Planning of bus routes

tanjun SG

Anybody know how bus companies plan their bus routes? Do they do a survey on the consumers first before planning new bus routes or do they anyhow just whack a new route?

Any idea if there is a career position such as route planner in SBST or SMRT?

kengkia SG

i would love to be inside.....planning routes but with such stifling environment eg. PTC rival bus co. etc....i reserve my comments for now... Rolling Eyes

krautfuher SG

yup... i agree. I feel that planning bus routes may not be as easy as it seems. Political issue, rivalry with co, PTC, fares... etc. Having said that, I think our bus companies are doing a good job given all these challenges they are facing Smile

105090 SG

we dont see them doing surveys or asking people what services they want

kengkia SG

that's because public interest may conflict with our profit orienated SMRT/SBST which is owned by tamasick....

tanjun SG

I am thinking that perhaps they can do a public survey with a qn like this.

Suppose there will be a new service that pass by your hse, which destination (I mean one destination) will you most prefer the service to pass by?

We can see the answer from the consumers and plan the routes accordingly although it will be hard.

krautfuher SG

Originally posted by tanjun:
I am thinking that perhaps they can do a public survey with a qn like this.

Suppose there will be a new service that pass by your hse, which destination (I mean one destination) will you [b]most prefer the service to pass by?

We can see the answer from the consumers and plan the routes accordingly although it will be hard. [/b]

Yes, its a good idea.

It would give the operators a good gauge of the demand to different destinations. From the top few destinations, the operators should be able to combine a few destinations along a common route, taking in account the shortest travelling time and fares as well.

Operators could engage some research agency for some big one-time focus group on specific questions such as these. However I doubt they will spare the funds as it impacts on their profitability. We don't want them running to PTC with palms stretched open and asking for more fare increases because of such surveys.

tanjun SG

I hope that they will really do a similar sort of a public survey to so called apprease the public towards the “bad” image of public transport companies.

off_service SG

Too bad this isn't London, where public opinions are seek on the routes, intervals and types of buses to deploy (bendy or DD).

They have the kiosk somewhere at their terminals and HQ (if I'm not wrong) and you can just pop by and give your views.