Immediate priorty to add buses, increase travel information
Two Fridays ago, he wanted to take bus service 30, a direct bus to the PSA building. But it was during the peak hour and Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew could not board the two buses that arrived.
He then decided to take a bus to Harbourfront, hop onto the MRT train to Dhoby Ghaut and transfer to the Circle line to Dakota station.
Recounting the experience in a Facebook post on Thursday morning, Minister Lui acknowledged "it's quite some walking to do between the transfers" but he also pointed out that there are such alternatives to getting to a destination.
What would be helpful to commuters is "information that will help us make the right decision" on which route to take, said the Minister, who recently took over the transport portfolio.
He suggested having an application that not only provides bus arrival times but using a colour code to show if there were seats on the bus, standing room only or if the bus is full. "I could have decided from the onset to take the train instead," he noted.
"Improving the travel experience for commuters is therefore not just about adding new capacity and trying to bring down the levels of congestion.
"We also need to help them make informed choices through presenting relevant and accurate information in the most timely and commuter-friendly way possible," said the Minister.
Still, he stressed adding significant capacity, through the bus network, is a "key challenge and immediate priority" for the government.
The government will work with operators to ramp up capacity because "left to the operators alone, I believe they will introduce new bus capacity in a relatively cautious manner and gradual pace," he said.
Going forward, the government will have to find ways to "systematically pull out and analyse the relevant information that will complement feedback and observations."
For instance, by using ez-link data, the government can check for the number of passengers on a bus and find out which are the most congested segments on a bus route. This will help the government decide the best ways to deploy the additional buses, noted Minister Lim.
The Minister launched the tunneling works for the MRT's Downtown Line Stage 2 at Bukit Timah on Wednesday, where he raised similar issues.
While the government will be buying more trains and adding lines, rail projects can take seven to eight years to materialise, he was quoted as saying by The Straits Times.
Adding buses is therefore a "matter of high priority in the coming months", he said.
Currently, commuters make three million trips a day on buses and two million on trains.
