Bus hubs currently the priority and good progress made: Josephine Teo

Bus hubs currently the priority and good progress made: Josephine Teo
04:45 AM Jan 18, 2012
by Sumita Sreedharan
SINGAPORE - Bus speeds have decreased slightly because of an increase in ridership, Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo revealed in Parliament yesterday.

Responding to Chua Chu Kang GRC MP Alex Yam, who had asked about the progress in improving bus speeds, Mrs Teo said bus speeds have gone down from 19.1kmh in 2007 to 17.8kmh, as ridership went up from 2.9 million per day to 3.45 million per day in the same time.
"As more buses are introduced to cater to this increase, this would have caused buses to wait a longer time at bus stops to accommodate increased passenger boarding and alighting activities," explained Mrs Teo.
To address this, the Land Transport Authority had announced recently that 35 bus stops would be expanded into bus hubs by the end of next year, allowing more buses to berth at bus bays for simultaneous boarding and alighting. This would reduce the average time each bus spends at bus stops, improving speeds and the journey times for commuters.
Pressed by Mr Yam to elaborate on the schemes under study by the ministry, Mrs Teo said the 35 bus hubs are currently the priority project and "good progress" has been made.
Mr Yam also suggested that longer, wider trunk roads be installed across the central median to reduce the incidence of left-turning vehicles blocking the buses that are going straight. Mrs Teo said this would be considered. Nee Soon GRC MP Lee Bee Wah brought up the issue of bus drivers' unfamiliarity with bus routes, asking if measures have been taken to address this.
Mrs Teo attributed the problem to "occasions where there are services that need to be improved very quickly", and buses need to be pumped in; hence drivers are deployed on unfamiliar routes.
Having more bus drivers trained across different routes would help but this would take time to implement as operators would need to pull drivers from their regular services for training, she said.
Nonetheless, she stressed that the issue is being "taken seriously" and the bus system must become "more flexible" and "more responsive" to the need for bus services. Sumita Sreedharan
URL http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120118-0000027/Bus-hubs-currently-the-priority-and-good-progress-made--Josephine-Teo
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