Tell MRT commuters which side the doors will open

During my recent stay in Tokyo, I took the Yamanote Line on a few occasions.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear announcements in Japanese, followed by English, informing commuters of the name of the next station and whether the doors will open on the left or right side.

In the MRT in Singapore, the next station is announced — in English only — but there is no announcement on which side the doors will open. Some trains, but not all, have displays that tell which side the doors will open.

I often must look at both sides of the train to decide whether to move left or right, and I hope the operators will update their announcements to include the information on this.

Our MRT system has been operating for almost 30 years. We can learn other ways to improve the ride for commuters from the experience in other cities.