If you are resident living near bus stops and MRT Stations, you are liking to marvel at the convenience and accessibility of public buses in Queenstown. Journeys to Town or work places in the industrial estates are relatively short and bus frequencies are usually reliable and fast. Shenton Way? 25 minutes. City Hall MRT Station? 12 minutes. Orchard Road? 15 minutes. Boon Lay MRT Station? 17 minutes. At most bus stops along Queensway and Commonwealth Avenue in Queenstown, residents can hop onto a bus service that bring them to their destination directly. However, if you are a resident living in the heart of districts such as Commonwealth Crescent, Commonwealth Drive or Mei Ling Street, you may not benefit from the transport services at all.
Let's talk about the bus services which serve the various districts. Bus service 32 is a popular service for residents plying from Commonwealth/Red Hill MRT to Strathmore and Margaret Drive. Residents waiting for this service at Commonwealth MRT Station will notice that the service will arrive "at 4 minutes" for an extended period of time at the electronic display screen. During peak hours, waiting time can be as long as 30 minutes. If you are heading home at Strathmore from Redhill at 9pm, don't be startled that the bus may arrive some 15-45 minutes. There are new developments at Dawson and Strathmore but the frequencies remain atrocious.
Bus Service 195 - another unreliable service
Same goes for Bus Service 195. It either comes in pairs or once in a blue, blue moon! These complains, courtesy of feedbacks from residents, appear very common in our services. However, it must be understood that these trunk services serve as feeder services for Queenstown residents. Hence, the frequency for the service is atrocious because of operators such as SBS transit are keen on profit maximising and not keen on providing quality services. Well, let's take a look at other estates. Feeder services in Jurong West averaged 5-8 minutes whereas those in Choa Chu Kang averaged only 3-7 minutes (according to the operators' website).
Residents in Strathmore and Mei Ling Street have petitioned strongly for such service lately. On one hand, stallholders in Mei Chin Market are looking forward for a reliable service so as to improve the traffic flow to the market area. On the other hand, residents are looking forward to more bus services plying along Margaret Drive and Strathmore Avenue which bring them to markets prior to the demolishing of Margaret Drive Food Centre.
However, reliable sources indicate that all of these requests are wishful thinking. The LTA has rejected residents' request to extend Bus Service 64 to the MRT Station and Polyclinic so that residents from Mei Ling Street can travel home from Queenstown Station. Have you recalled that Mei Ling/Mei Chin district in Queenstown is a hilly region where elderly residents got to climb flights of stairs every day to reach home? (Read Here) This service will certainly make travelling more convenient for the elderly folks in Mei Ling!
Will there be an end to this transport "mess"? Perhaps, that is what elderly residents in Mei Ling/MeiChin have to "tahan" to their death bed.
Wei Jie
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8 comments:
That's my Service 32 photo!
- Varun Naidu
Have you read my bus blog? :)
You should acknowledge your sources properly...saying "online sources" is not good journalistic practice. Generally your blog is alright - but do take the extra effort to raise your standards.
I would appreciate it if you can change the acknowledgement of your sources to the title and url of where you took these photos from, as it's basic respect for the photographers involved.
Why not suggest a new Townlink service which loops around the estate and link them towards MRT stations / bus terminal for greater connectivity ? Having only trunk (long distance) services plying through an estate certainly does not help ; because of traffic/human jams along the way. Service 32 and 195 happens to be a trunk-operated service by the way , since 32 plies from Buona Vista - Bedok while 195 is an ''ultra-long'' loop trunk service . However , if petition of having a townlink service fails to be approved by LTA , why not suggest a Short-Working Trip service (which usually has a letter after a service number) ? Short-Working Trip services only cater the most needed (high demand) sectors of a service; which would definitely benefit to those who want to travel to places in a much faster time. :)
There is no comparison from the older, less populated estate like Queenstown to the newer, more densely populated ones like Jurong West and Choa Chu Kang. Looking at the how empty 32 buses are even during peak times (it is precisely because the shops/FC at Margret Drive have closed down that no one takes 32 to these places anymore), there are no financial incentives to operative these buses more frequently. Yes, older residents once again have to wait long after they're at their "deathbeds" until all the new developments are up in 10 years time. That's very, very sad and shows where the government's emphasis are (new and young, instead of the old, who made Singapore what it is today).
Check out BYK's posting on his facebook, seems like he has plans for a bus re-route.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/photo.php?fbid=1632101132391&set=a.1488349738696.2061120.1532547712&type=1&theater
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