FEEDER BUS SERVICES

Mr Cheo Chai Chen asked the Minister for Communications if he has any incentive schemes to increase the number of feeder bus services to private housing estates.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: The main bus operators are expected to provide a mix of profitable and unprofitable services. Unprofitable services to low-demand areas are cross-subsidised by profitable services elsewhere. More unprofitable services mean more cross-subsidies and eventually all commuters will have to pay higher fares to cross-subsidise these services. Hence, low-demand services are carefully considered before implementation. In this regard, there are no grounds to give special preference to private housing estates over other areas in the provision of unprofitable bus services.

The Public Transport Council welcomes private operators to provide shuttle services to link up private housing estates to nearby bus interchanges or MRT stations. For example, the Clementi Park Condominium runs such a service to the main road and the Clementi MRT station for their own residents. Recently, a TIBS/SMRT joint venture company launched two pilot services under the Bus-Plus project to serve residents in Bayshore Park and Faber Hills.