PUBLIC BUS SERVICES

PUBLIC BUS SERVICES: 13.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether the decision to allow more bus companies to operate on public routes will result in more congested roads with the higher number of buses plying the roads; and (b) if this will worsen the current traffic situation especially when car drivers are unwilling to switch over to public transport.

14.

Mdm Cynthia Phua asked the Minister for Transport (a) whether the announced 10-minute waiting time for bus services is also applicable to the feeder bus services; (b) when is the review of the trunk and feeder bus services targeted to be completed; and (c) when and how will other bus operators be allowed and encouraged to participate in the reviewed bus network.

15.

Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked the Minister for Transport in view of the recent announcement to make immediate improvements to the public transport system (a) whether the Ministry has set a timeline for the increase in frequency of feeder bus services; and (b) whether the Ministry can immediately target such services that are currently running at intervals of 30 minutes or longer.

The Minister for Transport (Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat): Mr Speaker, Sir, with your permission, may I take Question Nos. 13, 14 and 15 together as they are related?

Mr Speaker: Yes.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: Mdm Ho, Mdm Phua and Mr Liang have asked about the changes to the basic bus services that were announced recently in the Land Transport Review.

First, let me address concerns about the frequency of feeder bus services. Feeder bus services are important in our hub and spoke system, for they provide the connectivity to the MRT and bus interchanges. More than 80% of our feeder bus services currently run at frequencies of 15 minutes or less during peak hours. However, this can be improved.

The Public Transport Council (PTC) has already set stringent Quality of Service (QoS) standards where the basic bus service operators must have at least 80% of all their services (ie, trunk and feeder) running at peak hour headways of 10 minutes or less, by August 2009. Recognising the importance of feeder bus services, the PTC and the LTA are now looking at setting a higher QoS standard specifically for feeder bus services. This will be finalised by June 2008, in consultation with the bus operators.

Next, the opening up of the basic bus service market for more competition will be implemented gradually and carefully to minimise any inconvenience and disruption to commuters.

LTA will take a year or so to complete its study of how our existing bus network can be better optimised to meet commuters' needs. In 2009, LTA will take on the centralised planning of the bus network and it will gradually open up the bus market to more competition after that.

Mdm Ho is concerned that because of greater bus competition, there would be more buses on our roads and, as a result, congestion would worsen. I would like to clarify that what LTA will be introducing is competition for the market and not competition in the market. With the former, the number of bus services on the roads will be specified by LTA and not left to competing bus operators to flood the roads with their bus services, causing a deterioration in traffic conditions.

Mdm Cynthia Phua: Sir, I have two supplementary questions. First, I would like to ask the Minister to also set a target for feeder bus services for non-peak hours. These feeder services are really basic bus services for the residents and children to move around.

Second, I would like to ask the Minister to consider hastening the review of bus routes as, presently, there are many areas that are really lacking in feeder bus services to connect the residents to the various MRT stations as well as bus interchanges.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: Sir, may I clarify that the PTC sets standards not just for peak hours. They also do so for non-peak hours.

In terms of bus routes, I have set out the time table on how we are going to do this. LTA needs to study this carefully. This is something that is new to them. I think the primary concern here is really commuter convenience. We do not want to do it such that it is disruptive to them. For 2008, we need to study how best to do this. They are going to hire consultants to help. We need to work very closely with the bus operators.

When we did our study trips to various cities, in most major cities that have a first-class public transport system, there is always a central planner looking at both the rail and bus systems to see how they are integrated and coordinated. One advice they gave us is that when we do this, we should do it in a graduated manner and work closely with the existing public transport operators, because we do not want a disruption in routes. That is the reason why we have rolled it out this way; study how to do it and build up the capabilities in 2008. In 2009, they will start the central planning of bus routes. And 2010 onwards, open it up to competition.

This does not mean that during this whole period, there are no on-going changes. There will be a continual process that takes place. The PTC continues to have oversight over the bus routes.

