Land Transport Review

last SG · 2008-01-08T20:32:21+00:00

I would say it's a good thing that LTA is the one doing the planning now instead of leaving to the hands of bus companies.

ZYX2005 SG

fair means u pay nothing. nothing in life i free. but apparently with the displacement fare system, that may happen.

no i have clarfied, by reading the news u would have seen that they are talking dispalcement based fares, not distance based. read the SMu to sin ming example again

the example clrealy states that if the user goes one big round and not ake direct bus , he pays same fare. so by gg two distances one which is longer, he will be charged a standard dispalcement fare.

ZYX

^tamago^ SG

i dun think is displacement fares. the fare indicated ($1.19 in 2009) is just a guide. fares won't be like that in 2009. and ST is prone to make assumptions like this, even though sometimes it's simply for illustrations purposes.

so, in all respect, it shld be what the LTA mentioned, distance-based fare.

ZYX2005 SG

another media mmisleading the public case?

okie for me i take displacemnt based fare altho the through fare idea i support. displaceemnt fare u see gives me the joys of 0.00 rides as some have mentioned

haha

YX

SBS8043A SG

absurd...transitlink cant take ovr all companies...it shd b used as a medium 2 organise activities n plans from da companies...

i dun agree wif tl livery...vv boring...yawn...i lyke da current situation called competition...i tink itz beta...only ting i dun lyke is da way smrt is managing tibs...tts a shake head session...i'd rather smrt nt interfere wif da buses... Evil or Very Mad

carbikebus SG

09 SMRT Buses will merge with SBS Transit,Another 1 or 2 player will be the renowned private operator conditioned they must adapt to th EZ link systems.I really hope ComfortDelgro bus,Westpoint or Woodlands Tpt join the party with SBST holds the majority routes Very Happy SMRT they can jollywell concentrate on rail Exclamation

ZYX2005 SG

sad to see smrtbuses go like that. suggest restrcutre smrt bbuses co. pop out the trans island bus services. and then sbs will kope this company and everything will be fine and dandy

smrt cna run all trains.

then hor when sbs and trans island merge , the trans island name stay on buses so that in essence trans island become under comfort delgro

\XD

ZYX

Scania SG

No point letting ComfortDelgro bus enter the market, its still an enlarged monopoly of ComfortDelgro Razz .

sbst275 SG

I think they're doing well on Chartered Svs

XiaoTaro SG

i think its more appropriate to refer to the official gov't press release instead of the news paper.

It can be found here: http://app.sprinter.gov.sg/data/pr/20080118996.htm

It is highly unlikely there will be any merger on the bus system as LTA strives towards more competition and efficiency and keeping cost competitive. This is clearly stated in point 51 as it is mentioned regarding limited economy of scales for operators above a fleet size of 500 buses. Merging the current two bus companies will make this worse as it calls for a monopoly instead of competition.

On the other hand, TransitLink is unlikely to provide the distribution of transport services. It is a company owned by both SMRT and SBST on a 50:50 basis, and to provide integrated service information and fare distribution between the 2 companies.

ZYX2005 SG

In terms of market basics, i wun support a merger. monopolies tend to be very single minded to profits and dun care bout the consumers . although controlled by LTA, a one bus company with over 95 percent routes in Singapore will simply outbid the little small bus companies for bus routes and everything will be dictaorship-ish

however having said the above, if LTA has much more power than i think they do, they can churn out a success story with just one bus operator. One has to see the exmaple of Sydney's STA. the first customer contact point is their super cool bus website with all bbus information u need. evven searching Sydney buses tickets will bbring u to hat website for all ur bus travelling needs.

however can the small island support competition? we have seen in the past that competition led to much chaos. As a result mergers were made. this i refer to the 1970s and then again in 1973 when SBS was formed out of the many mergers. if LTA can control the competition and yet no cause duplication in services, maybe we have success.

but again current state is two big bus co. can a new start up challenge these two and apply for suitable routes to induce a competitive environment? i thinking the past history really says competition might not work. Unless u reduce SBS into smaller pieces and make some 6 or 7 operators...and have LTA fully control the companys.

one thing good though, bus company under government have shown many success stories. hope we head for that model. be it competitive or just one company.

ZYX

iveco SG

Then explain why OTC allowed Tibs to be formed in 1982.

Not forgetting SBS(T)'s NEL was a further development of his subway concept.

Scania SG

I won't trust a transport operator's website which asks me to walk over Sydney habour out of no where without any bridge, or one that brings me onto a loop when I want to go somewhere nearby.

ZYX2005 SG

well haha

yes apparently i din relaise the STA journey planner assumes humans can fly.

haha

however, having said that, the idea is there and we should improve on it.

