i would personally prefer to be realistic.
after all, smrt is a profit-driven company, it's major business is
still in the rail segment. it's quite unjustifiable for its buses
to take business away from its rail lines, even if it means greater
convenience to passengers.
so, if there is really a Route 1 [s'wang - bt panjang], it's either
an extension of 963 or 171 to s'wang.
since 963 is already plying along marsiling and w'lands mrt, its
extended route is going to go in circles away from admiralty mrt,
rather than continue along the mrt line to s'wang. smrt is not
going to have its buses steal business from its trains directly
from marsiling to s'wang, right?
as for Route 3, it's also got to be an extension of 852 or 853 to
s'wang. as before, it'll try to deviate its route away from e mrt
line to pick up passengers not served by its mrt.
i do not believe smrt will be so kind as to start totally new
services to bt panjang and AMK.
i guess, the best way to have real benefit to 'sembawangians' is to
urge sbstransit buses infiltrate into s'wang, just like 39 into
yishun n 161/168 to w'lands.
long long time ago in e last century, to go to pasir ris: e most
direct way was to take mrt all e way, rite?
to go to hougang/s'kang: 854 or mrt, to AMK n change to
25/74/132/165.
it's after these sbstransit infiltrations [168, 161] that smrt, or
rather, tibs, introduced 969 n 965 to connect to e east.
tt's y, it's good to have sbstransit compete w smrt now, although
each still has their own 'untouchable' territories.
