Yes, to what I recall, it was SMRT that said about DDs on 960.
Probably they had an oversight of the issue of the trees along Bt
Timah Rd? Or if you see it another way, SMRT might have plans to
introduce a SWT with DDs for 960 between Woodlands and Bt Panjang
or between Woodlands and Stevens Road.
I dont believe LTA will decide to chop down those 2 trees so
easily if they have not acted on it for the past 15-20 years. I
guess those trees are protected. I believe SBST would have wanted
to deploy DDs on Svc 66 long time ago and even on 67 when it was
under SBST but I suppose the trees were the issue. Also to be taken
note is the fact that 67 only got high capacity buses (articulated
buses) after handing over to TIBS (now SMRT).
Till today 66 runs on a full SD fleet and 48 (where some split
shift DDs could do some good) also runs on full SD fleet. So these
2 services are probably still gonna use articulated buses in the
near future and maybe see how it goes after the A24s arrive? 960
has already seen an influx of rigids recently - from having a 100%
articulated fleet in the past - possible sign of a reduction of
capacity?
The two trees logic is strange. As another friend said here,
govt has chopped forests not just trees. so I don't see what the
big issue here is. Maybe just a matter of time.
Coming to 48, it cannot use DDs even then coz of Tanjong Katong
South. Coming to 66, its ok not to have any DDs, since you have
full fleet DD on sv 65 from Little India to Bedok Reservoir and
many other services in parallel. On Bukit Timah stretch, you have
157/174 join in that have parallel route all the way upto PIE at
Jurong/Bukit Batok.
So mainly it is 67/960 that need the DDs asap.
