Realising the Vision of a 45-Minute City under the Land Transport Master Plan 2040 in the West of Singapore

ADJOURNMENT MOTION

The Deputy Leader of the House (Mr Zaqy Mohamad): Mr Speaker, Sir, on behalf of the Leader, I beg to move, "That Parliament do now adjourn."

Question proposed.

Realising the Vision of a 45-Minute City under the Land Transport Master Plan 2040 in the West of Singapore

Mr Speaker: Mr Leong Mun Wai.

7.19 pm

Mr Leong Mun Wai (Non-Constituency Member): Realising the vision of a 45-minute city in the West of Singapore under the Land Transport Master Plan 2040. Mr Speaker, Sir, the massive breakdown on the East-West Line between Buona Vista and Jurong East Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations between 25 and 30 September reminded Singaporeans living in the West of Singapore of how reliant they are on the East-West Line.

This six-day breakdown also happened to coincide with the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) and the announcement that Singapore's population exceeded six million for the first time.

When it comes to rail connectivity, the East side of Singapore is far better than the West side. There are three rail lines running parallel to each other, connecting the East to the Downtown Core. Namely, the East-West Line, Downtown Line and Thomson-East Coast Line. Had the East-West Line failed in the East instead, residents would have more options compared to those living in the West.

On the other hand, during the six-day disruption, residents in the West who were travelling to and from their workplaces downtown had no alternative option to get them home by MRT. They would either have to use the bus bridging services replacing the MRT or endure long bus rides, such as services 174 or 502. As a result, many residents have complained to me that it took them more than three hours to commute during the initial days of the breakdown.

In 2019, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has set an ambitious goal in the Land Transport Master Plan 2040 to make Singapore a 45-minute city where Singaporeans should spend no more than 45 minutes to complete nine out of 10 peak-period journeys. The six-day disruption prompted us to ask whether the Master Plan 2040 is sufficient to make a 45-minute city a reality for residents of the West, even if everything is operating normally and all the plans in the Master Plan 2040 come into fruition.

The Government will argue that the upcoming Jurong Region Line (JRL) and Cross Island Line (CRL) will improve connectivity in the West. But even after these two lines are built, the East-West Line will still be a major bottleneck for travel between the East and West of Singapore for residents of the West. This is because the JRL connects only to the East-West Line for east-west travel.

The West of Singapore is not some "ulu" hinterland. It is home to very dense population centres such as Jurong West, upcoming new towns such as Tengah and major employment hubs in Jurong East and Tuas. Existing towns, such as Queenstown and Bukit Merah, will also soon be redeveloped and densified and many new jobs will be created in the Jurong Lake District. All these residents and jobs need to be better connected to the rest of Singapore.

Currently, for a resident of Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Batok, Pioneer or Jurong West, working somewhere in the Downtown Core, like Raffles Place, a 45-minute commute by public transport to their workplace is still far from reality. This is very different from the East where entire new towns, such as Marine Parade and Bedok and even parts of Tampines, are accessible from the Downtown Core within 45 minutes.

And on top of the Downtown Core, we must also strengthen connections from the West to other parts of Singapore. With decentralisation and greater job mobility, residents of the West could find themselves working in the Punggol Digital District or Changi Business Park. While a 45-minute commute may never be feasible for them because of sheer distance, we can do more to reduce their commuting times as much as possible.

Today, I would like to suggest two approaches to improve rail connectivity and bus services to relieve residents in the West from their dependence on the East-West Line so that we can be closer to realising the vision of a 45-minute city in the West.

The first approach is to improve rail connectivity for the West by connecting the JRL to the Circle Line and CRL. There have been two unconfirmed proposals regarding this.

The first proposal is to extend the JRL from Pandan Reservoir to Haw Par Villa on the Circle Line. This will allow residents in Tengah, Bukit Batok West, Ayer Rajah and West Coast to travel to the Downtown Core by MRT with just one transfer at Haw Par Villa. It could also benefit students travelling to and from the National University of Singapore. This proposal was first announced by then-Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew in 2015. Later, in 2022, then-Transport Minister S Iswaran updated that feasibility studies are still ongoing, even though this potential extension appears to have been dropped out of the Master Plan 2040.

The second proposal is to build an interchange infrastructure to connect Jurong Town Hall station on the JRL with Jurong Lake District station on the CRL. These two stations are within walking distance of each other but are not currently planned to be connected as an interchange. Then-Minister S Iswaran also said, in 2022, that the authorities would study this as, "We need to create meaningful connections in our MRT stations for convenience and resilience."

These two proposals to extend the JRL will greatly increase rail connectivity from the West to the Downtown Core and the rest of Singapore. We are glad that, this morning, Minister Chee Hong Tat has mentioned that the Ministry of Transport will look into these proposals.

The second approach to improve public transport in the West is to introduce a network of inter-town skip-stop bus services. This can be implemented relatively quickly, compared to increasing rail connectivity. These skip-stop services would be different from existing express bus services. They will only stop at a few high demand stops in each town throughout the entire route to allow commuters to connect between towns more quickly. They will also run all-day, in both directions, at good frequency. The existing routes that stop at all stops can be still retained to feed commuters from the lesser-demand stops to the high-demand stops.

