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. :)