Although 851 has dropped its number of bendys over the years, i
must say the frequency has increased considerably compared to the
past. Its quite sad actually, given that 851 was one of the pioneer
services to get bendys other than 960 back then. Yes it is true
that people have to end up standing on rigids if they are boarding
after AMK central. But even if you add DDs to 851, its not going to
impact the loading as much as 857 or 966. SMRT has been doing
justice to the DDs by deploying them on services like 190, 857,
963, 966, 972 because these are the kind of routes that really
utilize DDs well.
For 190, 963, 972, 857 and 966, they are semi-express services
and so they provide quick links as an alternative to
MRT. But for 851, since it
has no express sectors and most of the sectors are served by MRT as
well, the load is pretty hard to go up. The uniqueness of this
route has dropped over the years due to MRT developments too.
Besides DDs are definitely going to push up the runtime for the 851
route compared to the rigids and bendys, eventually making MRT a
faster option. So IMO, 851 can stay at similar ratio of SDs and HC
buses maybe 3-4 upgrades at most.
But at least with the DDs replacing bendy, some are seen on 851
weekends now..rather than zero. Even 980 starts to get back
bendy..
