Double decker buses for route 151

Next in line to receive double decker buses this year is the 151, running between Hougang Central Interchange and Kent Ridge Terminal within the National University of Singapore (NUS) campus in Kent Ridge.

What’s unique is that instead of just normal double decker buses, the 151 received four of SBS Transit’s latest Volvo B9TL wheelchair-accessible double deckers which apparently turned out to be the only double decker model suitable in navigating the hilly terrain along Kent Ridge Crescent.

What’s more unique is that according to reliable sources, these four B9TLs (namely SBS 7313C, SBS 7318P, SBS 7383A and SBS 7466U) came about as a result of some form of intervention by the LTA (even before they officially take over the role of route planning come next year).

Nevertheless, in just a few months, the fleet of buses deployed on route 151 has changed drastically, from the noisy Volvo B10M MkIIs which have been phased out, to the current latest Scania K230UBs and Volvo B9TLs. If this doesn’t satisfy the kids at NUS who have long been complaining about this bus service, I don’t know what else will.

Withdrawal of six SBS Transit premium services

A total of six premium bus services will be, or in the case for two of them, have been withdrawn this weekend as ridership figures do not seem to meet the minimum targets for these expensive bus services to be run. They are:

- Premium 537 from Jurong West Avenue 5 to Shenton Way
- Premium 540 from Corporation Drive to Shenton Way
- CityShopper 551 from Hougang Avenue 8 to Orchard Road/Suntec City
- CityShopper 575 from Bedok to Orchard Road/Suntec City
- CityShopper 577 from Ang Mo Kio to Orchard Road/Suntec City
- CityShopper 580 from West Coast to Orchard Road/Suntec City

While demand for the two Premiums from Jurong may be weak as many people residing in those areas would most probably be working in the Jurong/Tuas industrial estates, it is interesting to note that Premium 536 from Jurong West Street 91 which is even further west, is still running.

As for the CityShoppers, the withdrawal comes as no surprise as the empty buses cruising down Orchard Road daily are evidence of their low demand most probably due to other cheaper yet convenient alternatives. The 551 for instance, may provide doorstep service for Hougang residents, but it loses out to the cheaper and faster NEL trains thanks to the never-ending CTE jams. The CTE is also probably the reason for 577’s demise as there is quite a large commuter pool within Ang Mo Kio itself.

Regardless, the wthdrawals come only shortly after the LTA publicised the existence of 75 premium bus services to date, above the target of 72 by the Transport Minister.

New Route 128 (Ang Mo Kio to Shenton Way)

New basic bus service 128 commenced operations last Sunday, 7 July 2008, running between Ang Mo Kio and Shenton Way - the first basic bus service to be introduced in 2008, all the others being premium services. Compared to the excitement in 2005 when SBS Transit introduced new basic bus routes almost every other month, the wait for a new basic route now has been a long one, the last being services 5 and 175 which were launched in March 2007.

Unique to service 128 however, is its nature of a peak-hour only train-duplicating bus service. By train-duplicating, I really mean duplicating the North-South and East-West MRT lines exactly from Yio Chu Kang to Tanjong Pagar, stopping at only certain bus stops in the city area and those near the train stations, thanks to the ongoing long-term revamp of the local public transport which allows for bus services to duplicate mature train lines which are heavily utilised. In other words, bus companies may now run bus routes that duplicate SMRT’s network of North-South and East-West lines. The NorthEast line seems to have been left out as it is still in the stage of infancy, though there is no doubt residents of the northeast would appreciate the return of direct bus services to town.

The way I see it, this new route is more of a show by the LTA on its willingness and ability to redesign the bus network here (which will be under its charge come next year) rather than a sole SBS Transit initiative.

So far, demand for the service has been quite weak, despite the extensive media publicity given to this first extensively train-duplicating bus service in decades. And I am not too surprised by that, given that only four trips each are operated in the morning and evening peak periods, supplementing the train system for commuters heading to town and back. Throw in the peak hour congestion and what you get is a 70-minute commute from Shenton Way to Yio Chu Kang, which you can achieve within half an hour by train. At the very most, this service is an attractive alternative to residents in Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh where the service seems to call at all the bus stops within the towns.

What can be done is to actually make the bus service comparably faster, if not taking the same amount of time in reaching the destination compared to the train, which can be done by plying the expressways (which can be duplicating the train line still - take the CTE vs NSL for example). At the same time, make such train-duplicating bus routes call at more of the bus stops enroute as this is after all, a niche buses will always have over trains - direct point-to-point transport service.

