LTA, SMRT to bear cost of additional buses deployed for train network closures
PUBLISHED 6 HOURS AGO
Christopher Tan Senior Transport Correspondent
SINGAPORE - A large fleet of additional buses will be required to ferry commuters left in the lurch by shorter hours on the East-West MRT line, and the cost of this operation will be borne by taxpayers and rail operator SMRT.
“LTA and SMRT will share in the costs of operating these additional bus services,” the Land Transport Authority, a statutory board under the Transport Ministry, said in response to queries from The Straits Times on Friday (Nov 24).
The same goes for shuttle bus services between Joo Koon and Gul Circle stations which will remain in place till at least June next year to serve commuters while train service between the two stations is suspended.
Buses bridging Joo Koon and Gul Circle are free, but those plying along the 19 other stations affected by shorter hours will charge equivalent train fares for the distance.
The authority announced this week that 17 East-West Line and two North-South Line stations will have shorter service hours from Dec 8 to Dec 31, and that these stations will remain closed for the whole day on Dec 10 and Dec 17.
Other sections of the line will also experience these shortened service times to allow resignalling work to be completed by June instead of the original December 2018 timeline.
The rush to get the new signalling system up on the East-West Line comes after a train collision on Nov 15. Investigations point to compatibility issues between the old and new signalling systems.
The authorities have decided to separate the two systems – and thus sections of the line – to prevent further incidents.
To cope with displaced commuters, SBS Transit will be roped in to provide additional buses, and private bus operators are also expected to be called on as well.
But experts and industry players said it will be a challenge to provide enough buses and these could also contribute to road congestion.
A senior manager of a bus operator who declined to be named said: “We may have some excess capacity at night, but in the morning, it will be quite tough. Even on Sundays, the trains are quite full. And if the bus services are not done well, there will be complaints. There will also be increased congestion on the road.”
National University of Singapore transport lecturer Lee Der-Horng said: “During peak hours, one full-load train can have as many as 1,600 passengers, and it is two minutes per train. So an hourly load can hit 48,000. You need more than 500 buses, and that’s only for one direction.”
Professor Lee said the volume will be lower for an isolated section of the line, and over weekends, but it will still be significant.
Singapore University of Social Sciences economist Walter Theseira expects “less travel demand than normal because commuters are likely to consider alternate routes or cancel their travel plans due to concerns about potential delays”.
Both experts feel signalling provider Thales should share the cost of the bus contingency plans, which are expected to cost $300,000 a month. “Thales, if it caused the disruption, should provide some goodwill contribution towards the cost to show they accept responsibility,” Dr Theseira said.
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