Ministry of Transport Bad scheduling of buses
I took the TEL line to change to bus 163 on my way home.

After leaving the train, I had to walk 100 meters to the entrance and another 240 meters to the bus stop. I find the long distance to be quite bad for the commuters, and is probably unnecessary. It is a bad design.

While walking to the bus stop, bus 163 passed by. I missed it.

I had to wait another 15 mins for the next bus 163 to arrive. During this time, I saw 4 buses under service 265 passed the stop. Most of the buses were virtually empty. One was totally empty. Two buses arrived at intervals of less than one minute.

Along the way, bus 163 was fully packed. Many passengers could not board the bus at the following bus stops.

It is not difficult for the Land Transport Authority to look at the data of the number of buses and the average passenger per bus for each service and each period of the day. The data will clearly show the services that have insufficient buses (based on the demand) and the services that have more buses than necessary. This will allow the buses to be deployed more effectively to meet the demand, and to remove wastage.

I am aware that these problems on the scheduling of buses existed for a long time, prior to the appointment of the current minister for transport. (Out of politeness, I will not name him.) So, I do not blame him for the bad management.

But I do blame him for not acting to fix the problem. Maybe, he is not aware that there is a problem.

I see this minister quite active in Facebook talking about his interaction with the residents in his constituency. I hope that the minister realizes that his is more than a MP.

As minister, he is paid a huge salary (of more than $1 million a year) and is expected to do justice to his office as minister.

Tan Kin Lian
 

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