To TIBS. With love (2)

Chin Kuong Hing
Bukit Batok West Ave X
Block XXX #XX-XXX
Singapore XXXXXX


To the Manager
Trans-Island Bus Services

Complaints about buses (part 2)

I had been a TIBS user for the last 12years and I had bottled up a lot of feelings. I had been a loyal customer and I guess maybe it is because I had no choice as only TIBS buses ply the routes of Bukit Batok.

In the past 4 years since I moved in this estate, I had frequently met fare cheats on Bus 945. Those people who board the bus and after tapping their cards, immediately go to the back of the bus and tap their cards again on the Ez-link reader at the back. Food for thought. What would you do?

a) Bo chup aka don't care. Since it is not my problem.

b) Tell them it is wrong and tell them not to do it again. And risk being scolded.

c) Shout to the bus uncle at the front. ' Uncle, this person tap the card early!!!' and thus, make them feel ashamed of themselves.

d) Bo bian aka no choice. Cannot do anything about it since the bus uncle also bo chup.

e) Blog about it and hopefully TIBS picks it up. And opens a scheme that offers $2 for every fare cheats you report.

If you choose:

a) you re a selfish person. ( Popular choice. And please do not be a policeman.)

b) you re suited to be a teacher/monk/priest. ( You should be commended.)

c) you re being a child. ( Should be commended too. For having such bravery.)

d) you re being lead around. ( No balls to stand up for what you believed is right.）

e) you re optimistic. Very optimistic. ( You can be an adviser.)



So for me, I will definitely choose C , D and finally E. I will shame those people right on the spot. Unfortunately, I guess I will be making a fool out of myself so thanks but no thanks. I saw people who lived in condominiums, holding suitcases and wearing office suits, cheating the system. It's like:

' WHAT? You can afford a condominium and yet you are being such a miser?'

Oh. Maybe its because only misers can afford such monies to buy condos instead.

Personally, I feel that bus drivers should take the initiatives and report them. But then again, I once recorded approximately 10 fare cheats in the 15min journey. Maybe it is because there is too many cheats and the driver will have a hard time identifying them.

But on the other hand, if they are all fined $20, which is the 'standard' punishment I read in the newspaper, they would have earned a cool $200 and teach those misers a lesson or two. Or maybe they could hire people like me to keep a lookout and then sharing the $200 with me.

It is sure unfair when you see those people who pays lesser then you but gets the same mileage. Doing this makes my blood boils and I really wanted to shout expletives straight into the faces of the cheats.

I absolutely detests fare cheats. All kind of cheats maybe. I have integrity and I hate them. And those idiots are probably the cause of the rise in inflations in buses. Please do something about it and hopefully let me have the job and TIBS badge so that I start catching those cheats.

Yours faithfully,
k`h