Mdm Ho Geok Choo: Sir, supplementary questions. Can the Minister enlighten whether the fares will be consistent across the different bus operators, and whether the fares will remain comparable to the current fares or will there be hikes? My last question: what incentives, instead of disincentives, will be given to car drivers to switch over to public transport?

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: Sir, I will answer the second question first. She asked what will happen to the fares with all these changes. Because of all these changes, will there be an increase in public transport fares? The way our system works is that we have a fare cap formula. This formula prevents the bus and rail operators' costs to be passed through directly to the commuters. That is how the commuters' interests are being safeguarded. With all these changes, the onus is really on the public transport operators to increase their efficiency and productivity to meet these changes.

On her first question whether the fares will be consistent across all the bus operators in terms of coordination, this is something that we are going to look at. Besides the coordination of fares, LTA is also working on a season pass, which we do not have now. The season pass would cut across operators and across modes. If we want to promote public transport, it is important to have such a pass.

Her third question is whether or not there is going to be any incentive for car drivers. Well, there is a $40 billion incentive. That is how much we are spending on public transport. It is a lot of money. And $14 billion on road improvements. If we put the whole lot together, it is more than $50 billion. It is $4 billion a year up to 2020. That is $4 billion a year incentive for car drivers.

Mr Speaker: Mr Liang, last supplementary question.

Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Holland-Bukit Timah: ): Sir, I would like to ask the Minister whether the current approach of bundling the profitable and non-profitable routes for the bus operators is the best way to go, given that we are still seeing feeder bus services running at intervals of 30 minutes or more. Contrary to what the Minister has said earlier, we do have feeder bus services that are running at intervals of 30 minutes or more in Bukit Panjang Town, for example. I do not know whether it is a case of the bus operators just doing the bare minimum for some of the unprofitable routes. If that is the case, then it is going against the key thrust of the transport review, which is to make public transport the choice mode of travel.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: Sir, I have been to Bukit Panjang because I get all this feedback. On the quality of service standards and basic bus services for the whole day, no basic bus service can run beyond a 30 minutes headway unless the PTC gives an exemption. Mr Liang Eng Hwa says there is a service in Bukit Panjang that is running at intervals of more than 30 minutes. That is because for that particular service 922, it is to complement the Bukit Panjang LRT. I think Dr Teo Ho Pin knows that. We already have the LRT system there and it runs at a frequency of 4-5 minutes. There was a request and I think SMRT said, "Well, we will see what we can do about it", and they put in a feeder bus. That is the background to the matter.

For all basic bus services, it should not be more than 30 minutes. If Members know of any bus service that is more than 30 minutes, they should make a representation to the Public Transport Council and say that there is now a breach of quality of service standard 5.4, and cite that provision to them.

The Member's other question is on how do we do this bundling, going forward. Let us be clear on what we are doing. The LTA, as central planner, is not going to dispense with this fundamental principle that we have in our transport planning, which is that it must still be financially viable. So, when they bundle the routes - some are unprofitable and some are profitable - the package as a whole must be financially viable. This is important.

When we had our consultants looking into this, they said that we are one of the few cities - Hong Kong is the other one - that have this financial discipline in the system. And if we take away this discipline, it would be at a cost to the country as a whole. Other countries have done this sort of big public transport reviews. Seoul did a similar review of their bus system a few years ago. One of the changes they made was to take this financial discipline away. I met a Professor who was involved in this. He is part of our international advisory panel. He said that once they took that away, the deficit shot up. Because once we say that it is quite all right that the bundle does not have to be financially viable, that we can run a deficit on it, then we lose the discipline and the deficit starts to grow. So financial discipline will still be in place.

What LTA will do is that when they look at the bundle, they will see how best to optimise the whole bus network from the viewpoint of the commuters, which is quite different from the present situation where the bus planning is done by the public transport operators. They have a different viewpoint. That is the key difference.