I took a taxi with a friend who live near Pasir Ris after my Unit Fitness Program, a program designed especially for people fail the IPPT like yours truly to have additional PT training (so far only 2 members have graduated from the program since it was founded around half a year ago or so). When I arrived at Pasir Ris my taxi was immediately snatched up by an adult who wanted to go to Airshow.
When I alighted I was overwhelmed by the sight that lays infront of me. People, were literally snaking around the MRT station and White Sands, forming a super long queue for the free shuttle bus. Taking taxi to the Airshow Venue is not an option though, as it encompasses an additional charge of $8 on top of the normal Taxi Fare. That is more than enough to deter people from even trying.
Of course, other then taxis and the “free” shuttle bus at Pasir Ris MRT, there are also shuttle buses catered at other venues, such as Expo. But those will set me back by another $5. Why pay?
So I joined in the queue. Its a nightmare. I have detailed the flow of the queue using the satellite image below.
Do note that this is the small little queue area set up by the organizing community:
Peanuts.
The news said that the huge jam and queue was due to insufficient bus. This is highly laughable. They can easily determine the kind of crowd that is going to turn up before 12.30 for the Air Performance through their outrageous ticket sales (which I highly suspect they sold as many as they want without regards to their catering capacity). Which means that they can easily calculate how much buses they need, and at what interval should they arrive. This is clearly an oversight on their part, or an attempt to get more people to pay an additional $5 for those special shuttles. They can’t even give the excuse that they didn’t know there will be so many people coming in the morning. There is only one Air Display slot per day. People all come to see that.
The 2 and a half hour queue that I endured was still OK, if not the fact that there were NO CROWD CONTROL IN PLACE until at least about 2hours in the queue when I see some uniformed police personnel appear and tried to maintain some order. Cutting of queues, something which Singaporeans were remarkably good at, were at its full display at White Sands today. I even shouted at a rude Indian Family to not cut the queue infront of me, and they did not even turn around. Perhaps they were not English educated, but I highly doubt so. And the man behind me kept getting too close to my girlfriend, that I almost wanted to PUNCH him. He’s a very skilled molester. Below are some snapshots that I took during the queue. They were, however, unable to exhibit the true nightmarish queue condition that me and my girlfriend endured.
People cutting queue
“Hi! You are an hour behind me in the queue!”
Even fire safety was compromised.
More people than bicycles
Boo!
Fresh visitors who have just alighted from the MRT shocked at what they saw.
Even the computer system was screwed up.
The Light at the end of the TUNNEL!
Chey, still got a long way off.
What should we do?
On the green pastures
Finally on the bus at 12.15 after queuing from 9.50. The Airshow Performance starts at 12.30.
All that for this Beautiful bus:
During the queue I even heard some foreigners mention that if this is the kind crowd control standard that Singapore has, how the hell are they going to handle Youth Olympics?
By the time I arrived on the site after an hour long journey due to heavy congestion (inconsiderate Singaporeans had parked their cars along the road to view the Air Display, and the amount of taxis is overwhelming), it was 1.15. The A380 was already making its final rounds around the sky, and the Air Display was about to end.
I started queuing at 9.50. I thought I could reach there early and walk around and see some exhibitions first before the Air Display starts. But by the time I reached there, the Display was already ending. I wonder how many fellow Singaporeans had paid the $20 and was not able to see any flying plane (except those passengers plane taking off from Changi Airport). Most Singaporeans bought the ticket to watch the Air Display. They ended up spending $20 per person to sweat in a 2~3 hours long queue under the sun, stand in a bus for 1hour, and arrive there too late for the Air Display. The organisation should offer some form of compensation for these people. It is very irresponsible to just tell the media, “Eh… today’s problem is because of insufficient bus. We will increase the number of buses tomorrow.”. What about those who went today? Those who gave you their hard earnt cash and endured through the grueling queue and got to see nothing?
If you, my fellow reader, think that even if those people missed the Air Display, they will still get to see some static exhibitions, think again.
