SMRT Corp Ltd : Quarterly Review of Bus Services

Joint News Release Date of Issue: 23 March 2012

For Immediate Release

Quarterly Review of Bus Services

Improvements in 22 Bus Services, 180 More Weekly Bus Trips Added

1. As part of the ongoing quarterly review process involving the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and public transport operators, SBS Transit and SMRT, 22 bus services have been improved between January and March 2012.
2. These improvements include deploying higher capacity buses or adding more bus trips to increase frequency and capacity along sectors that experience consistent heavy ridership. (Please refer to Annex A for list of these bus services). In total, 180 more trips each week have been added in this latest quarterly review.
3. SBS Transit has improved 15 heavily-utilised bus services in this round of improvements.
4. More bus trips have been added to five bus services (7, 36, 57, 98 and 109)
while more double-deck buses have been deployed on seven services (6, 43, 45, 98,
197, 285 and 334) during the morning and evening peak periods. SBS Transit also added more bus trips throughout the day and deployed double-deck buses during peak periods on bus service 52. In addition, SBS Transit has introduced new short trips on three bus services (53, 198 and 240) to better cater to peak period demand along specific stretches of these bus routes. Where the short trips commence with empty buses from bus stops, commuters waiting at such bus stops will also have a better chance of boarding the first arriving bus during the respective peak periods. Details of these new short trips (identified by an alphabet behind its service number) are as follows:
(i) Service 53A provides additional capacity for commuters travelling between Hougang Avenue 1 and Serangoon Central during the morning peak period, when ridership demand is higher in this direction and along this specific sector. Service 53B operates in the reverse direction from Serangoon Central to Hougang Avenue 1 during the evening peak period. Services 53A/53B start from bus stop number 63261/ 66379 respectively.
(ii) Service 198A provides additional capacity for commuters travelling from Boon Lay Bus Interchange to Jurong East Avenue 1 during the evening peak period.
(iii) Service 240A provides additional capacity for commuters travelling from Corporation Drive to Lakeside MRT station during the morning peak period. The service starts from bus stop number 21581 located at Block
65.
5. SMRT has enhanced seven services (77, 106, 700, 811, 962, 966 and 971E).
6. A higher-capacity bendy bus has been deployed for Service 106 during the morning peak period, and also for Service 700 during the morning and evening peak periods.
7. In addition, SMRT has also begun operating an additional trip on Service 77 to increase the capacity for commuters travelling from the Toh Tuck Road area to Bukit Batok Bus Interchange during the morning peak period. The additional trip means an empty bus starts its journey from bus stop number 42071, located at Upper Bukit Timah Road, towards Bukit Batok Bus Interchange. Commencing the trip with an empty bus from this bus stop will enable more commuters to board the service from this bus stop during the morning peak period.
8. SMRT has also made the following improvements:
(i) more trips were added for Service 811 to improve the frequency and capacity for commuters travelling from Yishun Avenue 2 to Yishun Bus Interchange during the morning peak period. One additional bus has been deployed to ply the route during the morning and evening peak periods.
(ii) more trips were added on Service 962 during the afternoon off-peak hours to better match heavy demand along this sector.
(iii) one more bus was deployed for service 966 during the morning peak period.

(iv) a higher-capacity bus has also been introduced on the first trip of Service

971E to cater to the heavy demand from Bukit Panjang to the Central
Business District during the morning peak period.
7. This latest round of improvements raises the number of unique bus services that has been improved since the quarterly review process began in June 2010 to 104, with some bus services having been improved multiple times.
8. Student Nicholas Lim Jing Jie, 17, who has benefitted from the improvements to Service 966, said: "I use SMRT's Service 966 frequently and I have noticed improvements to the frequency. In the past, I used to wait about 15 to 20 minutes during peak hours for the bus but since the beginning of this year, the waiting time during morning and evening peak periods is only 10 minutes. The frequency has improved and the bus intervals are more consistent. In addition, there is now more space to move around in the bus."
9. "In the past, it was sometimes difficult for me to board Service 57 during the morning peak hours. Now that more trips have been added, I have no problems boarding the bus. This saves me a lot of time and I no longer have to be late for work," remarked Mr Malcolm Soh, 24, who works part-time.
10. Mr Colin Lim, LTA's Group Director for Vehicle and Transit Licensing, said: "The quarterly review process provides a regular mechanism for bus operators to respond in a timely manner to ground changes in bus demand. This existing process will complement the wider service improvements under the Bus Services Enhancement Programme (BSEP) as it gets underway from third quarter this year onwards. LTA will continue to work closely with the bus operators to improve bus services."
11. Mr Gan Juay Kiat, SBS Transit Chief Executive Officer said: "We are always trying to improve our services for commuters. Since 2010, we have made improvements to about 70 of our services to enhance their travelling experience and we will continue to do more."
12. Ms Kang Huey Ling, Vice President, SMRT Buses Ltd said: "SMRT is committed to the continuous improvement of our bus services to better meet our customers' changing travel needs. We constantly monitor the travel patterns on our bus services, adjust our bus schedules and increase capacity to enhance the travel experience of our commuters. Further to the 23 bus services that we improved in the last quarter, seven more services have been enhanced in this quarter."

Annex A: Summary of Improvements to Bus Service Levels

Annex A
List of Bus Services with Capacity Improvement along Sectors of Heavy Usage

S/N	Service No.	Origin	Destination	Improvement Month
1.	6	Pasir Ris Interchange	Loyang Crescent (Loop)	Jan 2012
2.	7	Bedok Interchange	Clementi Interchange	Feb 2012
3.	36	Changi Airport PTB	Tomlinson Road (Loop)	Feb 2012
4.	43	Punggol Interchange	Upper East Coast Terminal	Jan 2012
5.	45	Upper East Coast Terminal	Ang Mo Kio Depot	Mar 2012
6.	52#	Bishan Interchange	Jurong East Interchange	Jan & Mar 2012
7.	53	Bishan Interchange	Changi Airport PTB (loop)	Feb 2012
8.	57	Bishan Interchange	Bukit Merah Interchange	Jan 2012
9.	77	Bukit Batok Interchange	Marina Centre Terminal	Mar 2012
10.	98	Jurong East Interchange	Jurong Pier Way (loop)	Jan 2012
11.	106	Bukit Batok Interchange	Marina Centre Terminal	Feb 2012
12.	109	Serangoon Interchange	Changi Village Terminal	Jan 2012
13.	197	Bedok Interchange	Jurong East Interchange	Jan 2012
14.	198	Boon Lay Interchange	Bukit Merah Interchange	Feb 2012
15.	240	Boon Lay Interchange	Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim (loop)	Jan 2012
16.	285	Clementi Interchange	Pandan Loop (loop)	Jan 2012
17.	334	Jurong East Interchange	Jurong West Street 42 (loop)	Feb 2012
18.	700	Bukit Panjang Interchange	Shenton Way Terminal	Jan 2012
19.	811	Yishun Interchange	Yishun Avenue 2/Avenue 1 (loop)	Jan & Feb 2012
20.	962*	Woodlands Regional Interchange	Admiralty Street (loop)	Feb 2012
21.	966	Woodlands Regional Interchange	Marine Parade Road (loop)	Mar 2012
22.	971E	Bt Panjang Ring Road	Cecil Street	Mar 2012

* Service with improvements during off-peak hours.

# Service with improvements throughout the entire day.