this service is damn jialat.
i waited about 30 mins yesterday evening. its peak
hours.
i saw 3-4 service 291-to-st81 before one 291-to-st32
arrived.
to make things worst, most, if not all the 291-to-st81 buses
were empty while the 291-to-st32 queue was super long.
what is wrong with sbs's schedules?
they should take a good hard look at things!!!
and this is not the first time.
Let me explain this.......
Basicly, 291 buses go in the following way:
Park - West - East - West - East (T) - Park.
(Average 2hr Per 'trip', 30min per loop)
The reason why the waiting time at East Loop is horrible is that
the buses going to East Loop all depends on the buses at the West
Loop. So, when the buses kena a lot of people from the West Loop,
they will be late and thus bunch up with another bus; Hence the bus
bunch.
As this bus parade of late buses go to East Loop, they will kena
alot of people from the East Loop as the front buses are late. So
in the East Loop, they will bunch together. As some of the buses
are in their 1 round, they would not have the 'T' sign and thus go
over to the West Loop.
With the East Loop - West Loop (Crossover) buses already late,
they will tend to clash with buses coming out of parking. Hence,
continuing the cycle.
Possible Soloutions:
- Deploy DDs.
However, they do take up more time as they need more time to unload
people from upper deck. This is the main reason given by 291 BCs
(Back in 2006 when there was DDs on 291) why they dont want DDs on
291.
If there were DDs, 1 loop could need 35 - 45 mins. And this will
extend running time for BCs which is somehow equal to Svc 30
BCs.
- More buses
When there are more buses, they will bunch more and this adds fuel
to fire.
- Shortworking Trips
To me, this is the best solution. How this works is that there
would be around 3 'spare' buses parking at Tampines Int. When the Q
from either loop gets too long, these buses would be deployed.
However, they will have the 'T' sign. Hence going back to 'spare
mode' after completing a loop.
- Splitting services
SBST can just spilt TownLink 291 into two. Mainly feeder 291 and
294. This would ensure no bunching and accurate intervals at the
interchange but cause alot of trouble for people from a loop going
to the other loop.