Below is a panorama shot I did from the place where I alighted from the bus. Click on it to see a larger picture. (Its slightly disjointed at the center because my angle was slightly off)
Or to zoom in, these.
Look at how far the building is away from me, and how crowded that bridge is. Not only that, I believe you have to queue up at the Registration Gateway before you can even enter and go near the bridge.
It is also interesting to note, that despite trying to increase tourism, we still managed to make ourselves a laughing stock.
WTF is a charted bus?
Despite all the negative comments that I have to say about the Airshow, I remain impressed by the security procedures put in place. I mean, there are even guards guarding the Lan Gao (drain)!
Needless to say, I did not bother to spend another few hours to queue for the static displays (I estimate the queue to be around 3~4 hours long, while the Airshow closes in 3 hour’s time.) I left quickly ahead of the crowd.
So after queuing under the hot sun for 2 and a half hours, I spent around 30mins at the Airshow venue and left. It was lucky that I left early. All hell broke lose after I left. Click here for more information about what happened after I left the venue.
All because of the terrible crowd control, and ridiculously large turn up that is no doubt due to overselling (in my opinion) of tickets in order to milk as much cash out us as possible.
If you are a victim, like me, or worst than me, who had gotten the ticket, endured the nightmarish queue, and ended up not viewing the Air Display or the exhibitions, please speak up. Comment away.
Update:
Below are videos of the final segment of the Air Display that I was able to capture during my short span there. View if you are so inclined.
I also found a very nice video clip of the Black Knight’s Performance on Youtube:
Notice the love symbol it forms at the end? Simply ROCKS!
Too bad, the 2 and a half hour queue didn’t entitle me to see all that.
Update:
Was rather surprised to see the very sketchy outline of the queue I had to endured on Saturday for the Airshow making its round around the internet.
MrBrown even quoted my blog posting an displayed that aerial view of the queue on his blog.
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You are as stupid and as naive as they come. Let me tell you, this is where Chinese nationals are clever. Remember last time there was a budda tooth relic exhibition at expo? One china woman cunningly act blur and cut the queue from position number approx 1000 to within the first 10 persons at the main entrance. If you are not able to milk the situation for what it’s worth and turn it to your advantage, then you cannot blame anyone but yourself. The system is lousy, but you are not street smart enough to take advantage. Many people today actually just went in without tickets because they took advantage of the situation when security did not check the tickets. You are a loser, so don’t complain if you can’t beat those who cut Q.
If I am a Q cutter I will say those non-cutters are losers.
If I am a non Q-cutter I do say that Q cutters are losers.
A matter of perspective.
Are you trying to endorse and encourage cutting queues?
Are you trying to say that its good to be selfish?
Are you trying to establish the simple fact that you are an UGLY SINGAPOREAN?
i reached pasir ris mrt abt 11am, i saw the queue, walked a bit, i straight away turned back into mrt n went to tanah merah. managed to reach there about 1230.
bloody managment, waste my time and money.
Luckily i didn’t go - it’s a real shame
singaporeans seem to be a very deprived lot - one airshow, one IT show, one condo launch and the crowds throng the place as if Jesus Christ has landed on earth. In no other country have i observed such an idiotic situation
Do youself and others a favour - give these shows a miss.
See the irony of this:
From the Singapore Airshow wesbsite :
An airshow’s success depends on more than just a name. It depends on the location, the people who manage it and their experience in running successful airshows. Singapore has played host to Asia’s largest airshow for 26 years. And that experience is going to help us keep doing just that. That is why you can expect to be awed by the Singapore Airshow 2008.
Didn’t they announce proudly .. about improving congestion?
Exhibitors, trade visitors and the public who complain about long queues at the registration counters, delays in security clearance, traffic jams and tired feet can expect some relief in 2008. Technology will speed up registration and security checks and a new six-lane road leading in and out of the site, should help ease traffic jams. A public carpark with around 2,000 lots has been constructed.
