CW3: Jurong East Int - Larkin/Kota Raya II Ter

last SG · 2005-08-13T02:37:19+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think anyone can walk into Tuas checkpoint to take a bus from there. I think passengers have to board the bus before it ent...

hannwei SG

Those traveling between Jurong East and Gelang Patah are labeled quite clearly these days compared to several weeks ago.

However, those traveling between Gelang Patah and Kotaraya are not. Some of them have a big sign in front listing the intermediate stops, but leaving out the destination. While several have wrong destinations (saw one traveling from Taman Perling towards Bukit Indah with the sign saying Bandaraya). This makes life difficult for those waiting at the big roundabout at Bukit Indah, where all vehicles travel in the same direction. Besides, the words have to be big and clear enough for passengers to clearly identify the destinations about fifty meters away in both bright and dark conditions, so that there is sufficient time to stop a bus.

105090 SG

haha.. those horror stories really make me laugh! Laughing

still, its quite bad that HI is making out this kind of service.. like autopass and entry permit expire is the worst .. hard on you guys and the regulars who take CW3..

maybe you all can propose a colour system to HI staff?

say for J East bound, black words against a GREEN background, and GP bound, maybe bright RED?? then ppl can see from far distance

PJ_Quek SG

This problem highlighted in blue not only happen on CW3, but most JB buses.

For instance, 331 depart from Tmn U with a signage of "Bandaraya Johor Bahru", ok, it seems that nothing is wrong. Upon the bus reaches JB, made a u-turn at the post office and head back to Tmn U, the driver don't even bother to remove the "Bandaraya Johor Bahru" signage, making those people waiting for JB-bound buses at the hospital, confused and board the wrong direction bus will the "JB" signage, because 331 will passby the hospital from Tmn U to JB and from JB to Tmn U. Pretty confusing for people who are not familiar with JB routes.

Other services as well, drivers don't care about the "JB" signage even if the bus leaves JB town and will not head back to JB again.

purplecrazed SG

Yeah, imagine having your bus driver "under police custody". Hahaha! Laughing
And got the whole bus load of passengers waiting for him... they searched high and low, wondering where has the driver gone to... And the immigration officer said, "He's in detention.."

Anyway, this morning I decided not to take CW3 anymore. I told myself I'll go back to the Causeway. So I was at the opposite bus stop waiting for the bus to town when I saw CW3 passed by and it was TOTALLY EMPTY! Not only that, I also saw some other regular passengers of CW3 in the same town bus with me as well as at Woodlands Checkpoint!

You know what must have scared many of these passengers off? It must have been last Friday's horrifying ticket price, which was more than doubled the usual fare. I mean, c'mon, not many people knew that it was the result of an error in the ticketing computer or that the fare has now been corrected. You give people this kind of heart attack... once bitten, twice shy...

Even if right now it's down to RM4.50 from Tmn Perling, I think some people still find it rather expensive. If the service is good, I guess some wouldn't mind. But right now, we pay so expensive yet when we reach Gelang Patah, we have to swap to a fully-packed bus and sometimes endanger our lives by having to cross the main road when 2 buses meet halfway... And when we have to swap to an already-packed bus, we don't get to sit for the long ride. On top of that, many tend to race out from the immigration counter and pushing each other to be the first to get onto the bus. The scene has become uglier than Causeway.

Right now, travelling via Causeway seem to be better than last time 'coz CW1 has many buses.

It take me almost the same amount of time to reach my workplace whether it's via 2nd Link or causeway... I might as well opt for a cheaper route.

hseochin SG

If it's getting so crowded that many people end up standing often then it's time they start to deploy more buses during the high load times !!

The frequency need not be too frequent due to the lower passenger loading during the off-peak hours but they have to ensure more puntuality to make up for any reduced frequency as it boils down to time planning i.e. not being @ the bus-stop too early or end up waiting too long due to any near-misses !

They should state the fares clearly & print it out & paste it onboard the bus so both drivers & passengers know the fare well.

As for the rest of your stories below, it boils down to the need for improvements in managing the staff & the situation so that you don't get drivers who lose their way around or forgotten their passports or passes etc. !