Four brand new Scania K230UBs based in Ang Mo Kio Depot are deployed on the route. This could itself be a problem if demand starts picking up as there are only a limited number of seats in the new wheelchair-accessible buses. Imagine standing from Shenton Way all the way to Ang Mo Kio in a bus caught in a traffic jam.

The choice of route number however, is quite awkward, given that most of the services that originate from Ang Mo Kio are from the 13x and 16x series. The best explanation for this could be SBS Transit’s tradition of adopting “lucky number 8″ for any new forays, most notably for its Chinatown Direct routes ( CT8, CT18 and CT28 ) as well as its first bus service into Woodlands New Town back in 2001 - the 168.

Despite it all, I welcome the introduction of more of such train-duplicating bus services. Maybe one of them can be in the form of former TIBS route 952 from Woodlands to the city that can easily beat the train by plying the BKE and PIE. And I will be its instant regular commuter

New Basic Bus Service 128 To Ply Along Section Of NSEW Line And More Premium Buses Introduced

1. Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Raymond Lim, announced on 30 January 2008 that new basic bus services will be allowed to ply along sections of mature rail lines with persistent heavy passenger loading. This is to provide commuters using these lines with more public transport alternatives. The Public Transport Council (PTC) has approved SBST’s Service 128 to ply along the southbound section of the North-South-East-West Line from 7 July 2008.

2. Minister Lim had also announced on 30 January 2008 that the number of premium buses would be expanded from 42 to 72. LTA is pleased to announce that as of 30 June 2008, 76 premium buses are already in operation, surpassing the original target of 72.

3. The introduction of these bus services underscores LTA’s commitment to provide more choices for commuters, including drivers who decide to switch to public transport.

New Basic Bus Service Duplicating Sections Of MRT Lines With Persistent Heavy Passenger Loading

4. Currently, the southbound section of the North-South-East-West Line (NSEW) from Bishan to Newton MRT stations faces persistent heavy passenger loading. With limited scope to expand rail capacity during peak periods quickly, the PTC has approved an application by SBST to operate a new basic bus service 128 between Ang Mo Kio Depot and Shenton Way Terminal. This service will commence operation on 7 July 2008. The route will cover 13 MRT stations along the NSEW and will stop at selected bus stops in-between MRT stations along its route. Please refer to Annex A for details of the bus route and stopping points.

5. SBST’s service 128 will have 4 trips each during the morning and evening peak hours. SBST will increase the number of trips in the peak periods if demand for the service is high.

6. More of such services would be implemented along other heavily loaded sections of mature rail lines in future, if conditions require it.

More Premium Bus Services

In addition to this new basic bus service, 76 premium bus services now offer commuters direct connections from residential areas, such as Holland, Bukit Timah, Aljunied and Woodlands to the Shenton Way, Robinson Road, Suntec City and Orchard Road areas. For more information on the premium bus services available, please refer to http://www.lta.gov.sg/ public_transport/ pt_premium.htm.

7. “We are pleased with the response to the scheme with operators surpassing the targeted number of services and very healthy growth in ridership. LTA will continue to work together with the operators to ensure that more of such services are available, so as to give commuters more choices and viable alternatives to cars, especially during the peak hours. Members of the public who would like to suggest new routes for premium bus services can do so through the LTA website and we will encourage operators to consider them”, said Mr Yam Ah Mee, Chief Executive, Land Transport Authority.

8. Premium bus services were introduced as niche market bus services, catering to commuters who are prepared to pay higher fares for a more direct and comfortable journey. Premium services provide a closer substitute to private transport. These services also catervices also cater to the group of current public transport commuters who desire a higher level of service. This scheme was revised on 1 February 2007 as part of the on-going effort by the government to make public transport a choice mode.

Premium Bus Aggregator

9. The public is encouraged to suggest their preferred Origin-Destination points to be served by premium bus services at http://www.lta.gov.sg/public_transport/pbs/pbs_info.htm. LTA will share the information with the operators for them to consider providing PBS.

Source: LTA Website

New Premium bus routes 560, 561, 563, 564, 565 & 566 by SBS Transit

Yet another batch of Premium bus services has been introduced by SBS Transit on June 30th. This time round however, only one of the six introduced serves a HDB estate - route 565 serving Whampoa. The other five serve the private estates such as Pandan Valley, Meyer Road and Bukit Timah Road, something which is relatively uncommon for SBS Transit Premiums, but which has been done since the start by rival SMRT Buses.

