Monday March 19, 6:17
PM
Real-time bus
arrival info for heartland riders
Two Housing and Development Board towns, Ang Mo Kio and Sembawang,
will join Orchard Road in a trial to provide bus commuters with
real-time arrival data by July.
And the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is meeting potential bidders
today for a briefing on this initiative, slated to run in two
phases, according to tender documents on the Governments online
procurement portal, GeBIZ.
About 30 bus stops have been picked including 17 in the Orchard
area five in Ang Mo Kio and four in Sembawang.
This development comes just 10 days after Transport Minister
Raymond Lim told Parliament the LTA will revive the trial aborted
in 2003 due to technological constraints and costs to boost
standards in public transportation.
The bus stop at Delfi Orchard has been identified for phase 1,
estimated to take three months. The successful bidder has to liaise
with public transport operators such as SMRT and SBS Transit, as
well as setup and test a passenger information display panel.
The info-panel must show the date, time, bus service number, and
the predicted arrival time of the next two buses and any
disruptions, such as heavy traffic or a road accident. It should be
legible from a minimum distance of 12m, not impede accessibility
for the handicapped, and enable commuters to see approaching buses,
according to the tender documents.
Eleven bus services run past the Delfi Orchard stop during the day
nine by SBS and two by SMRT.
Phase 2, which will start after the first stage has been completed
by July, will involve another 29 bus stops in areas such as Bras
Basah Road, Ang Mo Kio Avenues 1, 3 and 8, and Sembawang Road. It
is expected to end by January next year.
The busiest bus stop for the entire trial with 21 bus services
is on Stamford Road after Armenian Street.
The real-time bus arrival information system (BusAIS), should cater
to a maximum of 50 info-panels and include provisions for future
integration to two additional public transport operators, the
tender documents stated. The tender period ends on March 29.
Dr Lam Pin Min, a Member of Parliament for Ang Mo Kio Group
Representation Constituency, who had spoken in Parliament about
better travel information, hopes more information will be
displayed.
They can display information on the time actually required to
reach a destination. To reach Delfi from Ang Mo Kio, for example,
other than knowing I need to wait two minutes for the bus, I also
want to know if Ill reach there in 30 minutes.
So, commuters will be able to make an informed choice on which
mode of transport to take. That would really be a first-class
transport system. -/na