BSRF.
Under this scheme, checkpoints in Transperth parlance act like "timed stops":
"For example, I catch the bus every morning. It's supposed to
pick me up at 7:01am but it always comes at 6:56-6:58am, because
there's not much traffic at that time of the morning.
We zoom down the road and providing nobody gets on the bus (or
it only has to stop once or twice), the bus ends up becoming
another 1 or 2 minutes earlier than it should be.
Then when we get to a timed stop 5 minutes early, the bus stops
and waits there to use up all that extra time, which means the bus
should run on time for the next block of stops in between there and
the next timed stop."
This is practiced by TT Perth. Timed stops are published in
printed timetables, so passengers know the buses will arrive at
these fixed times:
BCM/GCM operators intend to adopt the same
practice:
"The driver announces over the intercom: "Ladies and gentlemen,
the bus will be held at this stop for two minutes to regulate the
service."
This London scenario may soon become commonplace for bus users
in Singapore."
If LTA is penalizing the operator for buses arriving too early
at a timed stop, then you get situations (as mentioned on Route 302
above) where the operator make the de-facto "timed stop" one stop
before the actual stop and wait out the excess time, so that it
appears on-time to LTA when it heads to the actual checkpoint.
Journey times are going to get longer. The real problem comes
when bus operators plan their schedules too loosely. If for example
a bus arrives 15 minutes early at a checkpoint along Route 143,
this old practice may not be so bad after all...
If the operator requires the driver to switch off the engine
(which is the law), I am sure some passengers are
eventually going to ask "why do buses now breakdown as often as the
MRT at bus stops?"
so later hold up all the other bus services at the bus
stops...
imagine few buses of the same service are all early and all hold
up at bus stops? not pratical in singapore, esp those city routes..
those feeder routes with bus stops of only 1-2 services might be
able to do so (hold up buses),
most likely they will tell the BCs to drive slower...crawling
pace...