ZYX

ZYX2005 SG

alright the train n taxi parts of the LTA review are out.

for the conveinince of bus forumers the speech is here

http://app-pac.mica.gov.sg/data/vddp/embargo/6260896.htm

we thank darryl for letting me know the URl

ZYX

Zilchster SG

Well, I don't trust LTA planning all the bus routes. Do they actually know what the passengers want or not?

Firstly, what would they do with existing bus routes? Will they be radically be rationalised? Will direct links between places be further axed? Do we have to make more transfers from bus to bus, bus to train etc? Especially with the recent MRT fiasco and the many times train trips have been interrupted? How exactly reliable can the hub and spoke system be? We ain't doing a Singapore Airlines at Changi Airport.

I am happy that the same fares will be charged by distance though. If this doesn't translate into higher fares.

And I think the tender is crap. Bus operators will definitely wanna cherry pick more profitable and viable routes and shun unprofitable ones away. Unless the routes come in a package. The bus operator has to operate a mixture of routes that have high and low passenger loads.

And a third, fourth bus company? I hope that will materialise? But I doubt it will happen. New companies need a substantial fleet of buses to enter the market. Existing companies might need to re-fit their current buses to meet the current standards? Which company will wanna invest in a business that does not bring high business yields? There's no First or Business class in bus services. And you need a fleet of a few hundred of buses and it has to be Euro 4 and WAB. All these needs $$$.

Competition between buses? Unless buses ply the exact same route, otherwise there is no direct competition. Crap.

Actually the best solution is this.

1) Merge all the transport companies under one roof or the second one is preferred...

2) Management shakeup at the SMRT and keep the existing status of both companies status quo but integrate the frequencies a bit here and there...but given the irregular frequency of SMRT ... i don't know it this would work.

Oceane SG

Agree. I feel that having too many bus companies for "competition" is not suitable for Singapore. Look how small Singapore is. They like to compare with HK, which is don't know how many times larger than us. I also feel that they should go under 1 company. Bus for bus, train for train. Under the same company, depots can come together. You get the cue from here.

I also agree with you that with future plans already expanding for both transport operators, what happens to extra buses? It really sucks to say this, but I don't want a duopoly or triopoly etc etc etc... monopoly is the best IMO.

In general, bus routes are axed to avoid duplication of the MRT lines. Coming up we'd see more withdrawal or axing of services. However I feel that that should not do that simply because it acts as a backup in case of any emergency. But then, fuel costs come into place. So I'd say both are not any good solutions either.

I'm also one of the many who disagree with Ms Saw's arrogant attitude for SMRT. Look at the state of SMRT today because of her. Tibs, originally a good-profiled company, became lousy under her. However I'm not totally anti-SMRT, like what some here are "practicing". I believe the fault lies in Ms Saw and not the rest of the company. I've seen cases whereby people pull in anything related to SMRT and starts crapping bullsheet around. That isn't nice, I must say.

Zilchster, if you were Mr. Raymond Lim, what would you do? I'd like to hear. Wink

carbikebus SG

Given a choice i would like to see SBST running all routes with Bus Plus operates a few premium & express sv to suppliment SBST Smile

gorby107 SG

Ms Saw is not experienced in the transport sector.

She came from DFS International

No wonder her hair got style one Laughing

service_238 SG

you just watch the news yesterday

Kua Hong Pak simply had his company name and logo, his name and a quote under his name for the response of the review.

Saw granted a press interview so that she can show how nice her hair looks on tv Laughing

Scania SG

Ever since Ms Saw left DFS for SMRT, SMRT has been worse off in terms of service standards, she does manage to however, maintain a good investor's relationship, by having profits, except for the 3rd quarter profits drop by 5.3% (BT, 26-27/1/0 Cool .

The 90 sec freq during peak of the MRT lines are gone...and on the other extreme, off peak dipped from 5 mins to 8, 9 or even 10 mins).

The friendly, clean, efficient and reliable TIBS is also gone...replaced by the can't be bothered SMRT Buses.

Maybe Ms Saw should be a consultant for Capitaland/Sun Hung Kai Properties in their ion Orchard project.

I do however believe that more MRT lines in the future will not cause bus services to be axed, and a bus-rail competition will exist like what is happening in HK.

HK is big, however, due to the geography there, and the natural parks there, there leaves about less than 700 sq km of space left for development. Towns are generally spreaded out and a duapoly (largely) exist in the bus industry (Transport International vs NWS Development) and competition is mainly bus-bus and bus-rail. Over at the habour, it becomes bus-rail-ferry.

Extra buses can be sold to either overseas operators (like Stagecoach HK selling buses to Stagecoach Wellington) or existing local operators (like, CTB to KMB, NWFB to KMB, NWFB to CTB, worse comes to worst if whole company can't operate bus routes any more, CMB to NWFB).

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