Phase 1 of Circle Line to open on May 30
SINGAPORE : Public transport ridership has been going up -
and with it comes more crowding.
To ease the situation, the government announced that two rail
projects - Jurong East Modification project and the North-South
Line extension - are being brought forward, and 22 new trains being
bought.
Still, with the changes only kicking in by 2011, the squeeze will
still be on for a while.
Last year, public transport ridership spiked by 7.4 per cent - one
of the fastest rates in years. And the overcrowding is being felt
on MRT trains.
"MRT trains still suffer from an overcrowding problem. Has LTA
(Land Transport Authority) reviewed the capacity? Is it possible to
add more tracks on the existing lines, which are now overcrowded
and have reached maximum capacity," asked Cynthia Phua, MP for
Aljunied GRC.
With 900 additional train trips per week added since last year,
that is the best the system can do in terms of train frequencies,
given the current constraints.
Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, Transport Minister Raymond Lim
said the only way to increase capacity is through infrastructural
changes.
Currently, there is a bottleneck at the Jurong East Interchange
station. The whole system is slowed down as the train does a
turnaround, because there is only a single platform for this.
LTA is now building a second platform so that two trains can turn
around at the same time, with the project completion brought
forward by a year to 2011.
22 new trains are also being bought. When they enter the system, it
should lower waiting times to as low as 2 minutes at the busiest
stretches.
Opening new lines will also ease the crunch. Phase 1 of the Circle
Line will officially open on May 30. The new MRT line will open its
first five stations - Bartley, Serangoon, Lorong Chuan, Bishan and
Marymount.
The other stages of the Circle Line are expected to open
from 2010 onwards, and they are expected to divert about 10-15 per
cent of passenger traffic.
But such large infrastructure projects take time to kick in, with
one of the main changes coming only in 2011. At the same time,
public transport ridership is increasing, and may go up even
further during the economic downturn. So the situation may just get
worse before it gets better.
One other major initiative this year is the LTA taking over the
role of central bus network planner. This will be a two-stage
process - first, talking to the industry, operators and experts,
and then to grassroots representatives.
The transport minister said: "One of our guiding principles is to
avoid making any radical, big-bang-type changes to bus services.
Commuters make more than three million trips on buses every day,
and we are conscious that any change must be gradual. Otherwise,
there will be mass confusion.
"Our approach instead is to identify any gaps in connectivity, try
to plug them, and see where bus services can be streamlined to
improve efficiency of the network."
And it is only after this is done, can LTA look at how best to
package the bus routes for competitive tendering. - CNA
/ls
