I refer to “Tender results a ‘wake-up call’ for SMRT, SBS” (May 9). It appears the jolt isn’t strong enough.
On Wednesday, at about 1.10pm, I was at a West Coast Road bus stop when two Service 143 buses arrived at the same time; the second vehicle was half empty.
While this is a common occurrence for some bus services, I was surprised to see a third Service 143 bus, which was almost empty, appear as the first two were departing the bus stop.
The commuters who missed these three buses probably had to wait a long time for the next one.
Either the scheduler at the Jurong East bus interchange did not do his job right, or the bus drivers need some counselling on their roles.
Does SBS Transit have timekeepers who randomly, if not systematically, check on bus bunching or, worse, longer-than-acceptable intervals between bus arrivals?
A good collection of data would help SBS Transit analyse the traffic patterns and load requirements of its routes to avoid such situations and reprimand frequently errant drivers.
The Government has committed S$1.1 billion to improve bus services.
However, not only must the hardware be changed, the software, which is the mindset on service quality, must also be improved.
As long as total quality management is not inculcated in the workers, it is hard to see how their service can improve.
