Doesn't work
bcoz people have to walk quite a distance to get from Changi road
to Kembangan MRT.
Valid point but I beg to differ. You have to consider the
current situation which is to use 16 or 40 to Bedok. Counting the
extra travel time (Bedok is further away), the time backtracking,
and the walk from the alighting berths to the MRT station (which is
a tad shorter than the walk from Mjd Kassim to Kembangan MRT albeit
sheltered), Kembangan is still more convenient. Nonetheless, the
walk is very comfortable, about 300m according to google maps, and
got park connector leading up to MRT entrance some more. Even if we
assume that commuters are lazy, at the very least, on the return
journey from Kembangan, the bus would stop right outside the
station along Sims Av East. Perhaps one way of mitigating this
would be to have the bus terminate at Jln Kembangan along with 42.
But this would limit its reach along Kembangan estate stretch of
Changi Rd/Sims Av East where a connection to Marine Parade is
sorely lacking, when there are an assortment of schools and
services patronised by Kembangan residents as well.
Good
suggestion, but I feel that if people cannot trust 135's frequency,
they may still prefer Bedok MRT which has way more services albeit
back-tracking. This may be another 806 vs 103 case (where majority
still take 806 to Yishun Ave 11 although 103 can bring them
directly to/from Yishun MRT).
Very true. 135 can have poor evening frequencies.
Ulitmately, Kembangan just makes more sense geographically for
Siglap. From my own experiences, there is a sizeable group of
commuters who use Taxis or private transport from Kembangan. I
originally thought of tinkering with 42 but its coverage is too
skewed to Opera Estate because of the layout of streets. it has to
make a loop in and out of Fidelio Street and cannot go too far down
Siglap Rd in order provide a viable link to Opera
residents.