In Beijing here, though the frequency is much better than
singapore for quite a large number of routes, packed bus still
occur, sometimes because people do not want to move in too. Most
buses in beijing have a conductor on board so they will shout and
shout fiercely for people to move in. Although most buses do not
allow boarding from the back door, some people will just
squeeze in from the backdoor. Some of their NON WAB buses have
lesser seats than our scania k230s also. Evading fare is not really
an issue here as some conductors dont care when the bus is crowded
and there are hundreds of ways to cheat fare, ranging from an adult
using a student concession card (paying SGD 4 cents per 12km or
less trip) and not tapping their card when they board for certain
service where the driver is at the front door and the conductor is
at the back door controlling traffic, where the driver think you
will buy the ticket from the conductor and the conductor is unsure
if u have tapped your card (For real crowded cases like 190 960
case)
There was once i was at some rather rural area near a tourist
attraction, there was an accident that occupied the whole road and
when the police finally managed to clear the jam, i saw 2 sv331
(Full bendy fleet) passing by fully packed after 30 minutes of wait
(considered very long already) and when the third 331 came within 2
minutes, the conductor opened the door, although it was really
packed and me n my fren just pushed very hard and squeezed the
others like sponge to get on board (It was really really packed and
my friend was leaning on the door with 1 leg on the ground only and
from the next stop the conductor did not stop already after request
by other commuters until Summer Palace stop when some people
alighted.
Just to add on, an interesting fact about Beijing buses is that
for most of the bendy/artic buses, u have to board from the middle
door and the conductors are there to collect the fare. The front
exit is only for alighting. For rigids, its just like sg, mostly no
conductor and the driver is there to collect the fare.
