Elderly commuters try using machines for first time as 11 MRT stations stop cash top-ups at service counters
A man uses the General Ticketing Machine to top up his EZ-link card on September 1, 2017. Photo by Najeer Yusof/TODAY
SINGAPORE — Seeing that there was no queue at the passenger service centre at Admiralty station on Friday (Sept 1) morning, 78-year-old Lim Chew Hock walked up, cash in hand, ready to ask a station staff to top up his fare card, as he had done for years.
Instead, he was directed to the row of general ticketing machines, where service staff guided him through the process of topping up his fare card himself.
“There are many more steps to perform, and for some of us elderly people with poorer memory, it may be more difficult to remember where to press, and what to do,” the retiree said in Mandarin.
Friday marked the first day cash top-ups at passenger service counters at 11 MRT stations, including Buona Vista, HarbourFront, Hougang, Pasir Ris and Serangoon, were discontinued, as part of a larger move towards a cashless public transport system in a few years.
Passengers can still perform cash top-ups at the general ticketing machines at the 11 stations, although the service, along with cash payment on buses, will be be phased out completely by 2020, as part of the Republic’s move towards becoming a Smart Nation, TransitLink and the Land Transport Authority said previously.
The authorities will monitor the impact on commuters at these stations, before ceasing cash top-up services at all other train stations’ passenger service centres next year.
Despite the announcement, some commuters, young and old, were caught by surprise by the change when TODAY visited four of the affected stations — Admiralty, Serangoon, Bedok, and Pasir Ris.
At Admiralty MRT station, around 10 commuters were turned away from the passenger service centres in the span of almost an hour when TODAY was there.
At Pasir Ris MRT station, Madam Roziah Rahim, 70, told TODAY she had “never used the (general ticketing) machine to top up before”.
“I was scared I would press the wrong things,” said the retiree, adding that it would take “a lot of practice” before she would be familiar with using the machines.
Although a cashless public transport system is “still some time away”, 69-year-old Mdm Rosie Choo worries whether she would be able to cope. “I don’t know much about technology. If they (totally) do away with cash for such things (like top-up services), it will be very difficult for (the elderly) in future,” she said.