Perhaps Handal Indah can benefit from the expertise of running bus operations from some ex-TIBS management staff ?!? I should think it timely HI hire some of them over especially in view of 'retrenchments' @ SMRT of many ex-TIBS staff who seem no longer needed here !

purplecrazed SG

I think Handal Indah is s-t-r-u-g-g-l-i-n-g (or barely surviving...) in trying to earn any little profit from its running of CW3. First of all, 2nd Link is not a popular route during off-peak hour but HI is trying its best to maintain an image of consistency so that the public knows there'll always be CW3 buses traveling to and fro JB-S'pore via 2nd Link round the clock the whole day, everyday, whether peak or off-peak, many or few passengers, rain or shine. But in doing so, it is suffering a loss because ferrying less than 10 or even less than 5 passengers whether from GP or JE during off-peak definitely cannot cover the operational cost.

A passenger ever told me that she normally boards the CW3 in the mid-morning which is during off-peak as she has a totally different working hour from us. And there was once she waited 1&1/2 hour at Gelang Patah for the S'pore-bound bus. She was so turned-off that she decided shell no longer board CW3 when going to work, except only when returning from Spore. So it does seem that it is very difficult for HI to meet the needs of the few passengers during off-peak without resulting in losses on its end. It also causes HI to lose more and more passengers as people began to discover that it is not very ideal to take CW3 to SG during off-peak.

So what is the implication if HI decide to only run CW3 during the peak hours or fix a certain service timing, say between 5.30am12nn & 5pm -11pm and weekends round the clock? Will HI suffer greater loss if it pours in more concentrated efforts to meet only the needs of the working class during weekdays?

hannwei SG

Right. In small towns, though the frequency might be a bus every hour, the bus always departs at, say, 1000, 1100, 1200 etc. The passengers can plan their journeys quite accurately with little frustration, which in turn helps maintaining passenger loyalty, and the bus company can reduce the number of loss-making trips during off-peak periods.

purplecrazed SG

Well, talk about small towns, maybe CW3 should not have its starting base from Kotaraya. It's kinda ridiculous to begin from Kotaraya actually 'coz those who are already at JB town will enter S'pore by causeway. Isn't it??

CW3 can make Gelang Patah its main station or HQ and from there provide shuttle buses ferring passengers from nearby residential areas like Tun Aminah, Tmn Perling, Bkt Indah, etc. Wouldn't it be wiser to shorten its route and increase the frequencies?

Or maybe CW3 should aim at the northern region of Johor, e.g. Ulu Tiram, Masai, Skudai, etc. for the 2nd Link route.

105090 SG

CW3 mainly for ppl from Jurong East > GP > BI and

and another link from GP > BI > TUTA > Skudai > Bandar

no one will so gila and take from Jurong East to Bandar!

PhyrePhox SG

Agreed. The residential areas add on to the revenue as it is a very costly route (because of the tolls at the 2nd link). I hope it continues to bring in profits or they will have no choice but to withdraw or cut short the route

purplecrazed SG

Ya lor...! Handal Indah should start learning how to THINK OUT OF THE BOX or exercise some LATERAL THINKING if it wants to salvage CW3 or else it's on the brink of extinction. Already there are rumours (well, my friend heard from one the staff whom she's quite pally with..) that HI is currently not even able to cover CW3's operational cost but 'the boss' (whoever that is...) is still trying to see how he can sustain CW3. I hope 'the boss' brain can BE MORE CREATIVE to tackle whatever problems CW3 is facing. HI shouldn't be too conventional but be more contemporary! As the saying goes, "IF THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S A WAY". If the route can be shorten yet benefitting many more passengers at the same time, then maybe the MYR ticket price from JB side can be slightly reduced too.

