OK here's the thing. LTA wants SMRT to stop buying bendies, for
whatever reason LTA states. Meanwhile, almost all SMRT depots and a
few interchanges are not DD friendly. If LTA does not want SMRT to
buy bendies, the only way SMRT can replace bendies next time is 1)
buy alot of rigids or 2) buy DDs.
Buying alot of rigids does not make alot of sense because they
take up more parking space. Just imagine, would you buy
x number of DDs and take up Ax area in a depot,
or buy 2x number of rigids that take up A2x area
in a depot? (A stands for the area that a 12m bus takes up) [Assume
that a DD is twice the size that of a rigid since both are on
average, 12m long buses.]
Thus, the best way to replace bendies that retire in the near
future is to have DD as the replacement. I do believe LTA wants
SMRT to buy DDs because a bendy takes up much more space
than a DD (18m VS 12m).
Now I will throw in a few questions, and you guys ponder about
it.
1) Is it fair to have SMRT change their infrastructure for
storing double-deckers to be DD-friendly solely?
Do you think LTA should sponser SMRT funds to convert their storage
facilities into DD-friendly places? Bearing in mind the fact that
LTA approved SMRT to use bendies many years ago.
2) If you are in charge of LTA, would you want to help SMRT with
the conversion, or simply lift the bendy-ban so that SMRT can
replace older bendies with newer bendies? Which one do you think is
more beneficial?
Think about it.
Actually, in my opinion, bus companies in sg shld have
rigids, artics, and deckers for the different purposes.
Rigids should comprise of the larger majority of the fleet,
operating trunk services and not-so-heavy-load feeders like what is
being done now. However, rigids becomes a problem when population
grows, which means more rigids are needed to carry more people, and
worst of all, not many sg are willing to work as a bus driver.
Deckers are good for moving lots of ppl at once, but its less
convient for feeder services as most would not move up to the 2nd
level. In fact, i believe services in smrt such as 969, 858, 966,
etc should use deckers. These services brings passengers almost
directly to the destination. Giving them a seat will definately
make them feel more comfortable whilst on the expressway compared
to a bendy.
Now for the artics, the main purpose will be for feeders, and
services with lots of boarding and alighting along most of its
route. Passengers can board faster, alight faster, thus causing
lesser delays. A dd will have to allow all the alighting passenger
alight before passengers boarding can make their way futher into
the lower saloon and upper saloon. (not really always, but when
theres alot of passengers alighting, thats usually the case, e.g
svc 30 at hbf).
Well, then again, theres also a possibility that lta wants to
remove/modify the feeder system to adapt for the distance based
fare system. In that case, thats another story. 
