This article appears in today The Straits Times editorial
regarding about Bus services.
The ticket is with frequent buses
On successive days it is learnt that bus operators will be held to
higher service standards, and then that public transport operators
have applied for new fare increases. Higher fares are, of course,
never popular. Nevertheless, the public might not complain so much
if SBS Transit and SMRT Corp were to significantly improve their
service beyond even the new standards set by Public Transport
Council, or PTC. For while the transport operators may predicate
their fare-hike request on higher operating costs, the man in
street judges increases in his ticket price against improvements in
the quality of service. So if transport operators want more
revenue, they must match public expectations.
Among other things, the PTC now wants buses to be spaced at an
interval of no more than 10 minutes during peak hours, and for 80
per cent of buses to meet this standard in two years. Under the
current benchmark, the interval is 15 minutes. Now, if five minutes
doesn't seem that much either way, bear in mind that the real world
isn't perfect. The unpredictability principle that operates in bus
scheduling is, in a word, traffic. Buses operating on a 15
minute-frequency schedule can end up late five minutes or more -
and a 20 minute wait at a bus shelter can seem an eternity.
Equally, late buses at peak times means more crowding. If transport
companies can manage to meet the new service standards quickly, and
ahead of PTC's timeframe, there will be fewer complaints at the bus
shelter about higher fares. (The application for increases is
expected to be decided by the end of the month and if approved the
PTC will decide by how much.) Yet, peak-hour improvements should
not be the only frequency standard by which to judge bus operators.
A substantial number of the public ride during off peak times -
shift and flexi-hour workers, stay-at-home mumms, the retired, and
others. They too deserved improved frequencies for their money.
(This applies as much to MRT service.)
What people care about most is getting to their destinations
quickly and in a relative degree of comfort. (Not the videos on
buses that one can hardly ever follow or hear, by the way.) If
transport providers put even more effort in improving arrival
frequencies, the public will look on each fare-in-increase
application with far less scepticism.
