Thanks Mr J K

mmm.. Sv 170 is pretty regular as I noticed while waiting for my connecting bus at Bt Timah this evening 04/03/11. Thanks Mr J K!

Come to think of it, there seems to be possibly a way to get 170X buses to arrive JB or Kranji more uniformly - using stipulated turnaround time over at the CIQ side (Making an SOP).

I've noticed at times it can be some 12 mins that there isn't any 170X bus at Kranji before 3x 170X buses would arrive together while there's a long queue for 170X at Kranji and the Opp Kranji Stn for 160 & 170.

I do hope some changes could be made as in timekeeper/ dispatcher dispatches the bus off from the CIQ after 2 - 3 mins, packed or not packed. It's better because should there be any 160 or 170 bus behind, they would not get stucked.

Just my 2 cent thoughts.

NightRider service overhaul: Part 1B

I'll now cover the CBD - New Town leg.

Basically I'm suggesting splitting up the buses to commence from 3 sectors depending on their ending destination.

Queen St Terminal for the Westbound, Marina Centre Terminal for Northbound & New Bridge Road Terminal for the Eastbound buses.

Express sectors will be indicated in Italics. One notable exception is the Night bus service will not ply extensively in Bt Merah New Town.

Westbound Services
W1: Queen St - Clementi New Town
Via: Queen St > North Bridge Rd > South Bridge Rd > Kreta Ayer Rd > New Bridge Rd > Catonment Rd > Keppel Rd > AYE > Lower Delta Rd > Tiong Bahru Rd> Alexandra Rd > Queensway > C'wealth Ave > Nth Buona Vista Rd > Dover Rd > Clementi Rd > Clementi Ave 5 > Clementi Ave 3 > Clementi Ave 2 > Clementi West St 2 > West Coast Rd > Clementi Ave 2 > C'wealth Ave West > Clementi Rd > Dover Rd >> (Plies back same route from Dover Rd) Queen St Ops: 0030 - 0400. Freq: 25 mins.

W2: Queen St - Pandan Gardens/ Jurong East N3/ West N4/ N5/ Boon Lay Gardens
Via: Queen St > North Bridge Rd > South Bridge Rd > Kreta Ayer Rd > New Bridge Rd > Cantonment Rd > Keppel Rd > AYE > Clementi Rd > Pasir Panjang Rd > West Coast Highway > West Coast Rd > Pandan Gardens > Teban Gardens > Jurong Town Hall Rd > Jurong East Ave 1 > Jurong West Ave 1 > Boon Lay Ave > Boon Lay Dr > Boon Lay Pl > Boon Lay Ave (Loop)

Freq: 20 mins.

W3: Queen St - Taman Jurong/ Jurong West N6/ N8/ N9
Via: Queen St > North Bridge Rd > South Bridge Rd > Neil Rd > Cantonment Rd > Keppel Rd > AYE > Corporation Rd > Yung Ho Rd > Corporation Dr > Kang Ching Rd > Yuan Ching Rd > Boon Lay Way > Jurong West St 64 > Jurong West St 75 > Jurong West St 82 > Jurong West St 81 > Jurong West Ave 5 > Jurong West St 91 > Jurong West St 92 (Loop).
Freq: 20 mins.
*Jurong West N2A, N6, N7 will be linked up by NT3.

W4: Queen St - Bt Batok/ Bt Gombak
Via: Queen St > North Bridge Rd > South Bridge Rd > Neil Rd > Catonment Rd > Keppel Rd > AYE > Clementi Ave 6 > C'wealth Ave West (Nan Hua Pri Sch) > Boon Lay Way > Toh Guan Rd > Jurong East Ave 1 > Jurong Town Hall Rd > Bt Batok Rd > Bt Batok West Ave 3 > Bt Batok West Ave 8 > Bt Batok West Ave 6 > Bt Batok West Ave 2 > Bt Batok West Ave 4 > Bt Batok West Ave 7 > Bt Batok West Ave 5 > Bt Batok West Ave 2 (Loop).
Freq: 20 mins.

To be con't

NightRider service overhaul thoughts - Part I

I've begin to receive quite a lot of complains over the NightRider service. The common complains turns out to be erratic headways and crowded buses.

I'll reserve my thoughts over the scheduling problem cropping the entire SMRT mgmt by taking a look at the routing/ network coverage.

