Since it's one of the golden opportunity to clean up the new bus
mess once and for all, think can start listing out the new
inefficiency problems that has begun surfacing
1) Bus speed: Actually the scheduling system is more or less 'up
there', but it's always played by some drivers driving slow or
fast. I remembered it took 14 mins for Sv 151 to get from Opp CJC
to SAJC during off peak. Apparently it was 151 & 154 road
hogging each other. The 2nd 151 bus was abt 3 mins behind, clearly
lambat.
2) Routing: Some routes became played by the MRT politics like
Sv 7, 23. Then some like Sv 143, by the time the Toa Payoh bus
reaches Jurong East, it's not going to be able to meet with the
work going crowd as it's like 8:30am alrdy?
To me, other than buses to Airport, Boon Lay or corridors w/o
MRT, it shouldn't be too long.
3) Capacity/ Infrastructure: Some bus stops has to be
upgraded. Some has to be overhauled.
Say the Kranji MRT Stn bus stop, can't the Opp Kranji Stn be
upgraded to have proper parking bays for 170X? Of course, 1 issue
is how to manage the lorry long queue during evening peak hrs.
Double decks to incr capacity in face of shortage of
manpower?
4) Traffic: I guess accidents are the main cause of bus
delays... More enforcement by TP as like the past w/ frequent
patrols?
Some points to expand,
2.1 There's some feeder services that generally only have 1 way
loading during any time of the day. These services can should
attempt to link to 2 different mrt stations if not already done so,
to share the load of other services. Such an example is 811 which
started plying khatib mrt not too long ago.
2.2 As per what sbst275 has mentioned, routes should not be so
long. What's the point of displaying the destination on the EDS
when its not going to bring the passenger there in relatively
acceptable time compared to taking a train, say <30% more?
3.1 Bus stops with more than a certain amount of services
plying, should either be extended significantly or staggered as per
how the two stops outside ibis hotel at bencoolen street was. This
is so that when multiple buses enter the bay, no bus should have
the tail sticking out of the bay onto the road.
3.2 As much as possible, feeder services should try to use stops
that are not on the main road, or bus stops that are served by few
trunk services. This is so that feeder services does not delay
movement of trunk services, as feeders have much looser
timetabling.
4 More enforcement would be good, there's a european country
(which i unfortunately forgot) that installs cctv on the front of
the vehicle just to capture any cars that violate the bus lanes.
The footage is then reviewed by staff, and those who intruded into
the bus lane given fines. This could also be done for those
inconsiderate drivers who parks in the bus stop.
