COMPREHENSIVE BUS STUDY (Findings)

Mr Rohan bin Kamis asked the Minister for Communications and Minister for Labour if he will report on the findings of the Comprehensive Bus Study conducted by the Singapore Bus Service with the assistance of the London Transport International recently and when can residents of Telok Blangah and the neighbouring estates expect the introduction of a direct bus service between the Bukit Merah Interchange and Ang Mo Kio Interchange.

The Minister for Communications and Minister for Labour (Mr Ong Teng Cheong): Mr Speaker, Sir, the recommendations of the Comprehensive Bus Study are being finalized and will only be available around April or May this year. I shall nevertheless briefly outline some of the more important preliminary findings to the House.

A passenger survey was undertaken to determine accurately the travel patterns of bus passengers. Data from the passenger survey has been used to design a new bus network for the whole island to better match service to demand.

The second major objective of the study was to devise a fare collection system that would allow SBS to convert all its services to one-man-operation. This is to make more efficient use of manpower. Although details are yet to be firmed up, the broad recommendation is to retain a distance-related fare structure and use ticket issuing machines that will record the time and place of boarding as well as the fare paid. For this system to work, we will need honest commuters because there will be no conductors on-board. Those caught riding beyond the fare paid will be asked to pay a penalty fare.

A key feature of the proposed fare collection system is "through ticketing", that is to say, passengers having to transfer from one bus to another will not have to pay a second time. Season tickets with appropriate discounts will also be introduced.

Although the majority of commuters can expect to benefit from the changes proposed by the study, details will have to be carefully examined to ensure that as few people as possible are adversely affected. The proposed changes will be implemented in stages starting around end of this year or early next year.

The possibility of a direct bus service between Ang Mo Kio and Telok Blangah will also be looked into as part of the overall revised bus network, details of which will be made known after the network has been finalized.