Sunday closures see sales of some businesses in MRT stations fall by 50%

SINGAPORE — Sales of some businesses, especially those located within MRT stations, have fallen by almost 50 per cent with the closure of 19 stations over two Sundays this month.

Mr Chen Chon Guan, who oversees three eateries at Redhill MRT station told TODAY that business fell by half on Sunday (Dec 17). This was more than the 20 per cent he had previously expected.

"Sales this weekend is better than last weekend. Last week was so quiet," he said.

"There are less people passing through as the station is closed. We have been preparing less food to sell."

He added: "Business has to open as usual as we still have to pay for the workers. There's no such thing as closing shop just because the MRT station is not operating."

Mr Chen expects the crowd to return as usual on Monday and will be preparing more food. However, he hopes the MRT does not keep undergoing repairs going forward. "If not business will be affected badly. Twice a month is already bad enough."

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced last month that a total of 19 stations along the East-West Line (EWL) and North-South Line (NSL) will be closed the entire day on two Sundays — Dec 10 and Dec 17.

LTA also said that there will be shortened hours in 17 EWL stations (from Tiong Bahru to Tuas Link) and two NSL stations (from Bukit Batok to Bukit Gombak) on Fridays to Sundays from Dec 8 to 31.

The shortened operating hours will allow for engineering work to be carried out, so as to accelerate the resignalling project on the EWL.

Over at Tiong Bahru MRT station, a shop assistant who wished to be known as Ms Nena, 29, also said sales for the convenience store has fallen by half on Sunday.

"Usually every few minutes people would come in to buy something. People don't pass by here now since the MRT is closed. So far it has been very quiet," she said.

She noted that business was actually better during the first weekend of the stations closure, as commuters may not have been aware of the potential travel delay before leaving home.

But shopping centres located close to the MRT stations appeared to be less affected.

Near Jurong East station, a watch shop in Jem Shopping Mall saw a strong crowd, said store assistant Kok Hui Yi, 21.

"Business is as usual. We still see a large crowd on Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday," she said. "Perhaps customers are here because of the size of malls in this area, they could also be shopping in advance for Christmas."

Amid the orderly nature of the station closures, commuters continued to experience delays on Sunday.

Ms Alice Tan, 21, a shopper at Jem, said she took 25 minutes just to travel from Bukit Batok to Jurong East by the shuttle bus which was operating in the absence of train services. This was far longer than her usual 3 minutes as Bukit Batok is one stop away from Jurong East. Ms Tan avoided coming to Jurong East last weekend because of the hassle and only travelled over on Sunday because she had to run some errands.

"It is very tiring as I had to queue for the bus. But I still came to shop here as there are more stuff to get here with the shoppings malls: Jem, JCube and Big Box," she said.