The solution is simple. Given all the Northwest services back to
SBS and/or to another operator. Kick SMRTB out of the market. If
the public transport system is that efficient in the area, then why
would people still want to drive despite ERP and high parking
charges? I believe congestion is not just the car problem but the
relentless population boom here which makes transportation to
another place more difficult because everyone wants to go
everywhere in Singapore but yet because of this, the movement
becomes clogged and slower because of the huge numbers of people
trying to move one place to another at the same time, within the
limited limits. If population is lower and better capacity
infrastructures are being built, would Singaporeans be deprived of
their own basic needs which have to be brainwashed by the
government as kind of luxury? Who likes to crowd in a train
everyday for their rest of their 50 years of working life after
working 9 to 6 everyday? Like wise for HDB flats. If they can't
keep up with the demand, then stop increasing the population and
making profits out of HDB flats due to the situation of demand
supress supply, and depriving the basic costs and purpose of a HDB
flat. Lastly, running along expressways doesn't mean an excuse to
provide poor services. Problem lies with the poor management of the
bus operations. If it is said that jammed expressways always hinder
bus operations, then why services like 36, 161, 168, 502, 518 and
even 190, 857 still have better frequncies?
Also, it may be a simple solution, but as someone previously
mentioned in this forum, its not easy to simply kickout or replace
smrtb with a new company in a short period of time. Time is needed
to train mechanics, and support staff. Time is also needed to setup
depots. Inheriting the old company directly may also bring over the
old practices, so this option should be considered carefully.
Yes, i totally agree that if the public
transport in that area is so effective, no one will want to drive,
but this is in theory. In reality and as you've probably learnt in
econs, people (demand) takes time to change, if u already owned a
car, would you leave the car lying in the carpark just because the
public transport is so efficient? (supply shot up, demand needs
time to catch up) If you have driven to work and enjoyed the
convienience, its not easy to adapt and change back to public
transport as it appears in theory. In fact, if u drive to work
everyday and everywhere you go, you might even forget the mrt
system map. Its not even hard to find examples of this, try asking
relatives or friends who drives everywhere they go.
And lastly, regarding 966. It's true that with a terminating
point (instead of a loop) there will be some improvements to the
stability of the frequency. But remember that terminating points
only acts as a buffer. Once this buffer is breached, its still
possible to end up with haywire frequency. And, its not very fair
to compare 36,161,168,502,518,857 to 966. They dont even run on the
same expressway. As for 190, 190 only uses 10km of expressway, 966
uses nearly 24km to marine parade (of which nearly 17km of pie is
prone to jam) and 190's freq is better. A service that might be
used for comparison is 506 which uses 20km of pie.
But, its not a looping service, so unless you are
boarding from bedok reservoir onwards to UEC, you wont get
affected. (of course this is subjected to the buffer time at
terminal not being breached)
Just typing out my thoughts, cheers 