Two types of skip-stop bus services should be introduced. The first type is the long-distance skip-stop bus services that connect different towns in Singapore. In the West, we currently have services 30 and 143, which provide important inter-town connections for residents of Teban Gardens, Pandan Gardens and West Coast, which are areas currently not served by MRT to the East and Central Singapore. There are also services, such as 180 and 974, which link Bukit Panjang with Boon Lay and Jurong West.

All these are important long-distance inter-town bus services that complement our MRT network, but they are too slow. Basic bus services travel at about 15 kilometres per hour, about half the speed of the MRT. While we currently have faster express buses like Service 30e, many of them only operate during peak hours. What we need is a network of skip-stop buses to complement the MRT in moving people between towns quickly. This is especially important for areas currently not served by MRT.

The second type of skip-stop services is to connect more far-flung areas to key transport nodes and community hubs faster. These may be similar to the "express feeder" bus services that LTA is going to introduce under the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Plan. For example, we should introduce skip-stop service 870E to connect Tengah with Jurong East MRT and a skip-stop service 871E to connect Tengah with Bukit Gombak MRT and Beauty World MRT. These will be much faster than the current services 870 and 871. We can also introduce a bus service linking Tengah and Boon Lay, which is something many Tengah residents have asked for during my engagement with them.

The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) urges LTA to seriously consider using the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme as an opportunity to boldly reimagine our bus system. This should be done at a national level, but it is especially important in the West, where rail connectivity is not as good as the East, but the commuting population is fast building up. Mr Speaker, in Mandarin please.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Mr Speaker, last month, an unprecedented six-day massive disruption occurred between Jurong East and Boon Lay stations on the East-West Line. This made Singaporeans living in the western part of Singapore, especially in Jurong West, Jurong East and Clementi, realise how reliant they are on the East-West Line as a critical rail infrastructure.

In the Land Transport Master Plan 2040 released by the Land Transport Authority in 2019, a vision was set that by 2040, Singapore would become a "45-minute city", meaning that 90% of public transport journeys during peak hours could be completed within 45 minutes. However, for residents in the west, this vision is far from reality at present.

PSP believes that to achieve this vision for western residents, the Government should implement two proposals currently under study regarding the JRL.

The first is to extend the JRL from Pandan Reservoir station to Haw Par Villa station on the Circle Line. The second is to connect Jurong Town Hall station on the JRL with Jurong Lake District station on the CRL to form an interchange station.

To expedite the extension of the MRT network in the west, we also suggest that the Government include skip-stop services in this year's Bus Connectivity Enhancement Plan, connecting various parts of the island to allow western residents to commute to work and travel more quickly.

We hope that last month's major massive breakdown will make the Government pay more attention to the current inadequacies in public transport in the western region.

Every Singaporean deserves better public transport services.

(In English): Mr Speaker, Sir, in conclusion, last month's massive train breakdown has shown us how dependent the residents of the West are on the East-West Line to get around Singapore. We hope the Government will be in favour of the proposals to link the JRL to the Circle Line and the CRL to reduce that dependency. In addition, for more immediate relief and to complement the less developed MRT network in the West, we have recommended the Government to consider introducing a network of skip-stop bus services. This should be done at a national level, but it will especially benefit residents in the West, who are currently very reliant on the East-West Line.

The PSP hopes that the recent unprecedented disruption will spur the Government to conduct a thorough review of the plans under the Land Transport Master Plan and Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme to improve public transport in the West while striving to level up our public transport for the whole of Singapore. Public transport needs to serve everyone in Singapore. We must work harder to realise the vision of a 45-minute city for all Singaporeans. For country, for people.

Mr Speaker: Senior Minister of State Amy Khor.

7.36 pm

The Senior Minister of State for Transport (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan): Our vision, as articulated in the Land Transport Master Plan 2040 (LTMP 2040), is to create a 45-minute city and 20-minute towns by 2040. The 45-minute city goal goes beyond reducing travel times. It is also about reshaping how we think about urban connectivity, such as creating more employment centres and better linking them with residential areas.

Mr Leong spoke about the transport connectivity in the West. Members such as Mr Don Wee, Mr Liang Eng Hwa, Mr Patrick Tay, Miss Rachel Ong and Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim had also previously asked Parliamentary Questions about our plans to improve transport connectivity in the West.

Residents from Tengah have also provided LTA and myself with specific feedback on their estate, which we have already been addressing. Let me share about the progress that we have made thus far and our ongoing efforts to improve transport accessibility, connectivity and resilience for residents in the West. I am glad to note that Mr Leong's suggestions, in fact, support the plans we have made for transport connectivity in the West.

Let me begin with our rail network, the backbone of our public transport system.

Today, besides the Bukit Panjang Light Rail Transit, residents in the West are served by the North-South, East-West and Downtown Lines. While Mr Leong has claimed that the East is "far better" than the West, with all due respect, I think this is not a fair comparison as there are differences in geographical characteristics, stage of development and travel patterns.