I'll split the suggestion into 2 parts. CBD area for Part I and New Towns for Part II

Part I
Introduction
Singapore has seen more leisure spots in lieu of the commencement of the two integrated resorts in Sentosa & Marina Bay. Furthermore, areas such as HarbourFront houses night spots such as St James Power Station. Henceforth, the demand for the Night buses' network coverage has increased over the years.

However the method used by current operators is just to extend some of the buses and maintaining at the usual 22 mins headways. It turns out passengers downstream often are deprived of a boarding opportunity.

Overhauled network
I'll like to suggest two phases of rationalisation within the CBD area.
1) Intra Town bridging services.
Four (4) bridging bus services would be provided to allow commuters to hop onto a bus and proceed to the nearest bus stops (i.e. along main aterial roads) for the bus services to the New Towns.

Fare structure: Fare will be capped at $3.60 should commuters travel in bet the City Shuttle, Main/ Trunk & New Town feeder within 2.5 hours.

The three services are as follows

• SN1 (Shuttle Nite): RWS - Tomilison Road (Loop): RWS > Telok Blangah Rd/ Opp VivoCity > Keppel Rd/ KTM Station > Bayfront Ave/ MBS > Raffles Ave/ Floating Platform & Esplanade Theatres by the Bay > Stamford Rd/ Capitol & SMU > Orchard Rd corridor (For quicker turnaround, it'll ply Youth Park & Orchard Blvd instead of Orchard Turn) > Bras Basah Rd/ NTUC Income & Raffles Hotel > Temasek Blvd/ Suntec SICC > Temasek Ave/ Opp Millennia Twr > Bayfront Ave/ MBS Hotel Twr > Keppel Rd/ Opp KTM Station > Telok Blangah Rd/ VivoCity > RWS.
• SN2: Queen St - HarbourFront (Loop): Queen St > Victoria St/ Bugis > North Bridge Rd/ City Hall > South Bridge Rd/ Boat Quay & Opp Chinatown > Tg Pagar Rd > Keppel Rd/ Opp KTM Station > Telok Blangah Rd/ VivoCity (Loop).
• SN3: Queen St - MBS (Loop): Queen St > Ophir Rd > Beach Road > Esplanade Dr > Central Blvd > Bayfront Ave/ MBS > Temasek Ave/ Millennia Twr > Temasek Blvd > Rochor Rd > Weld Rd (Express) > Jln Besar > Queen St.
• SN4: New Bridge Road - Mohd Sultan - City Hall (Loop): Outram Rd > Chin Swee Rd > Havlock Rd > Martin Rd > Mohd Sultan Rd > River Valley Rd > Hill St > Middle Rd (Access Rd) > North Bridge Rd > North Boat Quay > River Valley Rd > Mohd Sultan Rd > Martin Rd > Havelock Rd > Chin Swee Rd > Outram Rd

Frequency: 12 - 20 mins per bus. 1st bus: 0000. Last bus: 0300. Fare: $1.80

Boon Lay Int

Sometimes I do not know is the govt blind or just refuse to care.

They want to rebuild the Bedok Bus Int into another senseless integrated transport hub.

Right now the Boon Lay Int can't even cope alrdy.

1) 15 buses queueing to enter Boon Lay Int during evening peak hours. Jamming up the entire surrounding. It's made worst with the narrow driveway that further impedes smoother operations.

2) Car park queue into Jurong Pt along Jurong West St 64. Be it cars or delivery trucks jamming up during lunchtime or evening peak hours.

3) Queue for 179A can stretch out of the aircon area in the morning. So called aircon bus interchange.

Ironically one of our dear minister who was posted to SBS in the 1970s could deliver a mega bus interchange back in 1970s, today can seem to deliver. Jurong Int used to house 90 SBS buses, now Boon Lay can't even handle the growing Jurong. I can only say, MOT or MND or whoever is no longer interested in building facilities that can crash load.

Seems SBS can build bus interchanges (before 1990s) better than any 'scholars' in MND or MOT.

Furthermore they can still decide to fine SBS if bus service standard cannot be met when the mess is created by our govt planners.

The bus drivers can't go for their break. Isn't it a safety breach if our govt is so particular like MINDEF in training incidents? Like in this case, they cannot be bothered.

