For those people who are travelling on buses along Bukit Timah RD (BTR) towards Ngee Ann Poly (NAP) early in the morning, let say between 6:30 am to 7:15 am, do you find the buses at near capacity or too crowded? And most of these commuters are students? And I am one of them (the students). Buses that ply along BTR towards NAP (48, 66, 67, 170, 171, 700, 960) suffer from these high commuter traffic. I am not sure about the rest (56, 57, 74, 151, 153, 154, 156, 166, 174, 186, 851, 980, 852, 961).

The cause of this is because that there are numerous school along BTR. Here are the list of school along BTR:

ACSBR & ACPS
ACJS
SCGS
NUS (BT campus)
St. Joseph Institution
Nanyang Pr Sch
St Margaret's Sec Sch (Bus no. 48 are usually crowded with them)
Hwa Chong Insttution
National JC
Raffles' Girls Pri Sch
Nanyang Girl's High Sch
Meth. Girl's Pr Sch
Ngee Ann Poly
SIM University


But where do these students come from? The answer is obvious: Little India & Newton MRT stations (I am not sure about Bugis as it is also along BTR). The bus stops at these stations will always get filled up by students.

But thanks to the government, the Downtown Line will be build and the "students" congestion will ease, but that will happen in 2015, when the BT section of DTL will be open.

So why not create a special service, Students service, along BTR for now? The students service will only cost 45/55 cent (depending on the type of ez-link card) flat for each journey and these service will only allow students to board the bus. The service will only be operating from 6 am to 8 am and from 1 pm to 3 pm every weekdays and will have a frequency of 7 minutes. From 8am to 1pm and from 3 pm onwards, the service will transfer to a normal service, allowing all kinds of passengers and the frequency will be 10 minutes.

There will be two routes. The first route starts from Clementi (CT) Bus Interchange and service will ply along CT Ave 3, CT Ave 4, CT Ave 5, CT Ave 2, CT Rd, Dunearn Rd, BTR, Sungei Rd, Ophir Rd, Victoria St, Bras Basah Rd, Raffles Blvd and ends at Marina Centre Bus Terminal. The second route starts from Marina Centre Bus Terminal and the service will ply along Republic Blvd, Raffles Ave, Stamford Rd, Victoria St, Rochor Rd, Rochor Canal Rd, BTR, CT Rd, CT Ave 2, CT Ave 5, CT Ave 4, CT Ave 3 and ends at CT Bus Interchange.

With this route, not only the school will be serviced along this route, but also CT Pr Sch, CT Town Sec Sch, Pei Tong Sec Sch, La Salle SIA Arts College, Stamford Pr Sch, The Chi Opera Institution, Raffles La Salle Institution and SMU.

The route will also serve 5 MRT stations (8 including CCL): Bugis, Little India, Newton, City Hall and CT (Botanic Gardens, Esplanade & Promenade for CCL).

What do you think?

Firstly, the many schools in the region is just one of the few reasons why the buses serving Bukit Timah Rd get busy. Another reason is that it provides a fast link to the city area from the Northwest area, a huge untapped area of traffic where the NSL and EWL are simply too inconvenient. Hence the DTL being extended till Bukit Panjang.

Secondly, the schools in this region are primarily branded schools and so there will be students coming from all over Singapore. The SBST and SMRT buses that come through here links almost the whole of Singapore's towns.

A premium service first and foremost, will charge higher. And with public buses offering near-convenient links, it comes as a better option than your premium service. And besides, students pay 35/40/45 cents currently.

Yes, the buses are crowded. But many of them were routed to serve the schools especially, SBST 48 was created for this in mind. 74 is almost deliberately bunched as buses start filling up fast in Hougang, S'goon Nth and AMK and are filled with school students.

A premium service first and foremost, will charge higher. And with public buses offering near-convenient links, it comes as a better option than your premium service. And besides, students pay 35/40/45 cents currently.


Actually, my proposal is not a premium service.

Firstly, the bus fare will only be charged according to the type of ez-link card a person has.

Secondly, my proposal stop at every bus stops along the route.

Thirdly, the bus will first operate for 'students only' service in the early morning first, then for the rest of the Singaporeans, students or non-students, in the late morning and early afternoon, then for 'student only' service again in the afternoon and finally for the rest of the Singaporeans again from late aftrenoon till the service ends.