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