LTA | FOLT x Travel Guardians: Keeping Roads Right & Rules Tight

FOLT x Travel Guardians: Keeping Roads Right & Rules Tight

Posted on | 25 Jul 2025

Hear from the Friends of Land Transport (FOLT) and what they’ve learnt about LTA’s Travel Guardians, the smooth operators that keep Singapore’s roads right and rules tight.

Image of Traffic Marshal standing, blowing a whistle, with LTA orange cones on road

Say hello to FOLT

From students and professionals to retirees and seasoned veterans, Friends of Land Transport (FOLT) members share a common passion: making Singapore’s land transport system even better. But what do they do?

FOLTs are more than just fans of all things transport; they’re active contributors.

As a vibrant community of train buffs, bus aficionados, and land transport transit trendsetters, they turn every journey into an adventure. Their goal is to learn, share, and improve the public transport experience for everyone, including spreading the word to family, friends, and fellow commuters.

Tracks, Talks & Traffic Cones: FOLT’s Special Day with Travel Guardians!

Image of screen that says "Welcome to the first ever Meet Our Travel Guardians Event"

Image of LTA staff engaging with FOLT participants

Image of FOLT participants working on a chalk art activity

Image of child taking a look at LTA's lego set

On 14 June 2025, FOLT members were treated to a special “Meet Our Travel Guardians” Day, filled with plenty of fun activities and educational opportunities with the FOLT community, friends and family.

It was vests on and spirits high as the FOLT stepped into the sturdy boots of our Travel Guardians for a behind-the-scenes adventure like no other!

Image of LTA's Traffic Marshal uniforms hung up for display on a rack

Image of LTA's Vehicle Enforcement Officers engaging with FOLT participants testing out their vehicles

Image of young FOLT participant sitting in the LTA vehicle enforcement car vehicle

Image of young FOLT paricipant tryng on a LTA's traffic marshal vest

At the Meet Our Travel Guardians event, members got a first-hand look at the people who pave and protect the way—literally—for safe and smooth journeys across Singapore.

Some of the Travel Guardians’ teams showed FOLT members what it really takes to keep our land transport system ticking, focusing on our active mobility enforcement, vehicle enforcement and incident management teams.

Meeting LTA’s Travel Guardians

Who are the travel guardians? Meet the unsung heroes of our roads!

These guardians don’t wear capes (hard hats, mostly), but they’re the ones that maintain Singapore’s roads and expressways before your coffee hits the dashboard and keep suspect vehicles from running a-foul of the law.

Whether they’re laying down fresh eco-friendly asphalt or laying down the law, they’re the guardians of the great journeying commute, the defenders of the detour, and the safeguard to your suspension. So next time you cruise down a smooth stretch of road or sail through a safe expressway tunnel, give a mental high-five to the Travel Guardians—who keep our roads smoother and safer.

Hear also from the Friends of Land Transport (FOLT) who got a chance to meet with our Travel Guardians up close and personal!

💬 Voices from the Day, through the eyes of FOLT

Image of FOLT Shan who is one of SGTrains’ young members. He is suited up in the Vehicle Enforcement Officer uniform and seated on an official enforcement patrol motorcycle used for daily operations.

Shan is a FOLT and is one of SGTrains’ young members. He is suited up in the Vehicle Enforcement Officer uniform and seated on an official enforcement patrol motorcycle used for daily operations.

Shan Francisco Aung-Thwin found the defensive and precision riding demonstration very cool, sharing how “When they did the manoeuvring with such precision, it shows the high level of skill needed to have this job and to keep the road safe!”

This was Shan’s first time watching an EMAS tow truck conducting its operations in person. As part of FOLT, Shan explained that he gets to be exposed to different spectres of land transport – from rail, buses to roads – giving him a lot of exposure and allowing him to appreciate how hard these people work.

“Thank you for all your hard work, you guys are like unsung heroes. The public doesn’t seem to appreciate the kind of work you all do, but it really keeps us moving. [The programmes from FOLT] makes me have a new appreciation for those people behind the scenes.”

Image of Jee Su Giam who is an FOLT member posing for camera, smiling

Jee Su Giam is a retired Civil Engineer and is an active member of FOLT.

Jee Su Giam hopes that such events will help to raise awareness about the LTA’s Travel Guardians, “This is the first time that LTA has organised such events to the public, and it helps to create awareness”.

He also remarked that “It is the first time we have heard the stories from them”, and it could be a start of allowing the public to have a better understanding of what the unsung heroes do behind the scenes.

Merril Tang brought his family down to the event, bringing along his wife and his two children. He explained that as cycling is more common in Singapore, active mobility enforcement starts to become an everyday issue.

“It is important to humanise our enforcement officers.”

Merril’s 5-year-old son, Alexander, picked the EMAS tow truck demonstration as his top favourite highlight. As a young and growing public transport enthusiast, he loves observing the different types of trains and even bought a North East Line toy train from Knackstop

Featuring our Interviewer, Matthew!

Featuring our Interviewer, Matthew!

Matthew Ng is part of the SGTrains team, and currently works for Roads.SG as a content producer.

Hello, Matthew! How was this experience and learning more about the Travel Guardians? What was interesting to you, as an avid train spotter, and what did you gather from other Friends in the community?

I found this experience to be very insightful! Seeing the different demonstrations of the LTA Enforcement Officers, Traffic Marshals and the EMAS Vehicle Recovery Service Crew makes me appreciate the unsung heroes on the roads in Singapore. Understanding the work that they do, especially in a hot and humid environment in Singapore, helped me to better understand the harsh conditions they have to go through daily.

Hearing the stories of the other Friends of Land Transport members allowed me to feel their excitement in participating FOLT activities, and I hope that I may be able to help host and organise engagements with the FOLT community, together with LTA in the future!

Road Respect, Reinforced

More than just an insider look, the day was a reminder that every smooth journey is backed by real people with real dedication. For FOLT members, it deepened their appreciation of the unsung heroes who make Singapore’s transport system safe, efficient, and resilient.

So here’s to the Travel Guardians—fixers of roads, fighters of faults, and defenders of the daily commute. And to FOLT, who’ll be spreading the word (and maybe checking tire treads more closely from now on).