Bus service rationalisation

It's quite shocking for the recent announcement that LTA is looking into splitting up long haul bus routes simply because the whole route is below the 20km mark.

For one thing, I believe 35 - 40% of SBS's & 40% - 50% of SMRT's trunk services instead of the claimed 10% are beyond the 20km mark. Simply because they ply on long roads such as Thomson Rd/ Upp Thomson Rd, PIE, BKE, ECP, Pasir Panjang Rd, Bt Timah Rd/ Upp Bt Timah Rd corridors.

Furthermore some fast bus journey could easily clock the mileage too. I'll cite 2 examples: Onboard SBS Sv 30 & SBS Sv 168.

Sv 30: From Joo Chiat Cplx to HarbourFront. Traveling distance is roughly 12.5km and it takes 28 - 35 mins to complete. If it's via the EWL & NEL (MRT), it would take 30 mins (Incl 5 mins walking time at Outram Park and giving the in between waiting time at 3 mins). Clearly the MRT is nowhere faster than this semi express service that plies ECP.

Sv 168: From Woodlands Int to Tampines Ave 10/ IKEA. Travelling distance is roughly 22km and it takes 40 mins to complete. No prizes given to guess the time to take the MRT to Tampines and transfer to Sv 27 or 168 at Tampines MRT station.

Another flaw in this issue is the minister did not mention could our resources cope. The new integrated public transport hubs that LTA has built so far is barely enough for the current bus services, needless to say the ability to add more bus services should bus services be split up. Another issue is, is she now saying the people in wheelchair (PIWs) are also required to make multiple transfer to get to their destination?

The upcoming Serangoon Bus Int that would be completed in Q1 2011 would only have 15 bus parking bay. Clearly it's not even enough.

So the question come, where are the buses going to be able to terminate and let the bus driver has his or her decent break which is not occurring especially at the new Boon Lay Interchange? So are we going to rebuild roadside bus terminals which we have cleared for bus interchanges in the 1980s and 1990s to resolve this problem?

Such problems lingering are bigger than the benefits through through fare system.

It seems we're taking 3 steps forward, the govt is taking 4 steps backward. Hopefully more consideration is taken before it's executed.