Friday, September 14, 2007

Singapore: Choosing mode of Transport !

Singapore is great ! It has excellent means of transportation when you need. It is up to you to decide whether you want to take a Bus, MRT or Taxi. It is not true that the Taxi will always cost you more than the bus(well in $ terms yes !)....lets take an example here to explain this !

You(total 4 people) want to goto IKEA from Hougang during non-peak hours on weekend. You have 2 options Bus or Taxi.

Taking Bus
  • Using the http://www.sbstransit.com.sg website we can plan the journey
  • The service 27 will go directly to IKEA from Hougang Central Interchange.
  • The cost will be $1.18 per person = $4.72
  • The time to reach is probably around 30 mins.
Taking Taxi
  • Take a Taxi from same starting point to IKEA
  • The Fare would be around $6.30 for 4 persons
  • Time to reach IKEA(at drop-off point) is max 15-20 mins as we go by Highway !
So its upto you to decide when to take a Taxi or Bus depending upon your mood, convenience. As sometimes it rains so heavy in Singapore that you will be half-wet by the time you reach the Bus Interchange from your house !

But the same math is tricky when you are going during peak hours & during weekday. As it adds Peak hour charges & ERP charges which are quite high depending on the time of the day.

This was just an example. When going long distance & where MRT station is direct on the same line, MRT is the fastest & cheapest mode of transport.

I will write more on this subject & means to save cost while traveling in Singapore ;)

enjoy !




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Sandeep
I recently only came across your blog and found it very helpful. I'll be coming to singapore in november and will be working there for over a year. My wife will also be with me but she will not be working. I could really use some tips from you. I've noticed that all accomodation below S$1000 is sharing type.Is it possible to get standalone unit for S$500? How safe is a sharing an apartment? My salary would be around S$3k-4k so I'm on a tight budget?I would really appreciate some advice. Or please email me at vikram23482@gmail.com

Thnx in advance
Vikram

Sandeep said...

Hi Readers,

Good to know that my blog is helping people to understand some facts about "cost of living" in Singapore.

Accommodation : Well as you know that this is the large portion of your budget. Shared accommodation also costs around $400-800. Again it all depends on where in Singapore you are staying, anything near to city/downtown area is expensive.

Sharing of apartments by families/bachelors is common in Singapore. So if you are ok with it & like it, you can save good amount of $ from your net pay.

So start exploring with Agents as soon as you land in Singapore. or checkout google for some options.