The latest Premiums launched are the 560 (from Mount Sinai/Ulu Pandan), 561 (from Joo Seng/Sennett Estates), 563 (from Bukit Timah Road), 564 (from Farrer/Hollad Roads), 565 (from Whampoa Estate) and 565 (from Meyer Road). Only one trip per weekday morning is operated for each route, and as usual, all of them run down to financial district Shenton Way after calling at a few stops in the neighbourhoods they serve.

At $3.60 per trip, the 565 from Meyer Road will be a very attractive alternative to SMRT’s well-established 547 which charges a much more expensive $4.50, but for a more comfortable ride in 19-seater minibuses by subsidiary BusPlus.

SBS TRANSIT INTRODUCES SIX MORE PREMIUM BUS SERVICES

Come Monday, 30 June 2008, SBS Transit will roll out six more new premium bus services, bringing the total number of such services operated by Singapores largest bus company to 40.

The new services, which will serve office workers living in Bukit Timah, Balestier, Farrer Road, Meyer Road, Pandan Valley and Upper Aljunied, will be charged at $3.60 a trip. There is no concessionary travel but standard transfer rebates apply for commuters using ez-link cards.

As these services are introduced to cater specifically to the morning rush hour crowd, they will operate only in the morning peak hours and in just one direction from Mondays to Fridays (excluding public holidays). All trips are scheduled to arrive in the CBD area before 9.00am which is when work officially commences for most offices.

“Our premium bus services have received strong reception ever since they were first launched on 16 July 2007. We thank all commuters for their strong support and we will continue to look at rolling out even more of such services to cater to rising demand,” said Mr Gan Juay Kiat, Chief Operating Officer, SBS Transit.

To celebrate the launch of the six new services, SBS Transit is giving away over $6,000 worth of facial treatment vouchers sponsored by FIL to commuters who travel on these new premium bus services.

Source: http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/press/2008-06-30-01-S.aspx

SMRT Premium 531 gets evening trips

Less than a year after being introduced, SMRT’s Premium 531 will now run two trips in the evenings from the CBD back to Upper East Coast and Simei, as a result of exceptionally high demand. The service, which started off in July 2007 as a weekday morning peak service offering two trips from Simei to Shenton Way, gradually saw a rapid increase in ridership despite itself competing with cheaper alternatives like SBST’s Fast Forward 10e which also heads to the same destination.

Before long, a third trip was added but even then, the three 12-metre Dennis Lance buses were filled with standing passengers, running foul of the PTC’s regulations on premium bus services which prohibit standing passengers (considering the fact that they paid a premium for these bus rides). As a result, SMRT decided to replace one of the rigids with a Bendy bus. TIB1081S of Ang Mo Kio Depot is shown above at Suntec City running the second trip. The situation however, surprisingly still did not improve and a final decision was taken to deploy four rigids at 5-minute intervals between 0750 and 0805 hours and that seemed to spread the loads evenly somewhat.

For a bus service that is much more expensive than the basic bus or train service, its high demand is quite remarkable and thus a decision was made to run two evening trips from June this year. At the same time, SMRT increased its fare from $3 to $4 “due to higher fuel prices”. While the morning crowd is not expected to thin down as a result, charging $4 for a ride home is quite expensive given that the office workers would not be in a similar rush home as they are in getting to work. This however, remains to be seen.

New Premium bus routes 587 & 588 by SMRT

SMRT Buses launched two new premium bus services on Monday, 30 June 2008. Services 587 will run from Woodlands Ring Road, Woodlands Avenue 5 and Woodlands Avenue 1 before running down the BKE and PIE to Orchard Road and Shenton Way. Service 588 will begin service at Sin Ming Avenue, before running down Marymount Road, Bishan Street 12 and hitting the CTE down to Shenton Way.

Unlike its earlier premiums 530, 531 and 546 which runs at least two trips every morning, these two services only have one trip running in the morning, similar to their SBS Transit Premium counterparts. The only reason I could think of at the moment is the expected lower demand compared to the other routes, especially for 587 which charges (an exhorbitant) $5 per trip. While Woodlands may be very far away from the city, $5 is in my opinion, still a bit too expensive for daily commute. $4 is as much as premium buses should go.

