Despite the Government’s huge investment to improve bus services, a sizeable proportion of commuters still feel they are not reaping the benefits in terms of wait times and crowdedness, if the results of a recent survey conducted by REACH are anything to go by.

Among other findings, the telephone poll with 1,200 randomly selected Singapore residents — aged 15 and above — found that half of the respondents felt that wait times have remained the same (40 per cent) or gotten longer (10 per cent), compared to last year.

Among the remaining respondents, 37 per cent said the wait times have become shorter while 13 per cent replied “don’t know”.

When it came to bus crowdedness, almost six in 10 said the situation was the same (39 per cent) as last year or worse (20 per cent).

The survey was conducted from Feb 29 to early March. Overall, however, a higher proportion of respondents agreed that the transport system is “good” and “generally affordable”, compared to last year — 80 per cent agreed that Singapore has a good public transport system, up from 74 per cent last year. Sixty-six per cent also agreed that public transport in Singapore is generally affordable, up from 63 per cent last year.

Under the S$1.1 billion Bus Service Enhancement Programme announced in 2012, 1,000 Government-funded buses will be injected into the public bus network by 2017 to expand the fleet by around 35 per cent. The REACH survey findings about bus wait times and crowdedness are in contrast to the periodic reviews by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) which have found that commuters, on average, have benefited from more regular wait times and less crowding.

The latest Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by the LTA also showed that satisfaction levels for bus services have inched up, with the most significant improvements in wait time.

On the REACH survey findings, transport consultant Tham Chen Munn noted the subjectivity of commuters’ perceptions, which would be influenced by various factors such as media reports and marketing campaigns by the transport operators.

Also, respondents would probably have based their responses on their overall experience with the public transport network, instead of a particular mode of transport.

“You look at connectivity ... People don’t just take the trains alone. They take feeder buses or change transportation,” he said.

SIM University senior lecturer Walter Theseira pointed out that responses to commuter surveys would vary depending on how questions are framed. Respondents would also answer the survey questions with their most recent trip in mind, rather than objectively comparing it with their experience a year ago.

“While people might not feel there has been improvement year-on-year on specific indicators, they may still agree that based on their last trip (that) they are overall satisfied,” he said.

When it comes to train services, about six in 10 respondents in the REACH survey agreed that new trains added to the public transport network over the next few years would “significantly reduce crowdedness on trains”. A similar proportion was confident that the Government’s efforts would help improve the reliability of train services.

Overall, half of the respondents were supportive of moving towards lower car ownership in Singapore. Support was lowest among car users, with 31 per cent disagreeing or strongly disagreeing with the shift.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by Asyraf Kamil

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