Jan 18, 2008
Major overhaul to improve bus travel
The radical changes promise to get commuters to their destination faster
By Goh Chin Lian
BUS travel here will undergo an overhaul to give commuters a faster, smoother and more pleasant ride.
This will happen in two stages over the next few years. First, the Government will take back control of the planning of routes from the two public transport companies.

The aim: to find the fastest and best route for commuters by bus and MRT - not how to make more money.

Then, it will open up the bus market to more competition. The idea is that contest could lead to better ways of doing things, and maybe, even lower costs.

More immediately, transfers will become easier and cheaper, and commuters will get more information on the go, to plan how best to make their journey.

Transport Minister Raymond Lim gave the details on Friday, in the first of three key policy speeches he will make this month on how travel by bus, rail and car will change.

This shake-up of the land transport landscape foresees that by 2020, 14.3 million journeys will be made every day on this small island, up from 8.9 million now.

The future will be gridlock and pollution if many more people take to cars, he said.

The thing to do now is to move more people to public transport: Mr Lim's target is 70 per cent for all journeys in the morning peak by 2020, up from 63 per cent now.

But what will it take, he asked, for the majority to choose the bus or MRT over the car?

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.