Feeders and Townlinks hotter in SMRT than in SBST

last SG · 2005-10-23T21:15:55+00:00

I missed those LAs on 222 & 291 on their final years in 2000, as well as VO2x serving on 291 especially. Nowadays, VO2x are now commonly seen on JIS.

tanjun SG

Just to ask maybe a lame question.
Why are the demands of feeder and townlink services in bus interchanges controlled by SMRT higher than the interchanges controlled by SBST? I have gone a few times to yishun and woodlands but seldom to Bukit Batok. One thing I have observed is that the buses are dds and there are long queues at the respective berths.

iveco SG

SMRT feeders dominated by double deckers? Do you mean articulated buses?

sbst275 SG

Nothing to do with demand

It is just the frequency

tanjun SG

So far, I know of two feeder services which have dds in SBST. They are 222 and 242. But for SMRT, the services with bendies are 300, 302, 800, 804, 806, 811, 812, 900, 901, 903, 911, 912 and probably 913. Besides, I notice that 806 frequency is actually faster than some feeder services like 315.

I am sorry for using dds instead of bendies when applied to SMRT buses.

iveco SG

What about 285 & 291? Don't they have double deckers as well?

tanjun SG

seen dd depolyed on service 291 before. Not sure for 285.

Apex-LW'21 SG

Bendies were used commonly on these svcs but 911, 912 & 913 have poor frequency. I had waited on one bus stop serving Svc 912 for about 35 minutes!! The reason is that at Woodlands Centre Rd, there is a massive causeway jam, the whole traffic stretch cannot move!

Apex-LW'21 SG

DDs are used on Svc 285 but only on morning and evening peak hrs. (SBS9217J & SBS9611D are the two main DD buses)

tranquilice SG

For example, take a look at Yishun: Trunk services ply Ave 2, Ave 3, Ave 5 and Ave 7, Sembawang Rd. Where does feeders serve? The feeders serve those areas which the trunk services don't ply such as Ring Rd, Ave 4, Ave 6, Ave 11 etc. That's why demand is high as passengers can only take these feeders to these areas.

Areas which SBST feeders serve usually have trunk services plying there or nearby or even duplicate part of the route.

105090 SG

its simple.. those areas which the SMRT feeder/ intratown serve are very high density areas and most of the times, there is only that one feeder bus plying into the road, so need bendies..

unlike SBS, some parts of the town are served very well by feeders and trunk services, such as Toa Payoh, Tampines, Bedok etc etc. in many parts of woodlands and yishun, some roads only has one feeder plying one entire stretch of road, same case for sv365 at BB..

and since ppl says SMRT dont have that much spare buses to play with, that means longer frequency.. in turn means using bendies to cope.. SBS use regular 12m buses but the frequency is very good.

note that for SBS, only mature estates feeders have good frequency, like bedok(222, 225), tampines(291 293), ang mo kio (261, 265, 26 Cool

and yes.. 911 912 913 frequency is very bad, esp 911, evebn when theres on jams

sbst275 SG

By looking at the frequency, they need bendies

Like 911, 912, 913 frequency is like 7-12 mins

While many SBS feeder, by then 2 trips have left Int Laughing

phillipC SG

What conclusions can we draw from here?

SMRT bus services are _________
Better dunt spelt out, if not kena bombarded by people again.

iveco SG

You must not forget that BBT was once SBS-held territory. If it weren't for them winning the NEL tender, they would still be in charge of the north-west sector.

Also, some parts of JUW like St 81 are only served by one feeder. Wonder if 243 deserves DDs.

tanjun SG

Ya. Quite sensitive. Maybe for buses 911, 912 and 913, the frequencies are low or something. However, i was rather amazed by service 806. Initially, I thought its route is very impressive but later I found out from TL guide that its route is rather short because its demand is really high. During the evening peak, while I was waiting for bus service 853, three or about four bus 806 (all bendies) have left the yishun interchange. What U guys said I think is really true about the fact that only feeders serve the places where trunk services don't serve. So, is there a possibility that SMRT will introduce trunk services that ply all the routes that only feeders cover?

28_29_293 SG

svc 222 only 2DD buses.
then if sbs used DD buses for feeder svcs then the freq will be like hell.

sinicker SG

the DDs on 222 and 291 seem to have disappeared. what we all know is that the DDs on 291 are nw on 19.

SMRT, i would say, has a very smart way to planning out their feeder services. take a look at WDL. what they do is they've divided the whole area (Marsiling + WDL + Admiralty) into 6 areas. then, they have 3 Intra-town services gg to these 6 areas. by making the frequency long, they can maximise the use of Bendies and the profit would also increase as they use the same amount of fuel for more paying-passengers.

SBST is a very large bus company. they have a pretty large amount of DDs which ply on mature trunk services. let's face it. SBST doesnt have much DDs to ply on feeders. moreover, if this is done, the DDs would not even be half-loaded. 222 is such a case, everytime i take their DDs, towards chai chee, there wud only be abt 5 ppl on the upper deck. and the DDs seem to have disappeared.

in short, yes, feeders/townlinks are "hotter" in SMRT than in SBST.

tanjun SG

Yesterday, I just saw a dd on service 222 resting on bedok bus interchange. Heheh. Don’t know whether it is permanent.

samtlk SG

Don't forget that 243 has white plate & green plate. The residents there can take either direction unlike 242.

Edgar_Davids SG

228, 240, 269, 322, 333, 334, 335, 410 used to have DDs

samtlk SG

I miss those O305s & LO2Xs Sad