By Elaine Yeo

Have you seen the men and women in white gloves? You may have noticed them patrolling the MRT stations in their bright pink shirts.

When there are no trains on the platform, they blend in with the crowd, unnoticed. Once a train arrives, they step up to tell passengers to move to the centre of the train cabin.

Sometimes, they use a gloved hand to guide passengers into the train when a trilling sound indicates that the doors will be closing. SMRT's spokesman told The New Paper that these men and women are its "service ambassadors".

They were introduced in August as a way to manage the crowds during peak hours at selected MRT stations.

During the morning peak hours, these service ambassadors can be found at Jurong East, Yishun, Bukit Batok, Woodlands and Kallang MRT stations.

Ambassadors are sent to City Hall and Raffles Place MRT stations during evening peak hours.

There are more than 50 service ambassadors in all and each station gets three or four. Some are part-timers who work only during peak hours, from 7am to 9am, or from 5pmto 8pm.

Others are full-timers with other duties during off-peak hours, such as serving at the station's passengers service centre.

White gloves, peak hours, crowd management - it all sounds like Tokyo's infamous train-packers, who push passengers into the train, packing them in like sardines in a tin. Those packers ensure that trains are fully filled, with carriages so packed that passengers have to stand squished against one another, their arms pressed to their sides.

But an SMRT spokesman said that unlike Tokyo's train-packers, Singapore's service ambassadors' primary purpose is not to fit as many passengers as they can into the trains but to create a more pleasant ride for passengers - even during the peak hours.

She said: "The role of the service ambassadors is to manage crowds during peak hours for the safety of our commuters, to encourage passengers to board the trains, and for those in the trains to move in and make space for boarding passengers."

Formally trained

SMRT service ambassadors saved hand contact for when passengers were in danger of being hit by closing doors

All service ambassadors undergo formal training before they are deployed to the respective stations, she added. (See report on facing page.)

"Above all, they are told to always be courteous," she said.

The New Paper observed them at work at Raffles Place MRT station and, indeed, unlike Tokyo's pushy train-packers, SMRT's service ambassadors focused more on polite verbal cueswhenhandling the peak-hour crowd. "Please move in, please move in," they said, making sweeping hand motions to the crowd.

Hand contact is used only when passengers have congregated at the MRT doors and are in danger of being hit by the closing doors.

Ms Joanne Tan, 49, who takes a train to Raffles Place station every day for work, felt that service ambassadors were necessary.

She recalled once seeing a girl caught in the train doors because other passengers had gathered near the door instead of moving in.

Ms Tan said: "She was screaming and screaming, the poor thing. Luckily, a few men pulled her out and back onto the platform.

"Singaporeans just don't want to move to the centre of the train cabin on their own because they're afraid they can't get out for their stop."

She felt that more service ambassadors may be needed to manage the crowds
even better.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Nov 20, 2008 .