The govt's coffers only increases (the mall the govt benefits - short term in the $300m sale, long term in property tax collection, hence the $60m bill on the new Boon Lay Int is just nonsense, they still gained $240m from the sale overnight), yet the basics cannot be met.

Now another one to be up at Jurong East. Wonder would there be capacity to introduce feeder bus service for Jurong Lake district in the future.

And some govt 'scholars' still saying we can go w/ 7m people. You get what you bargain for.

Revision

Think I'd better keep track on my revision schedule

Current progress

MP2001: Chpt 1 - 4
MP2303: Chpt 1 - 5
MP2006: Chpt 1 & 2
FE0001: Chpt 1 - 12

Wednesday: MP2001 & MP2303. Thursday: MP0001.

Case study for NTU Internal shuttle: Situation at NUS

Looks like I'll need to furnish details at the bus system at NUS. It might not be able to handle the demand at NUS, but the routing and buses used is something that NTU can consider.

Public bus services in NUS's KRC:
1) SBS Sv 95 (Kent Ridge - NUS - NUH - Nth Buona Vista Rd/ Buona Vista MRT Stn - Holland Rd/ Holland V (Loop)):
*SBS cannot dispatch double decks because of the low clearance at Lower Kent Ridge Rd.

2) SBS Sv 96 (Clementi - C'wealth Ave West - Clementi Rd - NUS (Loop)):
This bus links from Clementi Int to NUS (Kent Ridge Crescent, operates inside KRC ONCE plying on the side of NUS Raffles Hall & Computer Ctr).
*fully single decker fleet lineup.

3) SBS Sv 151 (Hougang - Airport Rd - Macpherson Rd - Jln Toa Payoh/ PIE - Bt Timah/ NUS BTC/ King Albert Park - Clementi Rd - NUS - Kent Ridge):
This bus is the only long haul route in campus. It mainly caters for those intending to transfer to other buses at Clementi Rd, Bt Timah or Toa Payoh mostly. There are some who would travel all the way to Hougang.
The bus serves NP & UniSIM - this explains why double decker buses are dispatched to 151.

4) SBS Sv 151e (Peak hour service): Express service of 151, plying the HDB residential areas of Hougang & Toa Payoh along Jln Toa Payoh to Clementi Rd.

5) Kent Ridge Terminal: SBS Sv 10, 33, 95, 151, 151e (PM peak), 200, SMRT Sv 189.

Fringe areas
At Clementi Rd: SBS Sv 33, 183, SMRT Sv 188. At AYE: SBS Sv 97, 197, 198, SMRT Sv 963. At Pasir Panjang Rd: SBS Sv 10, 30, 30e, 51, 143, 183, 200, SMRT Sv 188.

Internal Shuttle Bus
1) Sv A1/ A2: Both runs in either clockwise or anti clockwise direction, similiar to the Green/ White plates used by SBS for Sv 170, 225, 231, 243 to indicate the plying direction.

Sv A1's route, it plies from PGP Residence --> NUH -> Medical Faculty -> Sciences -> SRC -> Yusof Ishak Hse -> Ctrl Lib -> FASS -> SoC -> Biz -> PGP.

A2's route: PGP -> Biz -> SoC -> Temasek & Eusoff Hall(s) -> Opp FASS --> Computer Ctr -> Opp Yusof Ishak Hse --> OED -> SRC -> Sciences -> Opp Medical Faculty -> NUH --> PGP.

--> denotes bus stops skipped in between.

Notice that A2 does not ply at every bus stops in NUS:
a) SDE: The bus stop is too near to the Kent Ridge Crescent/ Kent Ridge Drive junction where the bus turned from. Furthermore this bus stop is quite busy with SBS Svs 95, 96 & 151. The alternative bus stop is either Opp FASS or Computer Ctr.
This could remind people of what I mentioned about the bus stop at Opp WKWSCI back at NTU.
b) NUS Raffles Hall: The bus would bypass this bus stop en-route making a u-turn to OED before proceeding to Lower Kent Ridge Rd. There's an Sv B that covers this bus stop. I believe it's also to prevent confusion.

For both A1 & A2:
a) South Buona Vista Rd/ Science Park I: Stating the obvious, the bus stop is not in the NUS campus boundary.