Similar to other SMRT Premium services however (with the exception of 546), is the design of the 587 and 588 to ply areas with condominiums and/or other private landed property. Service 587 for instance, is deliberately made to serve the LaCasa condominium along Woodlands Avenue 5 and the other landed properties at Woodgrove further down. Service 588 on the other hand, serves the condos at Sin Ming and Bishan Street 21. This has no doubt got to do with its success with 530 and 531, both of which serves mainly condomimiums in River Valley and Upper East Coast respectively. While this has contributed well to the company’s earnings, it is time SMRT realises that there is also quite a substantial demand for city travel among HDB dwellers, as demonstrated by the high loads on SBS Transit’s Premium buses which serve mainly the HDB neighbourhoods.

Something interesting worth taking note of is the u-turn buses on 587 have to make at the Woodlands Avenue 5/Avenue 6 junction after exiting Woodlands Drive 52. And yes, tyre marks have been left behind as a result!

New list for premium bus services

In view of the dramatic increase in the number of premium bus services over the past few months by both the major bus operators as well as the small private ones, I have split the list of bus services page into two - one for basic and basic-plus bus services and another for the premiums.

In addition, I have added Scheme B bus services (ie the 6xx peak-hour bus services operated by private companies) into the basic bus services list. The list may not be complete as there are very few sources, if any, of information on such services.

The list of bus services page happens to be the page with the highest number of visits and I hope this slight change will help improve your future visits here for quick reference on the bus services available in Singapore.

A case of accidental redeployment for 925

Amidst the major redeployment exercise that took place among all three depots of SMRT Buses a while back, there is one particular service which was not intended for any change, but got it anyway. This was the 925.

The 925 (Woodlands to Choa Chu Kang via Sungei Kadut on weekdays; to Sungei Buloh on Sundays) has originally been under the charge of Kranji Depot since inception and traditionally had DAF buses in its fleet. Following changes to scheduling and deployments, its fleet is now made up of the few Hino buses cascaded from the Bukit Batok feeder services, plus the occasional DAF. Its timetable has also been worked out such that it has crossover buses from route 177 during off-peak hours when the 177 is not running.

This is where the fun comes in. The 177 has been under Kranji Depot until 23rd March, when its duties were transferred over to Woodlands Depot, together with those of 61 and 173, in exchange for 75, 700 and 970. WLDEP then decided to deploy four buses from route 75 which it has lost to route 177, all of which are converted aircon (CAC) Hispano Mercedes 0405 buses (TIB727U, TIB739K, TIB767D, TIB788T). However, amidst all these changes, the timetable and crossover structure between the 177 and 925 remains unchanged, that is to say buses serving route 177 still make trips on the 925 during off-peak hours between the morning and evening peak periods!

As such, the fleet for service 925 now comprises of the original Hinos and occasional DAFs from KJDEP, plus the Mercedes buses from WLDEP, indirectly converting the 925 into a dual-depot controlled service… by accident!

This unique deployment pattern however, is not restricted to the 925. Services 700 and 963 for instance, still maintains the bendy bus crossover slot, which will be usually run by TIB977P or TIB1046U of 963. This is despite the fact that route 700 has been passed on to Kranji Depot from Woodlands.

Fares for SMRT NightRider services to increase…

…by 50 cents to $3.50 regardless of cash or ez-link. The free transfer (to be made within 45 minutes from alighting the previous NR bus) applicable for ez-link card users will still remain.

This is the first such fare increase for SMRT’s night bus services since introduction years ago. Though steep, the increase seems timely in the face of high fuel prices, yet still affordable compared to the more expensive taxi. Enhances such as the much needed extension to HarbourFront for NR1 and NR6 also somewhat justifies the increase.

Those who want a cheaper alternative can consider rival SBS Transit’s Nite Owl services priced at $2.50 (ez-link) and $3.00 (cash) respectively. That is, if there is one that gets you back home.

SMRT maps it all out

You would have recalled my post about the empty boards being placed at bus interchanges and some bus stops in SMRT territory, with Woodlands Regional Interchange for instance, having three of them installed.

And they have finally become informative - spider maps displaying the routes of all bus services plying through and from the towns have been put up. And by all, I really mean ALL the bus services, SBS Transit ones included too. And all these done solely by SMRT. Although the maps may be inspired from the London bus maps and look abit messy especially for towns like Bukit Panjang with many services criss-crossing each other, I would say it is a good service enhancement effort by the company.

The press release and maps can be found here.