The more stations and lines the better, until you lose your train card. What you can do, and what the station staff can do for you, or not do, is more complicated than you might think.
Problem
I lost my train card - and apparently many people do so every year. I found it was lost - if you pardon the oxymoron (contradiction) when I reached the exit gate from the light railway LRT Bukit Panjang on my way to the MRT (underground and occasionally overground railway).
I hunted through my pockets. No luck.
I looked around for staff. None. I was trapped. No ticket collector, just automatic gates. I could be stuck all night and day. I could be stuck for a week - weeks! It was late at night and I was tired and wanted to go home.
I went through my pockets again by the barrier. No luck. I can't empty my bag here - tripping up others with the bag and contents, and leaving myself vulnerable to theft.
I walked over to the wall, stood up against the wall and went through my bags, as well as my pockets. No luck.
I sat down on the floor and tipped out the contents of my bag, not onto the dirty floor, onto a plastic bag.
No luck. If security staff were watching me from some remote location, hours of fun for them. They could be taking bets on me. Will she find her ticket?
No ticket. Now I had to renew my effort to get through a barrier. I asked passers-by what to do. How could somebody help. Don't risk trying to get two people through. It's illegal and you could get injured and stuck.
I thought the only option would be to pass my bags over, then climb over. That should bring some human official to investigate! Not a good idea. They'd think I was a terrorist. Armed police?
Passers-by shrugged. Some didn't speak English. Others rushed on, through the barrier which was trapping me.
Luckily, finally, somebody knew what to do.
He said, "There's a microphone - over there!"
"Where?"
"By the wide exit for wheelchairs."
I walked over. I looked on the wall. A machine for paying by credit card, or the local debit card, Nets.
He called, "On the top of the barrier post."
I looked down. Well, I never! I pressed a button and spoke.
The remote operator said, "I've pressed the button to let you through the barrier - just push it, then come and see me at the ticket office.
***
At the ticket office, I explained, "I've lost my card." He asked me questions and gave me paper and a pen. I filled out my details.
The station employee asked,
"Can you prove it's your card?"
"Yes, it has my photo on it!"
"May I take a photo of you?"
"Please do."
He did. He said,
"I'll send this through. It goes to every station on the line."
"Thank you!"
Good. So now the whole network knows I've lost my card. They have a picture of the idiot who dropped her card.
Which Station For Reports?
At least everybody is looking for my card. I asked, "Every station on the whole network?"
"No just our line. Downtown line."
"But I lost it on the other line, before I came through the gate at the interchange. Can you phone them?"
"No. You have to go back there, to one of the nearest Transit link offices - your nearest is ... ."
The stations where you can report loss are the ones with major offices, so you can't necessarily just go to your nearest station. It could be at least a half hour round trip, ten minutes on the train, queue and fill in forms, come back.
What - up and down all the escalators and staircases with no escalators? Along all the corridors. Queuing up while the staff deal with other major problems and are busy with announcements. Filling up forms? Coming back again. It's gone ten-thirty at night and I might miss my last train home.
I say, "I'll go tomorrow. "
He asks me, "Where are you going? I'll tell the man at the next station to let you through."
***
Help At The Destination Station
I get to my destination station.
A man comes out to greet me. He is not wearing a white coat like a man from a lunatic asylum ready to arrest the criminally insane. He is pretty polite. He treats it like a practical problem."
By now I have thought it through and can explain my problem. I tell him,
"It's too late to go all the way back, and takes a lot of time and energy if they don't have it. Could you phone and ask if they have found it?"
Yes, he can!
Maybe the other man was not being difficult; he just meant that he can't make a report on the phone - I still have to go to the other line to fill in the form. Even so, why not do it online? On my phone. On his phone?
He phones.
They have not found my card. No point, no need, to go all the way back.
I smile, "I have to go back tomorrow, because the trains on that line just operate on that line."
"No. The trains operate on all the lines."
"So if I didn't drop it on the station but on the train - and I can't be sure - I have to report it to both lines anyway - and travel to two places, the main ticket office station, to report my loss?"
***
Final Search
At home I go through my cards, my pockets, my handbag, my tote bag. I pray.
No luck. Finally I take EVERYTHING out of all three bags.
I pray again.
Eureka! I have it. Where was it? Not in the correct pocket where I always keep it. I had gone through the barrier talking to a friend and put it into the nearest pocket. It has slipped behind a paper tissue.
Advantages and Disadvantages Of Spare Tissues
So carrying spare or loose tissues is to blame. Why am I carrying paper tissues? Because you often reach toilets with no tissues, or in Singapore the toilet paper is in a large roll near the wash basins, doubling as toilet paper and hand towels, decreasing time spent replacing the roll, preventing people taking too much.
Lanyard Solution
The moral is, always keep your ticket in the same pocket. Many Singaporeans wear their ticket around their neck on lanyard. It's either hanging around their neck instead of the office identity card, reversed for privacy in public, or backing their office identity card - just swivel it.
When you take it off at night or for a party, the lanyard is easy to find in your bag. When you wear it, very quick to push it against the reader and race through a barrier. No need to take it in your hand and risk dropping it.
Family Stress
A day after the loss, I confessed to the family that I had lost and found my card. I got the usual criticism: You have too many bags and too many pockets and too much stuff.
However, their ire and irritation went in all directions. Their first aim is at the nearby target, me. Then, at the railway company. "So they expect somebody who has lost their railway ticket to take a railway journey back report the lost ticket!"
Blocked Card
Is that the end of the problems, the stress, the interaction with station staff? No. Next time I tried to go through the train station barrier, my card would not work.
I guessed what the problem was. The ticket had been cancelled because it was reported lost (or stolen). To prevent a thief or somebody who saw it from picking it up, depriving the station of another fare, and depriving me of the saved amount on the card, the system had cancelled it.
Community Cards
I really did not want it cancelled. I needed to use it. I had money on it. It was a special multi-purpose card from a Singapore Community Centre. (The ubiquitous 'community centres' have recently been renamed the friendly-sounding community clubs which suggests activity as well as information distribution.) The card renews every few years, and you have to pay for the card, different amounts depending on the number of years you pick, plus the cost of the added value on it for train journeys.
Card Restored
I showed my card to the station employee. The card has my picture on it, so they can see it is my card, not one I have just found on the station floor and picked up.
To my relief, the man simply passes it through a machine and presses a button to restore it.
Hurray!
I smile at the man.
Lessons Learned
Lesson learned. More than one lesson. What lessons?
Firstly, that you can speak through a microphone on the wide access barrier.
Secondly, keep your card in the same pocket.
Thirdly, consider if you have a lanyard, that is convenient. Even if you have to run, for the last train, or in an emergency, and mistakenly or deliberately leave your bag or jacket behind, you always have your stored value card for the train and bus!
Finally, good news. If at first you don't succeed, (at a ticket office or anywhere else for a lost ticket or anything else) try a different person at a different office. You will get different information and extra help each time.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