This route uses the Scania low floor buses I've mentioned in the previous post to improve turnaround time. I'll illustrate how come the turnaround time is critical to the operator and students in the long run later on.

2) Sv B: Eng -> OED -> Yusof Ishak Hse -> Ctrl Lib -> FASS -> SoC -> Temasek/ Eusoff Hall(s) -> Opp FASS --> Computer Ctr -> Opp Yusof Ishak Hse -> Raffles Hall -> Eng

Notice the bus skips the SDE bus stop. This service B acts as to supplement Sv A2 by allowing students at the Temasek & Eusoff Hall(s) to have better boarding chances.

*This is similiar to the Hall 1/ 2/ 6/ 8 issue that I'm referring to during the morning peak hours.

3) Sv C: Eng -> OED -> SRC -> Sciences -> Medical Faculty -> Loop at NUH roundabout -> Medical Faculty -> Sciences -> SRC -> Raffles Hall -> Eng

This service is a supplementary service for those are travelling from Eng to Medical Fac and for those who are intending to head to Lower Kent Ridge Rd after alighting from SBS Sv 151.

4) Sv D: Biz --> Opp FASS --> Computer Ctr -> Opp Yusof Ishak Hse --> Sciences -> Medical Faculty -> Loop at NUH roundabout -> Medical Faculty -> Sciences --> Yusof Ishak Hse -> Ctrl Lib -> FASS --> Biz

This is a semi express acad service. It proceeds to FASS & Ctrl Lib straight after Biz and bypass SoC, Eusoff & Temasek Hall(s) & SRC along Lower Kent Ridge Rd.

Though I've never seen Sv D before, I believe together with Sv C, it's mostly for students who need to travel between faculties. NUS's campus is much bigger than NTU in terms of the location of the faculties i..e they're not close to each other.

Finally, I'll state why students and operators would benefit with a better turnaround time and efficiency. As again, SBS has been doing very well in this. Guess many of us has taken the efficient bus services for granted.

I do admit China made buses are cheap, they cost 1/2 the price of a low floor bus from Europe. Since the low floor buses are able to clear each and every bus stop faster, they ended up being far superior than the China made buses in terms of long term ops cost. I'll state the following relations:

1) With a faster turnaround time, the buses would need lesser time to complete a trip. This generates into possibly saving one bus for the operator for the same ridership. It does not seem big, but figure the long term cost of being able to save the cost of 1 bus, fuel, wages for the driver for the next 15 years of the bus's lifespan.

That said, the European would end up doing more trips on a per bus basis. Henceforth, the fuel cost per bus would be slightly higher.

2) Frequency: With one bus saved, they could either allow the Sv to be more frequent or just simply keep the savings.

3) Maintenance: I believe the China made buses aren't that 'complete' whereby there's after sales maintenance services compared to the European buses. More specifically, maybe I'll touch on the availability of spare parts.

Buses do need their fitting spare parts to work at the best efficiency should they need a overhaul.

This is my estimation:
Usage of 4 China made buses:
1) Cost $175k each ($700k, works out to be $160 per day over 12 years).
2) Wages: i.e. $1800, ~ $240 per day (Just for simplicity, the drivers are allocated to their own buses).
3) Fuel: Not sure about it, but I can estimate to be around $400 per day/ bus?
Total daily cost: ~$2000 range for 4 buses?

Usage of 3 European low floor bus instead.
1) Cost: $350k each ($1050k, works out to be $240 per day over 12 years).
2) Wages: ~$178 per day.
3) Fuel: As the European buses are more fuel efficient (Auto transmission does minus the advantage, but they still win weights as they're able to climb the slopes at NUS & NTU better than the manual transmission China made buses) ~ $415?
Total daily cost: ~$1600 - $1700 range by using 3 buses?

So 'cheaper' China buses turns out not to be tat 'low cost' after all.

So you could figure how come SBS has been able to keep cost low and still able to carry 2.4m of us daily. :)

Finally.. settled down in uni

time flies. It's coming to the sort of 2/3 mark in sem 1 of Uni alrdy.

Think I'll pen down about the internal shuttle bus service in campus - it's terrible!

I do not wish to be nasty, but I think credit be given that at least 1 more bus is deployed to NTU-A, B & C ever since October. But I guess what I'm going to comment is more of a long term issue/ solution.

