I feel that they are reasonable in their replies.
If your point is valid, they accept.
If your point is not valid, they reject.
They are the authorities. They have the data. They know the
exact loading on bus services.
I ever wrote an e-mail to them before, in year 2013.
Back then, there were long queues observed at the boarding
berths for bus services 243G and 243W.
I wrote an e-mail to the LTA to suggest splitting bus route 243
into two.
Two weeks later, they replied.
This was their reply:
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Dear Mr Najib,
RE: Feedback
FEEDBACK NUMBER: 201301302359
We refer to your email of 30 January 2013.
Please allow us to share that in planning for an efficient and
effective bus network, we are guided by the principles to improve
journey quality, better integrated public transport nodes and
services, strengthen the current hub-and-spoke model, and ensure
the overall financial viability of the bus network.
Service 243 is a feeder service which bring residents to nearby
amenities and transport nodes for transfer to other services/
trains to get to the other parts of the island. We have looked into
your request to spilt Service 243 into two services. Our assessment
is that the spilt would adversely affect existing passengers with
lost links to amenities, ie. Gek Poh Shopping Centre, Pioneer Mall,
etc. In additional, residents who now enjoy the direct link will
need to make additional transfers, which will impact them with
longer journey time.
Bus operators, like SBS Transit Ltd (SBST), monitor passenger
demand for their bus services closely and schedule the frequency of
the service according to the demand so that resources can be put to
better use. The current scheduled frequency for Service 243 is 4 to
9 minutes during the morning and evening peak hours.
We note your concerns on the overcrowding of Service 243.
Currently, the Quality of Service (QoS) Standard set by the Public
Transport Council (PTC) on passenger loading requires that the
average loading does not exceed 95% daily during the weekday peak
periods on each bus service. We have checked the 1st two bus stops
which Service 243 calls at after leaving the bus interchange during
the evening peak hours. Our checks at the bus stop outside Blk 669
along Jurong West Street 64 showed that Service 243G operated with
majority of the trips below 80% utilisation when the buses leave
the bus stop. At the bus stop outside Blk 665A along Jurong West
Street 62, all trips had the utilisation rate of less than 75%.
Please provide us with more details such as actual location, date
and time where overcrowding was experienced so as to allow us to
investigate, as well as follow-up with SBST.
Moving forward, we would like to assure you that we will
continue to work with SBST to closely continue and review the
performance of Service 243 and implement improvement measures,
where necessary.
We thank you for writing in.
Yours sincerely
MAHATHIR
EXECUTIVE, BUS SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
BUS & VOCATIONAL LICENSING DIVISION
VEHICLE & TRANSIT LICENSING GROUP
------
Names faked to protect identity.
I appreciate their effort to check the data, and write a tactful
reply. I am convinced with the figures they provided, that it was
just me thinking that the service is bad. It was probably due to
the long queues and waiting times that made me think that the
service is bad, where actually it is good. As commuters, we should
accept what we have and enjoy the ride.
I stopped writing to them to feedback on bus services ever since
I received that reply, as they had given me the assurance that I
can count on them to deliver a good quality public bus service.
Honestly, our public bus service is good. As compared to the
other states like Johor Bahru, Penang and Sarawak, ours is the
best.