Singapore MRT Train Door Spotter Telegram Bot Helps You Find The Closest Exits
When taking the MRT, some of us may enter cabins randomly, only to find ourselves having to walk a great distance to exit the platform. Now, you can avoid such a situation by turning to a Telegram bot that tells you where the doors nearest to the exit platforms are.
The bot — called the MRT Train Door Spotter — is a passion project by Jovinder Singh, who created it in hopes that it will make commutes more seamless and efficient for everyone.
Users who’ve tried out the bot have given positive reviews. Riding on this success, Jovinder plans to upgrade the bot to further optimise user experience.
How the MRT Train Door Spotter bot works
For those who’ve never used bots before, you’d need to find it first by searching the username ‘@door_spotter_bot’ on Telegram.
Once you’ve found it, you can get things rolling by typing ‘/start’ in the chat. The bot will respond with a catalogue of MRT train lines.
As an example, we clicked ‘East-West Line’.
The bot then prompted us to select the direction in which we intended to travel along the train line.
Source: @door_spotter_bot on Telegram
Thereafter, it provided destination stations to choose from.
Source: @door_spotter_bot on Telegram
Finally, the bot told us which doors to stand at when boarding the MRT, that are nearest to the exits at our destination station.
In this case, it highlighted the doors nearest to both the escalator as well as the lift.
Source: @door_spotter_bot on Telegram
To restart the interaction with the bot, users can click the ‘/start’ message that they typed at the very beginning.
Jovinder’s inspiration for creating the bot
Speaking to MS News, Jovinder explained that the bot was inspired by his daily commuting experiences. In his view, a seamless experience would mean that one could get direct access to the exit at the destination station.
The bot thus directly addresses the pain point of having to walk a distance to the nearest escalator or lift. Moreover, it helps users avoid — or at least get to the front of — long queues at these platforms.
In his Reddit post introducing the bot’s launch, Jovinder highlighted that a “simple, user-friendly solution could make a big difference”.
He revealed that he took two to three weeks to create the bot, which includes the time taken to debug it and ensure its successful operation.
Positive response from users
Jovinder told MS News that he has received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback from users since he initiated the bot.
Some have suggested that the bot provide information regarding the doors they should stand at when switching MRT lines. Taking this feedback into account, Jovinder plans to rework the bot soon.
Source: Reddit
One user aptly raised a limitation that the bot may run into. As some MRT stations have been retrofitted with platform barriers, this would result in users having to exit one door before or after the actual door nearest to the exit.
In the comments, Jovinder responded that he had experienced this issue too, and believes that the community can collaborate to amend the data for these stations.
Source: Reddit
While this would be logistically effortful, Jovinder shared with MS News that “it is not a dealbreaker as of right now”.
Any feedback shared by users will be especially helpful for Jovinder to improve the overall experience for users.
Also read: Visual Artist Imagines Raffles Place MRT Doors As Malevolent Shrine From ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’
Visual Artist Imagines Raffles Place MRT Doors As Malevolent Shrine From ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’
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Featured image adapted from @door_spotter_bot on Telegram and Google Maps.Â
