LTA reviewing only unreliable services
4 April 2010
Straits Times
© 2010 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is not splitting up or
phasing out all long-distance bus services.
It is relooking only long bus routes with known reliability issues,
and where there are sensible midpoints to break, so that overall,
more commuters will benefit.
Making this point, an LTA spokesman said yesterday that
there
are also many long bus routes
that do not face reliability problems and are not being considered
for splitting.
He cited those running along the Tampines
Expressway corridor, or where the ridership is well distributed
along a substantial portion of the entire
route.
... ...
Long bus routes are particularly susceptible to traffic delays and
disruptions from boarding and alighting. He cited
the example of a service running from the east to the west through
the city centre.
... ...
'If there are delays due
to traffic congestion and high boarding and alighting activity in
the east, commuters waiting to travel west from the city will find
their bus service frequency adversely affected by these
disruptions, especially during peak hours.'
Orange:
With regards to this statement, the long-haul services to
Woodlands should safely fall into this category (ie 161, 168). A
breakdown of the stats. showed that:
161: No. of fare stages = 32 = 25.6km
168: No. of fare stages = 39 = 31.2km
(where 1 stage = 0.8km)
Both the loading upon entering TPE are above average, especially
in peak hrs where 168 will have massive boarding along Tampines Ave
4. Travelling time for 168 taken down recently from Bedok -
Woodlands is about 1h 5mins, from 10:37pm - 11:40pm, for the
off-peak period. Not very sure about the peak though. Timing is
quite reasonable. So I doubt that these services will be affected
by the planning.
Purple:
lol, confirm they are pinpointing at service 30. I had
experienced a few times travelling back to the east from HBF during
peak hrs. From an iris check dated 25 Feb 2010 @ 7:15pm, the
results showed that the bus is arriving, and subsequently 42 mins.
The sub bus was very late that after 15mins, there was a SP bus
doing downroute from HBF - Bedok.
