my feel that bus
authority will not introduce such a route as people prefer
connection to boon lay more to pioneer. wen u calculate distance
note that boon lay is one station before as well. for pioneer north
resident u can use 179 and for ave 4 u can use 192 &193. for
ave 5 you can use 185. so real no need. for st 71 u have 242. bad
route as per me. i hope can give honest feedback here. thank
u.
Thanks for your opinion.
When I analysed the distance savings from this route, I realise
most of the savings are from Jurong West Street 71/Avenue 5 area;
242's coverage. The savings are around one kilometre, which are
quite significant.
If a route can enable one to travel shorter distance, thus save
on transport costs, it will yield loadings. If a route can enable one to travel faster,
even if longer distance, it will also yield
loadings.
Not sure if you know, it is quite hard to take the feeder buses
242, 243G and 243W during evening peak period at the interchange.
It is nearly impossible to board 181 and 243G along Jurong West
Street 64 during evening peak period.
During morning peak period, by the time 179, 241 and 241A arrive
at blk 705, they are usually already full. While most of 241 and
241A's loadings originate from Jurong West Neighbourhood 9, most of
179's loading concentrate at blk 840.
Not sure if you are aware, the number of people at blk 840
waiting for 179 during weekday morning peak period is comparable to
the number of people waiting for 243G/243W/242 at the interchange
during evening peak period.
I do not
understand why more buses are added to 179A instead of 179. 179A
does not serve Pioneer Road North. During the 0630-0730 period,
most commuters taking 179 are residents commuting on it to the MRT
(Mass Rapid Transit) stations and bus interchange.
It would be good if more of 179's resources can be deployed for
residents during the 0630-0730 period. On other periods, more of
179's resources can be deployed for NTU (Nanyang Technological
University) students. After all, NTU's peak period is not
0630-0730.
Rather than short trips, the authorities can simply add buses
into 179 halfway in the route, like what it is done on 243, during
the 0630-0730 period.
If resources can be utilised
like this, we can have a even smaller fleet size on 179, with only
more buses during the 0630-0730 resident's peak period and during
the NTU students' peak period (in addition to 179A) - which in
total is only around 2 to 3 hours of the approximately 18 hours 179
is operated in a day.
Meanwhile, this new route provides a new bus connection, to Soon
Lee Street: where engineering tools and equipments are sold (no
need to go all the way to SLT/SLS at Bugis) and cheap daily
necessities are sold.
There are new HDB (Housing and Development Board) flats coming
up along Jurong West Avenue 4/5. Opposite Pioneer Mall, there will
be one new flat specially designed for the elderly. Along Pioneer
Road North, there will be a few new rental flats. All will be ready
by around 2017/2018. If BSEP is primarily meant for new residential
developments, I believe these new HDB flats along Jurong West
Avenue 4/5 should make Jurong West Street 61/71/81 eligible for new
BSEP (Bus Service Enhancement Programme) routes.
In addition, there will be a new Polyclinic and a new Hawker
centre built at Jurong West Street 61, which would increase the
demand for bus connection to Jurong West Street 61. When the new
nursing home at Jurong West Street 93 is completed later this year,
the demand for bus connection to Jurong West Street 91 will
increase.
By 2030/2040, the 2West developments will be completed, and this
will result in a further increase in demand for public transport in
Pioneer (Jurong West) and Boon Lay (Jurong West).
As various areas in Pioneer (Jurong West) experience increase in
traffic over time, there will come a time when the existing bus
network is not able to cope with the demand. There is a limit in
the number of additional buses that can be added to bus route 243G,
243W, 242 and 241. New bus routes will be required here some
day.