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Going the extra mile: Bus captain shelters passengers with brolly on a rainy day

This article is more than 12 months old

An SMRT bus captain has impressed netizens after he was filmed sheltering passengers boarding and alighting a bus with an umbrella on a rainy day last week. 

A Mothership reader who witnessed the scene at the Far East Plaza bus stop on Feb 6 took a video of the incident and wrote in to commend the bus captain, who was driving bus service 972. 

Speaking to Shin Min Daily News a few days later, 59-year-old bus captain Segar A. Subramaniam said going the extra mile was “all in a day's work”.

"As bus drivers, we always try our best to make the journey as enjoyable as possible for passengers," he added.

The former deliveryman, who joined SMRT as a bus captain about five years ago, said he has made it a point to shelter his passengers with an umbrella whenever it rains heavily.

Mr Segar explained that due to the structure of some bus stops along the 972 bus route, buses are not able to stop close to the shelter. "Once it rains, passengers will get wet," he noted.

He said his habit of sheltering passengers probably started after an incident he witnessed as a passenger before he joined SMRT.

He recalled how a male passenger almost slipped and fell when boarding the bus on a rainy day. The man wasn't carrying an umbrella and the bus captain didn't have one either.

Before he joined SMRT, Mr Segar worked as a wedding and commercial photographer for 35 years. He responded to SMRT's recruitment advertisement after quitting his job as a delivery man.

He said his current job gives him a sense of fulfilment. "I'll most likely remain in this job until I retire," he said.

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