I think the ridership for BPLRT seems to fare
better than the Sengkang and Punggol LRT, probably
because it serves 2 neighbourhoods – CCK & Bt
Panjang. The LRT system should not act just as a
replacement for feeder bus routes in the neighbourhoods only, which
I think will fail. The LRT system should also link up
2 or more neighbourhoods and built in crowded areas where feeder
bus routes are usually packed.
For Jurong Region LRT to succeed, it should link up
Jurong East, Jurong West, Boon Lay and NTU/NIE (and
even IMM!). I think these areas should be considered
as heavily built-up areas too. Or else, is heavily-built areas
regarded as for example plenty of 40-storey HDB flats
built closely together?
I think the Sengkang & Punggol LRT should
interlink, ie LRT passengers should be able to travel
direct between Sengkang & Punggol to provide more direct
travel, without having to transfer to NEL.
1: Which part of Bukit Panjang could you see the woods / empty
fields? On large part of Sengkang West and Punggol West has. Empty
fields in BPJ I could think of is one near the BKE part and beyond
10 Mile Junction (OT).
2: Whats the age of the town you are comparing in SKG / PGL and
BPJ. Bukit Panjang was developed as a town since 1990s but SKG /
PGL was in the 2000s and it was planned to connect Jurong East to
Bukit Panjang as the "Branch Line" (Now NSL) due to the residents
there is higher than one in CCK [Probably is the turning curve
technical reason, it cannot be implemented and was replaced by LRT
instead and now DTL Stage 2]. I can still remember that the news
used ask the public to stay areas including Punggol whenever there
is a military exercise. Now no more le.
3: I agree that the link between Sengkang / Punggol is like "eat
XXit". But one has to consider a few points:
A: I heard that the 41 Crystal Movers was bought with a reason.
Why not 42 or 50 or 40? The answer lies at Sengkang LRT meant to
use 18 of them [Hence the inital Sengkang East Loop's operation, I
only see Set 01 to Set 18 in service and totally unaware of up to
41 of them until lateral days where West Loop was about into
service] while Punggol LRT meant to use the remaining 23. (Punggol
East Loop has 7 while Sengkang East has 5 stations only excluding
Town Centre.)
BTW, there is a Punggol North Spur Line and I belived not only
it was just drawn on plans map / early (2002 to about 2004?) street
directory maps for fun, but they just shelved instead of killing
the plans which contributes about 3 of the cars (The spur line is 4
stations long only, unless they extend it into Coney Island to make
it 5).
Well, I mean, the 41 cars are meant to serve each loop / spur
line to be sufficient for 2 mins per train despite for now, is like
6 mins per train as the demand is not there. Although I dont like
this cheapo link design that takes passenger's chance of viewing
the beautiful scene in TPE, but how much more trains does LTA has
to buy if they allowed direct link [Even if not in terms of 2 mins
per train, this spur service will have to be Punggol LRT Middle
track that was covered by something that can be easily removed,
cross into the main line --- opps, currently no such crossover and
Punggol Modification Project is required, screwed the .... LTA
planners and I dont think I talk big but I feel that I can do such
job at a very satisfactionary level!!!! and cross into the
inter-town link towards Cheng Lim all the way to slidings in
Tongkang - Renjong which is quite long as well.], excluding the
consideration on diverting on NEL's ridership and affecting NEL's
purpose. (Like this is like WTF, making the pax to pay more when
travelling from Sengkang LRT to Punggol LRT due to a forced use of
NEL. Maybe now DBTF so no longer valid, but I remembered LRT's
fares used to be calculating the number of stations.)
After looking in the situation in the North East which is some
place that I am more familiar with, lets return to Jurong.
To call a LRT line as Jurong Region Line [Not cooked up by some
enthus / me etc but it was from official sources that the term used
to appeared in LTA website], it is definitely will be and has to be
include Jurong East, West while Boon Lay / NTU - NIE is more or
less part of Jurong West and even if technically they are not
Jurong, they are definitely tactical and strategical location to be
included in this line and you have forgotten Teban / Taman Jurong
which has no rail link at all as well. Regarding IMM, it is part of
Jurong East (You meant a station there? Good idea) and further up
in Toh Tuck areas is something extra but the line becomes too messy
le. (They ended up drafting a backward C shape like line instead of
loop line like existing ones.)
Regarding the exact definition of heavily built up, I think this
is another politics term, which means giving some impossible to
achieve criteria before I will do something, meaning "I am totally
***ked up on it, so no more!!!" (Which is.....) because neither do
I get the meaning of heavily built-up town.