Firstly, the current situation/ arrangement by SU & SAO is not sustainable in the long run in terms of ops cost vis a vis efficiency. Think I'll list the entire problem with wat's wrong with the shuttle service in campus.

1) No scheduling: Firstly, unlike our public bus company SBS, the internal shuttles does not really enforce a strict regiment on the bus schedule except for the stipulated breaks.

SBS: Schedules are micromanaged into 1) per trip (whereby buses are planned to arrive at selected bus stops at stipulated timings), 2) time belt (generally the travelling time/ run time needed during peak and off peak hours are different due to traffic and loading conditions), 3) per shift (the drver's mealbreak and the entire bus lineup/ freq for the service).

SBS does practice Holiday, Sat, Sun and other special schedules to suit the different loading scenarios. All these are to optimise resources to improve efficiency.

NTU Internal Shuttle: All I can say, nothing mentioned above is practiced. The only thing about the timetable allocated to the drivers only stupulate what time are they driving and what time do they go off for their break.

There's no proper control of how spaced apart the buses should be. That explains why everyone in NTU would see 3x Sv A or C buses together. In any case, both Svs only has 3 buses deployed.

Ironic part was SBS came from the same situation as like in NTU right now before computerisation helped them to plan individual timetables. That's like before 1980 (reading SBS's annual reports dated from 1980 - 1992 found at NTU's Biz lib).

2) Wrong type of buses used: The new shuttle buses are coaches than city buses. Henceforth the ideal passenger loading is to be w/o any standee.

Why so? It's because the aisle are so narrow! The standees has to shift left and right to be able to allow those seating to be able to alight from this bus.

Imagine the bus has to spend more time at each and every bus stop in campus just for this. How inefficient isn't it?

I find it unbelieveable the wider aisle buses are instead dispatched to NTU-D where it's barred to carry standees.

3) Too many bus stops to call: This applies to Sv C in particular. I can't relate why there's a need for a bus stop Opp WKWSCI to be in operation when there's 1 at Hall 7 & Opp SBS?

I admit hall stayers would want buses at the closest boarding pts, but I guess a compromise needs to be made with efficiency.

4) Morning peak loading: I guess the boarding problem in the morning is worst at the Hall 1/ 2/ 6/ 8 cluster. As it's not possible to add on more buses onto Sv A in lieu of the heavy flow of Sv 179/ 179A inside campus, would it be possible to implement short working trips on Sv C?

The short working trip could be operated as a variation of Sv C: Hall 8 > Opp Canteen 2 > Hall 6 > Opp Hall 1 > Opp Hall 4/ 5 > Opp Inno Ctr > SPMS > Hall 7 > Opp SBS > Opp CEE > NIE Blk 2 > Hall 8 in the morning.

In the afternoon, the bus could be operated between NIE Blk 2 > Hall 8 > Opp Canteen 2 > Hall 6 > Opp Hall 1 only to relieve Sv C's load.

There's no rational into making a full loop because Sv C should be empty at Opp Inno Ctr bus stop and furthermore, the problem would likely be Hall 1/ 2/ 6's residents trying to return back to Hall from Nth Spine as there's Sv B for those at Hall 8 - 16.

5) Low floor buses: As I looked at the new low floor Scania buses plying on NUS's internal shuttle bus, I was wondering should the school's bus tender requirement taking into consideration the benefits of using low floor buses?

I understand such buses are more expensive (A low floor bus purchased by SBS cost some $350k), but bear in mind the long term benefits in the bus stop turnaround time, overall travelling time which sadly does not have any 'real' monetary value.

Filming at Canteen 2 bus stop: I still remembered some fellow students trying to take pics of SBS 179 buses not stopping 'properly' at Canteen 2 bus stop.

I find it disturbing because many does not realise how come the bus stop is in such an manner that makes it difficult for the bus drivers to steer (FYI, the double decks on 179 are w/o power steering, can sympathise w/ the bus driver uncle who need to make the turn?).

That bus stop used to be a bus terminal. Henceforth, the design was meant to allow SBS to park 1x Sv 174 (NTI - Bt Batok - Bt Timah - Orchard - Chinatown) bus at the bus bay at any time.

But as Sv 174 ceased to operate from then NTI in 1991, the bus terminal was closed, but the bus bay was never modified and left as it is till today.

Oh well, I've better stop here and head into sleep