I’m one of them. Arrived at Pasir Ris MRT at around 10.45 and based on my experience last 2 years ago (queing every where), when I saw the queue I decided to ‘donate’ my $20 to the organisator and go home instead.
Nice post. The airshow really sucked. I went through this mess but in a car instead.. check out my blog.
There was no surcharge to take a taxi to the site, only out of the site.
Lucky I change my mind and didnt go for the show. I am applaud by fact that tickets was oversold. How can the papers be saying it was a huge success and all the exhibitors would want to come back as the venue was good and easy access.
Anyway propaganda again i guess…
started Q’ing with my friends at around 10.15, watched the A380 in the shuttle bus, reached the site at 1.30pm, went INTO the exhibition area at 2.15… (i think we were Q’ing somewhere behind u)
bloody hell!
hur hur, heng i didn’t go, when i heard the tickets were sold out, i knew it was going to be a huge disaster in terms of crowd. anyway, i was too busy to go. yes, i agree with the foreigners. How can Singapore handle Youth Olympics in 2010 if they can’t even handle such events ? Let’s take this as an important lesson to learn.
the airshow is not for the public…
once the professionals left why would the organisers do something.
Singapore is always very efficient at crowd control (did you see riots?), but it is often very inefficient at moving people around (their strategy is always very simple: one entrance = crowd control, they don’t care that one enrance slows things down and exasperates people)
Inability to react swiftly and be agile in handling issue has been proven costly to Singapore Airshow 2008. The exhibition and aerial display are very good, at least in my opinion. The que kills it, period. It, however, can be much better if the organizer understand the theory of constraint.
1) Multiple que line for bus instead of just one que line. I was seeing shuttle bus waiting for one in-front to be loaded with passenger before its turn to load people –> much faster flow. I advice on spot but they ignored.
2) Designated shuttle bus lane –> prevent jam entering the exhibition. I saw to lane road occupied by taxi, bus, private car. A mess!
Any goodies bag ? A lot of people was there because of free gift.. I think so.
Hi,
Why people never learn their lessons, anything that is free (comparing to having take a taxi or pay $5 at the expo) you need to do your homework before hand. On Fri, I called the organiser and checked where was the pick up point (outside Pasir Ris MRT) and what time was the 1st bus (9am). On Sat, we were there at 9am and already there was a queue in front of us, within 20min we were up the bus in comfort and we enjoyed the trip and left shortly before the show end to catch a bus out. I must say its an enjoyable trip for 3 adults and 6 children!
ps. of course we saw people cutting cue lah, one chinese woman pretend to send in front of me and another Indian woman also tried the same trick but was told off by me that they are at the wrong place, some people just so thick skin!
To also add, anything that is free, you not only have to go early you have to go on the 1st day. Lets be a good citizen, don’t cut queue and there will be more peace and harmony. Cheers!
Good job in sexposing singapore weakness in organsing a world class event.
The organizer should have set a limit to the number of tickets available for sale. By trying to maximize their profit with unlimited supply of tickets for sale when the location can’t handle this amount of crowd, is simply asking for trouble.
@SKP Seriously deeply introspect yourself and reflect on the comment you posted. The words that probably come to mind would probably be “I am an absolutely selfish cockhead” and that does not even scrape the icing. Fair enough you’re entitled to believe that ALL Chinese nationals love to cut queues, however do not try and exert what little inferiority you have by calling an individual a selfish, naive loser.
That being said, my hypocrisy is running loose and I apologise for calling you a cockhead, but I guess you need to understand what it feels like to be on the receiving end of lowly insults.
Back to the point of argument, if all Chinese Nationals are good at cutting queues, imagine all of them trying to cut in front of each other simultaneously, what would happen? Chaos and anarchy would be an understatement. Some decent sense of turn taking and respect is all that is needed and everything could at least be that bit more enjoyable albeit a busy crowd.
But hey, I guess I’m really a loser because I “can’t beat those who cut Q”, so you know what I’ll do? I won’t beat them, I’ll just break their legs so they can squirm and wither in pain in their current queue position PERMANANTLY.