SINGAPORE: Major changes are expected in land transport after more than a year-long review to improve the situation.
In the first three major announcements, Transport Minister Raymond Lim zoomed in on changes to the bus system, which serves two-thirds of all commuter trips today.
Speaking at the opening of the Land Transport Gallery, he outlined the urgency of the problem, stressing that with trips poised to increase 60 per cent between now and 2020, the only option is to steer people towards taking more public transport.
For that to happen, Mr Lim said, not just the quantity, but also the quality of public transport would have to improve tremendously.
Currently, the system is fragmented between two operators - SBS and SMRT - which plan the routes based on commercial considerations and minimum service obligations.
But the result is this: there are more than 250 bus services in all but only 1 in 3 come every 10 minutes or less and some even take more than half an hour to arrive.
Then there is the problem of feeder services that make circuitous loops before arriving at the interchange.
So firstly, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will take over the central planning of the bus network, with the commuters' ease of journey as the main focus.
Buses will also get more priority on the roads, with more full-day bus lanes and making it mandatory for cars to give way to buses at bus bays.
More integrated public transport hubs, like the ones at Toa Payoh, Sengkang and Ang Mo Kio, will be upgraded to make transfers easier. Five more hubs will be upgraded and two more are already being upgraded.
And from next year, commuters will pay for distance travelled, regardless of the number of transfers made.
LTA will also introduce an integrated season pass for both bus and rail travel, regardless of operator.
And more travel information will be made available via panels, text messages and websites.
The second big change will be to introduce competition among operators, including opening the market to new players.
Mr Lim said: "They found that introducing some form of competition, or even just the real threat of competition, is an effective way to keep bus operations efficient and raise service standards."
The Ministry says there are limited economies of scale for fleets above 500 buses.
And since the country has a 3,700-strong bus fleet, Singapore could potentially have more than two operators.
The island will be carved up into different regions and potential operators will bid for these in a competitive tender.
The third major change is for the LTA to keep its pulse on the community's transport issues through regular dialogue with grassroots members.
More changes, including those to the ERP system, are expected in the following weeks. - CNA/ac/vm/ch
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