Indeed HI should target all the Tamans within Gelang Patah's reach.
Obviously, we all know it's so stupid to have its starting base & terminal at Kotaraya... Confused For Tmn Perling-Bkt Indah route, they can start from Perling Mall. For Tun Aminah, Tmn Sri Orkid, Tmn Tan Sri Yacob, etc. they can think of another nearer landmark somewhere...

purplecrazed SG

...Yeah, no one will so gila but HI quite stupid. This is precisely the long-winded route that CW3 is taking.

hannwei SG

I would suggest a "loop service" similar to SBS 243 in Singapore. That is, one CW3 travels from Gelang Patah, through Bukit Indah, Taman Perling, Perling Mall, Taman Tampoi whatever, Kip Mart, Taman Sri Yakoob, Best Mart, Taman Sutera Utama, Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, Lima Kedai, and back to Gelang Patah. Another travels in the opposite direction. At the same time, get rid of 666, part of whose route is taken over by CW3. This helps link the western and north-western housing estates together, besides linking them to Gelang Patah and hence Jurong East. The inter-housing estate passenger traffic may help increase revenues.

To reduce losses, the off-peak frequency of the Jurong East-Gelang Patah service can be reduced to, perhaps, one departure per hour, but following strict departure times, not intervals that result in unpredictable departure times.

Obviously, I have no idea on the amount of work behind the scene that is needed to achieve these. Anyway, Handal Indah was already given the URL and topic name of this discussion on 2005-10-10. So, it can assess suggestions that interest it.

105090 SG

CW3 goes to bandar is obvious.. it wants people to know of its presence.. of cos, theres no need for another lin from bandar to GP, Bt Indah etc when so many buses are going the same route

hseochin SG

As i've said, it definitely is possible to reduce the frequency during times of low passenger loading so long as puntuality is enhanced. People would ultimately still know of CW3's existence whether it runs say once every 15 minutes or every hour or even every 12 hours !! They have to make sure their buses are there @ the stated times with not more than say +/- 15 minutes accuracy then people know they're reliable & people would then be able to plan their time accordingly & still find it attractive to patronize them in the long run.

Only increase the frequency back later on if demand increases as in the meantime i see absolutely no sense to drive near empty buses around frequenly during low load times just for publicity purposes, which regular media advertisments would be a far more cost effective method instead to keep people informed of their presense !!

[BTW, i find it a far bigger laughing stock seeing those Citybuzz in Singapore running around largely empty with typically 0 to 5 passengers !! for many months already....so you see, merely running near empty buses around with high frequencies like here does not tend to make economic or practical sense.]

I certainly don't think HI would incur greater potential of losses by focusing it's services on mainly the market which presently forms most of its passenger base i.e. regular commutors between JB & SGP during the daily peak hours. In fact i'll even say it makes great sense to do just that ! Afterall, it's wiser to do all the possible to satisfy whatever existing customers you have now 1st than to try to plan too far ahead 'to conquer the moon in 1 shot' by trying to reach out to the other largely yet non-existent type of customers.

hseochin SG

You mean there's presently MANY other operators plying between between JB bandar & Gelang Patah station ??
I don't seem to observe so, which is why i've considered it [somewhat only though] justifiable for CW3 to ply to Kota Raya.
If so, what's these other service numbers ?

Originally posted by 105090:
CW3 goes to bandar is obvious.. [b]it wants people to know of its presence.. of cos, theres no need for another lin from bandar to GP, Bt Indah etc when so many buses are going the same route[/b]

purplecrazed SG

No, I think what 105090 meant is that CW3 travels the JB Bandar route on purpose to "show off" or let the whole world know of its existence. Something like that...

Oh, but I think only TransitLink bus no. 6 travels between Bandar & GP right? Hmm...

purplecrazed SG

WOW! Really? You told them abt our forum?? Well, I hope they keep reading it and consider the many ideas and options we've suggested. Very Happy

purplecrazed SG

Yeah.., you've got a good idea there abt the loop service...that's what I meant by hoping Handal Indah will be more contemporary rather than always doing things the conventional way or sticking to the standard route which is a waste of resources, time and money.

purplecrazed SG

By the way, if Handal Indah ever decides to do anything new to CW3, like revising the route, etc., then they better replace CW3’s poster (laminated & enlarged flyer) which is right now still pasted at JE interchange and Woodlands Checkpoint. And they might as well include the ticket price list for the different stops at JB in the posters.

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