CENTRAL BUS PLANNING

CENTRAL BUS PLANNING

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(Update on consultations): **

6.

Dr Teo Ho Pin asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether he will provide an update on the status of the central bus planning consultations conducted by the Land Transport Authority; (b) when will the proposed changes be implemented to improve bus services; and (c) whether there are additional measures to improve bus services at Bukit Panjang.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: The central bus planning consultations with the community led by Minister Lim Hwee Hua is one of the many platforms we use to gather feedback and work with the public to improve our public transport services. Such consultations are an on-going process and not a 'once-off' effort. From the consultations to date, we have received useful feedback on several aspects of the public transport network, including the frequency and reliability of bus services, journey times as well as suggestions for route changes.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has been actively implementing a holistic range of public transport improvement measures based on the feedback gathered. For example, since June this year, LTA has formalised a process through which they work with the public transport operators every quarter to identify specific bus services for improvement. The improvements are rolled out expeditiously after each quarterly review, and they have helped to improve the loading situation and ease crowding on the identified bus services.

LTA has also been improving the travel time and reliability of bus services through the implementation of bus priority measures, such as bus lanes and the mandatory-give-way-to-bus scheme. The mandatory-give-way-to-bus scheme has recently been expanded to cover another 24 bus stops, and we now have 178 km of bus lanes in total. LTA has rolled out improvements of public transport facilities, such as new integrated transport hubs, upgrades to existing interchanges, more barrier free facilities and covered linkways to transport nodes. Real-time information and system maps are also being made more widely available to improve information dissemination to facilitate journey planning. This has improved the overall public transport journey experience for commuters.

On bus route changes, what stood out from the feedback during the community consultation process was that, in most cases, the majority of the residents were not in favour of major changes to the existing routes as that would be disruptive. This is also what we have learnt from the experience in other countries – that major "big-bang" changes tend to be disruptive and confusing for commuters. Changes to the system should therefore be calibrated, incremental and progressive. Our principle has also been that any change must benefit the majority of commuters. Route changes will therefore be

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introduced gradually, with some changes expected by year-end and more to be progressively implemented later on an ongoing basis.

Going forward, LTA will periodically update Advisers to the Grassroots Organisations on the major public transport improvements in their wards. The next update will reach the Advisers over the next few weeks. These updates will include improvements for both the bus and the rail networks as they work in tandem to bring integrated public transport services to our commuters and improve the overall public transport travel experience for all.

Dr Teo has also asked about improvements to the bus services in Bukit Panjang. Bukit Panjang has benefited from various improvements to the bus services in the area. For example, Service 922 was re-routed earlier this year to serve an additional two areas in the estate – Jelapang and Bangkit, with an improved peak hour frequency. As part of the quarterly review, service improvement measures were also identified for seven bus services which ply the Bukit Panjang area, to improve the loading situation on these services during peak hours. One of the most heavily-utilised bus stops at Block 270 in Bukit Panjang was also recently converted to a "bus hub", where the bus bay was lengthened to accommodate more buses at any one time. This has reduced the dwell time of buses at the bus stop and also shortened the overall journey time for bus commuters. For the elderly or the disabled, Service 171, which travels to town through Bukit Panjang, is now a wheelchair-accessible service. In the early part of next year, Bukit Panjang Interchange will also be upgraded to be wheelchair-accessible. Besides improvements to the bus services, Bukit Panjang residents also benefited from a new entrance to Fajar LRT station that is connected by a covered linkway to nearby blocks, and can look forward to the completion of the Jurong East Modification Project in 2011 which will ease crowding on the MRT system. Over the longer term, residents can also look forward to having a new MRT station in Bukit Panjang when the second stage of the Downtown Line is operational.

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