I'm not here to advocate slaying all
long-distance routes. We must strike the
correct balance to ensure that we optimise our bus and rail
resources. Don't forget, buses while cheaper to acquire in the
short-run, have lower capacity and in the long-run are more
labor-intensive and pollutive. So, we need the MRT for high
capacity corridors. Buses should then augment our MRT network by
covering last-mile sectors and filling in inter-town gaps that
cannot be served by our MRT or that would be inconvenient to use
the MRT. We cannot maintain a bus network parallel and of
equivalent scale to the MRT just for the sake of those few unlucky
days when breakdowns occur. That is a huge waste of
resources.
Services like 25 & 854 are direct high-frequency
services that tightly duplicate each other to form
an almost MRT-like service between Bedok, Eunos, AMK & Yishun.
Expressway services are all fine. I am against long and winding
routes like many of the ones in the East where it
is clear that demand is not constant throughout the route. This is
a legacy in the East because it was where most of the population
lived in the 50s, 60s & 70s. So many routes are long and
winding because there was no MRT, and it was an unscrupolous way
for all these small-time bus companies to maximise profits by
packing as many people onto the bus before it would reach
town. But we
are living in a different era and we still
have many of the remnants of this bus network in the East. So it is
just ridiculous when Marine Parade has all of these connections to
AMK, YCK, TPY, Bishan, Bukit Merah, when there is no or limited
access to nearby estates like Chai Chee, Sims Place, Geylang East
Central, Kembangan, Chai Chee, etc.
That is why LTA is slowly trying to rationalise this by
eliminating duplicating long-distance services in order to free up
space to introduce inter-town routes. With the TEL less than a
decade away, it is high time LTA starts to think about
this.
You mentioned the MRT
rationalisation excercise in the 90s. It was a mistake, period. We
have ended up with routes that are too long. Who is going to take
14 from Bedok Road to Bukit Merah? Who is going to take 51 from
Hougang Central to Queenstown? These are routes that amalgamate
many demand sectors and thus cannot serve each sector properly
bacause we all know that longer routes suffer from reliability
issues. That's why all BSEP routes have been under
22km.
Agreed that the mergers of 14/92 and 51/192 are not the best
amendments to come out of the MRT rationalization of the 1980s and
that no one will take 14/51 from their starting points to their end
points. The rail network certainly offers much faster solutions, as
well as a combination of other trunk buses such as 7 (from Bedok to
Clementi) or 74/52 (from Hougang Central to Jurong East).
Another thing I observe of most long-distance services that
exist today are that they run from 1 residential town in the
North/Central/East, pass through the CBD to
another residential town in the West, which
could be the most significant reason why they are even long
distance in the first place. Therefore, a faster connection between
residential estates that are far apart can definitely be better
served by the MRT or a trunk/Express service that don't pass
through the CBD. 74 is a
classic example, providing a viable connection from Central to West
(Ang Mo Kio to Clementi) using Lornie/Adam Rds to provide faster
links than the MRT, had it not been pulled away from Clementi to
Buona Vista in the 1990s.
On the other hand, 81 (before NEL rationalization) and 171 are
exceptions, detouring around the Northeast (for 81) from the East
and Northwest (for 171) from the North before entering the CBD.
Therefore, the shortening of 81 during NEL rationalization and
suggestions that 171 should be shortened to terminate/loop in the
Northwest are more or less justifiable.
It's good to see that some CBD services in history had indeed
been pulled out of CBD to cut down on their long distances. 1
example is 165, which was pulled out of CBD to use Lornie/Adam Rds
during the 1974 rationalization. However, for existing
long-distance services, splitting them up would probably be a
better solution, but I won't go on further given the many
suggestions over here and until we can think of better solutions to
reorganize these long-haul services.
With regards to Marine Parade not having connections to other
nearby residential estates such as Chai Chee, Sims Place, Geylang
East Central and Kembangan, I will comment on each
individually:
- Chai Chee: 16, 196, 197, with 16 being a
faster option for residential blocks along the sectors of Marine
Parade Rd west of Siglap Rd. Though they do not directly connect to
Chai Chee Estate, the estate itself is only a short walk away from
Bedok Int. Moreover, I think that Marine Parade residents will
prefer going to Bedok Town Centre than Chai Chee Estate, which has
more amenities and facilities that the residents would
require.
- Sims Place: The upcoming 134 will do that so I
will reserve my comments.
- Geylang East Central: 155, though not directly
with only 1 stop along Victoria Sch. Agreed that this connection
could be beefed up, and the upcoming 134 will also do just that so
I will once again reserve my comments.
- Kembangan: I will follow Acx1688's sentiments on
this one that they previously approved for the operation of such a
connection but yet didn't implement it.