Reason is apparent. You were at Bugis, Rochor. Mind if I ask
which day did you go there? DTL2 mostly passes by areas where
people own cars and would've easily reached office via.
PIE/BKE/Lornie Rd etc. Most rather jam in a car than squish in a
train (even though it isnt that squished). At Bugis and Rochor you
would expect most pax to be office workers, who also happen to drive. You may only expect BPJ
residents to be taking the line, but again they have 960, 190.
Hence the low catchment.
But you have yet to see. Come to Botanic Gardens, it's a totally
different story. Loads and
loads of students cramming onto the trains before and after sch
hours, not to mention many BPJ residents using the CCL, to places
where buses will not reach. Yes, it is because the northwest lacks
bus connections to various parts of the island eg. Central and the
Northeast, thats why ppl are more inclined to use the MRT to get
there, and CCL does the job better than CBD lines. Furthermore,
schs at BKT receive students from all over SG, hence the need for
these students who cant drive to take MRT. You wont expect students
to head downtown on a school day, will you?
Based on my personal experience, from DTL2 to NEL, transferring
at Little India takes almost the same (if not shorter) time as
compared to using CCL. You have 2 more stops this way but you don't
have to walk the 2 super long transfer links at CCL interchanges
and wait for CCL trains to arrive.