theres a need for image and presentations.. the OCs are and look
new.. better than some chapalang private coaches out there.
actually, i rather SMRT fully dedicate the buses to RWS and not use
it half-and-half.. better to put RWS adverts.. like how budget
terminal buses do..
imo, to a shareholder's view, having these contract may bring in
better profits than regular bus services..
PS, is SMRT paid a fixed sum (ala Turf City) or on a per-passenger
basis? if per passenger.. then risky la...
In that case, SMRTB should give up their public bus operations
completely since public bus service do not fit into their image and
help their shareholders to reap in more profits. They can run all
the private shuttle services or coach services they want,
from shopping mall shuttle sevices to city
sighting services to IR services, and even chatered coach
services. That will up their coporate a lot and reap in even much
more profits for their shareholders.
Let SBST or other bus operators to concentrate on the North and
Northwest areas with better public bus services instead.
1. Regarding T&Cs, approach Sentosa and RWS. They made the
rules. SMRT follows.
2. The shuttle service is awarded through tender. If SMRT gives
good proposal, I don't see why RWS can't choose.
3. Most RWS services runs on weekends, which are the days where
SMRT usually do most charter. With the amount of buses used on
weekends and PH, I don't see how the charter will impact revenue
services so much.
4. Using "rundown buses" for public services. I would think if
given a choice SMRT would not put new buses on schedule charters,
aka IKEA or Poly shuttles.
5. Hippo and SIA Hop-on have public service announcements (aka
"Please move to the rear")? Someone besides vicamour please
enlighten me.
6. If you live in the SMRT areas long enough, you will know ways
to beat the "poor connectivity".
As discussed, SMRTB can choose not to tender for it and use their
resources to improve bus services instead. LTA also didn't even
bother the sub standard services SMRTB has provided despite that it
wants to improve bus services. They already do not have enough
resources already and yet still wants to run private services.
If you are talking about weekends/PHs, so what about the
services that are overcrowded during weekends, like 960, 980, 190
etc??? SMRTB can't even cope with the overcrowding for these
services, so isn't not using the additional resources to relieve
these loads bad enough??? And the frequencies of some services
during weekends are really bad. (I waited for 852 once for almost
35 mins.) So neglecting public bus services is acceptable??? Then
why telling people to take public transport with this kind of sub
standards???
Hippo and SIA buses can fix these announcement systems if they
can be awarded with the contract, even if they do not have
such in-built systems. There is such thing called flexibility.
There is not need to install something first in order to show that
you can service something. Such things can be proposed and
installed later, even accordingly to the requirements of such
private services. And do these services need such annoucements like
"Please move to the rear" instead of the location of the bus
stop???
And if a commuter have to think of ways to beat the poor
connectivity of a place, then that transport operator is a failure
in serving that place, because it cannot provide good connectivity
and commuters have to think of ways by themselves for better
routes. Then why not I just drive???