With planned expansions to the rail network, we are on track to having eight in 10 households in the West within a 10-minute walk of a train station by the 2030s, which is aligned with our target for the entire island.

Complementing the rail network are bus services that provide first- and last-mile connectivity to key transport nodes and alternative options for commuters. More than one-third of our bus routes ply in the West, including express bus services that connect residents in the West directly to job centres in the central area.

LTA closely monitors the demand and capacity of bus routes in the West like it does for bus services across Singapore. Where additional capacity is needed, such as in growing towns with more Build-To-Order flats, LTA has worked with operators to improve frequencies and to inject more double-deck buses.

One example of such improvements is in Tengah. LTA has introduced three new bus services in this area since new homeowners started collecting the keys to their flats just about a year ago.

Services 992 and 870 were introduced at the end of last year, connecting residents to MRT stations at Bukit Batok and Jurong East as well as Jurong Town Hall and Tengah Bus Interchanges. Service 871 was introduced in July this year, connecting Tengah residents to Bukit Gombak and Beauty World MRT stations.

As with all new estates, LTA will continue to monitor travel demand and make necessary enhancements to improve transport connectivity in tandem with the development of the town and progressive completion of its road infrastructure.

Looking ahead, a key enabler of our plans to enhance transport connectivity in the West are our two new MRT lines – the JRL and CRL.

The JRL will be a game-changer for the West when it opens in stages between 2027 and 2029. With 24 new stations spanning 24 kilometres, it will serve areas such as Tengah New Town and Jurong Lake District, and also connect residents across the entire Western region to growing employment centres in Jurong. With three interchange stations at Choa Chu Kang, Boon Lay and Jurong East, the JRL will connect to the North-South Line and East-West Line, and enhance resilience across the system.

The JRL will shorten travel times for commuters in the West. For example, residents in Tengah Plantation Grove can reach Tanjong Pagar in 40 minutes via a rail connection to Jurong East interchange, compared to 55 minutes today. Similarly, residents in Boon Lay View will take 40 minutes to travel to Woodlands, down from 55 minutes today.

For the connection between the Jurong Town Hall station on the JRL and the Jurong Lake District station on the CRL, Mr Leong will be pleased to know that there will be good pedestrian connectivity between the two stations.

By the early 2030s, the CRL will further enhance the West's connection to the East and North-East regions. It will serve areas such as West Coast and parts of Clementi that do not currently have direct links to the rail network and connect residents to growing employment centres in Punggol and Changi. Commuters in the West will be able to use the CRL to connect to every radial line in our MRT network.

It will also shorten travel times significantly for some journeys. Currently, a journey from West Coast to Pasir Ris will take 70 minutes and a journey to Ang Mo Kio will take 60 minutes. With the CRL, these journeys will be reduced to 45 minutes to Pasir Ris and 30 minutes to Ang Mo Kio.

In the mid-2030s, the new Sungei Kadut interchange station along the North-South Line will provide commuters in the Northwest a more direct transfer to the Downtown Line. The new Brickland station between Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Gombak stations will also offer residents living in Keat Hong, Bukit Batok West and Tengah faster and more convenient access to the rail network.

Beyond these projects, we are also planning for the next bound. As Minister Chee mentioned earlier, LTA has been studying a West Coast Extension in tandem with further developments in the area, which will connect the JRL to the Circle Line and further improve rail connectivity and resilience for the West.

At the same time, we recognise that buses remain integral as they enable more residents to access the rail network and other amenities. This is especially important as new housing developments are being completed at a faster pace, which means that there are new needs that have to be met. We recognise that as the planned expansion of our rail network will take some time to complete, improving bus connectivity will help meet travel demand in the immediate term.

That is why we have taken further steps through the recently announced Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme. Some measures include introducing more peak-hour express bus services for faster connection to the city as well as new "express feeder" services, which will bypass stops to take a more direct route to connect residents in farther away estates to existing transport nodes and town centres.

Mr Leong's suggestion for buses is no different from this. We will also speed up the pace of introducing new trunk and feeder bus services and improving bus frequencies to improve connectivity for the early batches of residents who move into new estates like Tengah. LTA is progressively identifying these enhancements, in consultation with stakeholders.

Beyond improving transport connectivity, we are also bringing jobs closer to residents. With the development of regional centres like the Jurong Lake District and Jurong Innovation District, residents in the West will have even more employment opportunities close to home.

Mr Speaker, while we have made substantial progress, we are not done building a more connected Singapore. Our plans to improve transport infrastructure will take time. So, I seek the patience and support of Singaporeans and our residents in the West as we press on with enhancements to our public transport network in the coming years.

With the support of this House, I am confident that we will realise our vision of a well-connected and vibrant home for all residents. [Applause.]

Question put, and agreed to.

Resolved, "That Parliament do now adjourn."

Mr Speaker: Pursuant to Standing Order 2(3)(a), I wish to inform hon Members that the Sitting tomorrow will commence at 11.00 am.

Adjourned accordingly at 7.45 pm.