I wonder, are Ngee Ann and SIM students (together with other pax
at Clementi Rd) really satisfied with buses to Clementi MRT? Or is
the demand to Dover MRT actually higher?
Today, at 5.30pm or so, I was on 154 at Clementi Rd towards
Clementi MRT. There was a 184 bendy in front so the 154 DD that I
was taking did not receive that much loading at Ngee Ann / SIM
(although it did get full upper deck in the end). What's the most
surprising is that, a 74 DD was following my 154, and at almost
every stop, it received a HUGE amount of pax.
Like at Ngee Ann and SIM, 5-10 pax each took 154 while 50-60 pax
took 74... There were people who deliberately waited for 74, and
there were also people who was originally ready to board 154, but
switch to 74 after seeing it. And this is when a 184 bendy had
already called at the stops <1min ago.
In the end (at somewhere after Holland Rd), the 74 DD skipped
one bus stop and overtook 154, even when there were 10+ pax waiting
at the bus stop. Guess it's because the 74 was already packed to
the door.
So the question is, is the demand over there more towards
Clementi MRT or Dover MRT? Maybe many people actually want to go
to/from Dover MRT, but are forced to use Clementi MRT (especially
in AM) because of poor frequency on
74, versus 3 services with good frequency and capacity from
Clementi.
74 by no means has poor frequency, but yes when you have a 52,
154, 184... people are okay to travel one more stop and alight at
Clementi instead... makes a difference of 03 minutes
only.
In PM definitely if sv 74 comes and has space, people will
prefer 74 to Dover than Clementi given that the traffic towards
Clementi in PM can be quite high. But also note 74 buses come
almost empty to Ngee Ann... so it is almost like a SWT starting
from Ngee Ann/SIM.