To be real, route planning by LTA had already gone downhill
since the late 1990s when they conducted the Woodlands MRT
Rationalization by removing 950/952 which could have served as good
alternatives to the MRT right now for Woodlands residents heading
to the CBD. It's true that at least they reinstated both in the
form of 960, but the detour around Woodlands Rd and Bukit Panjang
would have slowed down the journey for Woodlands residents and the
MRT ended up being the fastest option between Woodlands and CBD.
The removal of TIBS 182 was understandable given that it takes a
long way to CBD (similar to 171 now) and heavily duplicates 181
(aka current 961) as well.
Then came the Bukit Panjang LRT Rationalization on 26 Dec 1999,
where they removed 179, 344 & 345 without considering that some
residential blocks in Bukit Panjang that were served by these
services may be of some distance away from the new LRT stations.
Moreover, 179 would have also served as a good backup service when
the BPLRT experienced many service disruptions during its earlier
years of operation. It took them three months to realize that
whatever they did was too drastic and introduced 920 to replace
part of 344/345's old routes. The withdrawal of 5 and introduction
of 970 is already over discussed here so I'll save it.
Then came the even more horrendous NEL Rationalization in 2003,
which has also been over discussed here as well so I'll leave it at
this.
The Hougang South Int amendments in 2004 were also not really
well planned. 328's extension to Serangoon as 101 is not exactly a
bad thing, but is duplicative of 81, 82, 107/107M and 153. No
comments for 112. 113's detour around Hougang Ave 8/6/10/2 would
have been unnecessary if they had amended 62 to serve Kovan MRT and
its frequency, again over discussed here, no need to say more.
Since you do not like long distance services, extending 51
further up from Hougang South to Central isn't exactly the best
idea and also resulted in lost links between Kovan MRT and Hougang
Ave 3, which people had to complain for a not-so-economical 115 to
be introduced 8 months later. 132's diversion northwards to Hougang
Central also saw lost links between Ang Mo Kio and Kovan (136 takes
slightly longer than 132 to provide that connection due to its
detour via Serangoon Gardens). 151's extension to Hougang Central
is the only one I feel that was fine.
After seeing all these screwed up rationalizations and route
amendments from the past, expecting better services isn't really
something very realistic at this point, but rather something that
you can only wish for.
Nevertheless, the set of services introduced by SBST between 2005
and 2007 (5, 43, 45, 48, 52, 57, 58, 59, 109, 175; 181 is more for
access to JW Ave 3 rather than an enhancement) and some under the
BSEP (860, 50, 4, 20, 904, 972, 49, 371, 121, extension of 103,
extension of 99, 118, 979) are admittedly good initiative. This
round of service introduction/amendments just isn't as good
agreeably.
Now 101 at Serangoon does help to take residents to CCL and
NEX, and you can often see long queues even at Serangoon Int. But I
understand that was not the case in 2004.
By the way, 99 is not under BSEP.