TRANSPORT OPERATORS

TRANSPORT OPERATORS

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(Compliance with new quality standards): **

22.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak asked the Minister for Transport with the introduction of shorter waiting times for bus services during peak hours (a) how will the Ministry ensure that transport operators comply with the new timetable; (b) how often will the Ministry be making spot checks to ensure compliance with the new Quality of Service standards; and (c) how many infringements were there in the past 12 months based on the previous Quality of Service standards.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: The Public Transport Council (PTC) has tightened the Quality of Service (QoS) standards for basic bus services, effective from 1st August 2009. Eighty percent of bus services will now have to leave the bus interchanges and terminals every 10 minutes or less during weekday peak periods, from the previous 15 minutes. For feeder services, 90% of feeder services now have to do so at 10 minutes or less, up from the previous 85%. With buses leaving the bus interchanges and terminals at more frequent intervals, commuters can generally expect shorter waiting times.

The PTC monitors and assesses the bus operators' compliance with all QoS standards. The actual performance of bus services are continuously tracked by the bus operators' computerised fleet operation and management systems. Based on these databases, performance reports of all bus services are submitted to the PTC every month, and the PTC will assess the operators’ compliance with QoS standards.

To ensure that these performance reports are accurate and complete, the PTC regularly audits the operators' reporting processes and systems. The last check was conducted in August 2008 and the PTC was satisfied that all was in order. The PTC is currently conducting another round of checks on the operators' systems.

But that is not all. The PTC conducts an additional layer of checks to ascertain that the performance data actually match commuters' experience on the ground. The PTC conducts multiple on-site audits or spot checks every month. If any service lapse is identified, operators are asked to account for and, more importantly, take immediate action to rectify them, even before the PTC announces the results of its six-monthly review of the operators' performance against the QoS standards in April and October every year.

Dr Lim also asked how many instances of non-compliance against the QoS standards there have been. In the most recent six-monthly review, for the six months from 1st June to 30th November 2008, the operators largely met the standards except for 46 instances of non-compliance. These were on the standards of adherence to scheduled headways and maximum passenger loading, and resulted in the PTC penalising SBS Transit and SMRT Buses $4,500 and $100 respectively. This was an improvement over the previous six-monthly review, where there were 58 instances of non-compliance and they were fined $9,300 and $1,000 respectively. The review for the period of December 2008 to May 2009 will be released in October this year.