Outsiders cannot eat in NTWU canteens

I had a shock yesterday when I went to the NTWU canteen at Yio Chu Kang bus interchange. I normally go there to eat my breakfast but when I ordered, I asked why the stall helper was putting my food in a takeaway styrofoam container. Now first of all, I hate those styrofoam containers and I never take away if I  have to use such containers. In any case, I was told that the canteen was for the use of bus drivers only. But I told him that I last ate here a couple of months back. He just shrugged and gave me my food…in that styrofoam container. So I had no choice but to eat outside the canteen. And guess what. After I finished my food, there was no place to dispose of the empty container after that as the SMRT has this paranoid mentality of people putting bombs in rubbish bins in its vicinity. So I had to hunt high and low for a trash bin to dispose of the container and finally found one at the bus stop some distance from the station.

So for those contemplating having your breakfast at the canteen, don’t even think about it. It is not worth the hassle. I do not think I will eat there again.

Concrete separation kerb at YCK MRT station

I was at Yio Chu Kang MRT station a couple of weeks back and as I exited the station, I could hear some shouts and loud grinding noises from the vicinity of the passenger pickup point. That is when I saw that some person had driven their car right on top of this concrete kerb separator. Poor bugger could not reverse or go forward and it looked like his car chassis was a gone case. I took this picture a few days back. Someone had put a construction cone on top of it but the damage had been done already. You can see something in the centre of that divider showing that at one time, there must have been a plastic bollard of sorts that had been snapped off. I think that the driver of that car probably had to send his car for extensive repairs. It was a Grab driver. If his was a rental car, I do not even want to think of how much he had to pay and sincerely hope that the insurance covered the damage to his car

NTWU canteens

A couple of days back, before I went to work, I went into the new Yio Chu Kang bus interchange to look for a canteen, hoping that there was one there that I could get some breakfast. I was not disappointed. I managed to have a good breakfast in the NTWU can teen in that new bus interchange that is next to the Yio Chu Kang MRT station. I was curious about this canteen so I went to their website and this is what I found out about it:

The mission of NTWU Canteens is to ensure the provision of quality food and beverages at reasonable prices for its members as well as workers in the public transport industry. The history of NTWU Canteens dates back to 1981 when it started off as NTUC Catering. It was renamed NTWU Canteens in 1987. By then, it was already operating 28 canteens. Today, NTWU Canteens operates 40 canteens at the various bus interchanges and depots island-wide. This figure is expected to hit 45 by the end of 2016. 2014 marked another milestone for NTWU Canteens when it embarked on an exercise to re-brand its canteens. Today, nearly all the canteens have been rebranded and six of the canteens are graded “A” by NEA as a result of the exercise. To complement this exercise, NTWU Canteens also sent some of its canteens supervisors for WSQ courses such as “Interacting with Guests”, “Maintaining Your Display” and “PGEMS – Provide Go Extra Mile Service”. NTWU Canteens is essentially welfare driven and transport workers–centric. Surpluses from its operations are spent on members’ social, sports and welfare as well as other meaningful events.

To be honest, I did not know about NTWU canteens and I for sure did not know that they have existed for so long. There used to be a small canteen at Yio Chu Kang MRT station under the tracks ages ago. I used to stop there for beverages and snacks a long time back. It is great to see that there is now a proper canteen for all.