
| Congratulations on being 400% smart! Actually, on my test, everyone is. The above score breaks down what kind of thinking you most enjoy doing. A score above 100% means you use that kind of thinking more than average, and a score below 100% means you use it less. It says nothing about how good you are at any one, just how interested you are in each, relatively. A substantial difference in scores between two people means, conclusively, that they are different kinds of thinkers. Matching Summary: Each of us has different tastes. Still, I offer the following advice, which I think is obvious:
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My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
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| Link: The 4-Variable IQ Test written by chriscoyne on Ok Cupid |
Road Rage and something to help concentration
This will be a good read to all potential road rage people. Please hold your temper before thinking with only your little brother (pun intended!)
Road Rage
This is kinda late as when I first posted, it is the examination period and now it is over already. Anyway, Just something to help you along if you need this!
Concentrate!
Road Rage
This is kinda late as when I first posted, it is the examination period and now it is over already. Anyway, Just something to help you along if you need this!
Concentrate!
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Champions League and a Rude Guy
For those who follow English Soccer and European Competitions, you should know what is the Champions League without me going into details. Also, I will not go into details as it is lengthy explanation and efforts to explain over here will kill me!
Chelsea just lost to Liverpool by an agregate score of 0-1. A victory not just for Liverpool but for those who do not like or simply hate Chelsea. I do not like Chelsea at all. A team which is totally bought by money. The club operates at a loss to the tune of abt 200 million pounds. Imagine if the owner Roman Abramovich is to pull out his funds, basically it will collapse, players sold off, and probably dropped to Championship league or even 1st Division. Waiting for that day to come true. When UEFA's new rulings on home grown players come into force, Chelsea will suffer as its current squad will have aged and its main players are bought from other teams.
The rude man is not Jose Mourinho. I was walking towards the mrt today while travelling to work. I saw this guy, in his forties, in a white shirt walking towards me. I can see that we are going to collide if we stay on the same paths. I move slightly to my left, half expecting him to do the same to avoid me. However, when we meet, he just moves straight on, without avoiding and hit me right on the right shoulder. Because I was still moving out of position, I did no use much force. However, that asshole carry on straight and bang into me. Without saying an apology, he just walked off as if nothing happened. I was so tempted to scold him and reprimand him that if you bang into someone, you should apologise to him. What an asshole!
Chelsea just lost to Liverpool by an agregate score of 0-1. A victory not just for Liverpool but for those who do not like or simply hate Chelsea. I do not like Chelsea at all. A team which is totally bought by money. The club operates at a loss to the tune of abt 200 million pounds. Imagine if the owner Roman Abramovich is to pull out his funds, basically it will collapse, players sold off, and probably dropped to Championship league or even 1st Division. Waiting for that day to come true. When UEFA's new rulings on home grown players come into force, Chelsea will suffer as its current squad will have aged and its main players are bought from other teams.
The rude man is not Jose Mourinho. I was walking towards the mrt today while travelling to work. I saw this guy, in his forties, in a white shirt walking towards me. I can see that we are going to collide if we stay on the same paths. I move slightly to my left, half expecting him to do the same to avoid me. However, when we meet, he just moves straight on, without avoiding and hit me right on the right shoulder. Because I was still moving out of position, I did no use much force. However, that asshole carry on straight and bang into me. Without saying an apology, he just walked off as if nothing happened. I was so tempted to scold him and reprimand him that if you bang into someone, you should apologise to him. What an asshole!
Friday, April 29, 2005
Bible Code
Found an interesting link on a blog I regularly read.
This is about the Bible Code. I am not a Christian and most probably wun be in my lifetime. The Bible Code causes a controversy some time back due to huge revelations and also the failure of the Bible Code after it. It was quite well-known for sometimes but its failure brought about its demise and wiped off from people's memories.
To decode the Bible, a certain language was used and certain edition were used. Next a computer is used to process the text to come out with certain patterns which predicted past events. Using these past 'successes', it say that it can be used to predict the future. After all, it proved quite accurate in proving the past.
A few big assumptions were made. The language to be used, which edition and which book of the Bible were used. A computer was used to process the texts and spew out information. How do we know which language to be used, which edition to be used and also if we are expected to decode them in the past, do we have the power and abilities to do it? It is only until today when we have the computer to assist in our work then we are able to process such big chunks of data and spew out meaningful information. If computer is never invented, we will have never know of this.
Also, because we desire to look for something, we can find it if we want to but changing languages, , editions, manner of data processing. The desires and expectations of Man are very strong to enable such things.
Later it is proved that the Bible Code is biased and almost fraudulous. Besides rouge scientists and religious scholars, we have the neutral scientists and scholars to put things right again.
Below are some URLs for reference and better understanding. A good way to find out more is still Google.
http://crossring.com/articles/endworld1.asp.html
http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/torah.html
http://cs.anu.edu.au/%7Ebdm/dilugim/witzum/camps.html
This is about the Bible Code. I am not a Christian and most probably wun be in my lifetime. The Bible Code causes a controversy some time back due to huge revelations and also the failure of the Bible Code after it. It was quite well-known for sometimes but its failure brought about its demise and wiped off from people's memories.
To decode the Bible, a certain language was used and certain edition were used. Next a computer is used to process the text to come out with certain patterns which predicted past events. Using these past 'successes', it say that it can be used to predict the future. After all, it proved quite accurate in proving the past.
A few big assumptions were made. The language to be used, which edition and which book of the Bible were used. A computer was used to process the texts and spew out information. How do we know which language to be used, which edition to be used and also if we are expected to decode them in the past, do we have the power and abilities to do it? It is only until today when we have the computer to assist in our work then we are able to process such big chunks of data and spew out meaningful information. If computer is never invented, we will have never know of this.
Also, because we desire to look for something, we can find it if we want to but changing languages, , editions, manner of data processing. The desires and expectations of Man are very strong to enable such things.
Later it is proved that the Bible Code is biased and almost fraudulous. Besides rouge scientists and religious scholars, we have the neutral scientists and scholars to put things right again.
Below are some URLs for reference and better understanding. A good way to find out more is still Google.
http://crossring.com/articles/endworld1.asp.html
http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/torah.html
http://cs.anu.edu.au/%7Ebdm/dilugim/witzum/camps.html
Thursday, April 28, 2005
5.6 km run and a lost card pouch
Nope. I did not lose my card pouch during the 5.6km run. Rather I lost it before the run.
Yesterday was the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge., a 5.6km run. Due to the slow traffic and a considerable distance which I has to cover before reaching the start point, I was kinda on time to be at the start point at 6pm. Starting was bad, as the whole path is congested with people. Further down the road, it was easier and I started to jog/run. Due to many ppl walking instead of jogging/running, it was hard to navigate the human maze and at times, I have to stop because I cannot find a way through easily. After lots of stops and starts, my stamina waned and I could not really run and had to stop at times to rest a bit. It does not help when I developed a stitch and hardly can't run. In all, I took 48 minutes 30 seconds to finish the distance, an average of 8.4 minutes per km. A timing which can definitely be improved.
Sidenote : I reckon I took about 5 minutes to reach the actual start point since I am way behind the start point. This will make it to about 7.5 minutes per km. Not that impressive but not that way off of my average 6 minutes per km during NS time (10 km run).
Before the run, I lost my card pouch. I lost it during either from the bus to my home or my home to the bus stop. It contains my credit cards, my atm card and my ezlink card. The cards can be cancelled except for ezlink card for which i suffered a loss of around $20 while the pouch costs me around $30+. Sigh. If I have go for the run straight from office, I will not have suffer this loss. Hopefully this is a blessing in disguise and averted any other misfortunes I may have encountered.
Yesterday was the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge., a 5.6km run. Due to the slow traffic and a considerable distance which I has to cover before reaching the start point, I was kinda on time to be at the start point at 6pm. Starting was bad, as the whole path is congested with people. Further down the road, it was easier and I started to jog/run. Due to many ppl walking instead of jogging/running, it was hard to navigate the human maze and at times, I have to stop because I cannot find a way through easily. After lots of stops and starts, my stamina waned and I could not really run and had to stop at times to rest a bit. It does not help when I developed a stitch and hardly can't run. In all, I took 48 minutes 30 seconds to finish the distance, an average of 8.4 minutes per km. A timing which can definitely be improved.
Sidenote : I reckon I took about 5 minutes to reach the actual start point since I am way behind the start point. This will make it to about 7.5 minutes per km. Not that impressive but not that way off of my average 6 minutes per km during NS time (10 km run).
Before the run, I lost my card pouch. I lost it during either from the bus to my home or my home to the bus stop. It contains my credit cards, my atm card and my ezlink card. The cards can be cancelled except for ezlink card for which i suffered a loss of around $20 while the pouch costs me around $30+. Sigh. If I have go for the run straight from office, I will not have suffer this loss. Hopefully this is a blessing in disguise and averted any other misfortunes I may have encountered.
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