Complaints Received on Inaccurate Bus Arrival Information on LTA's Online and Physical Platforms
Ministry of TransportSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the volume of complaints regarding inaccurate bus arrival information and the root causes of recent technical disruptions to the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) system. Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan and Mr Saktiandi Supaat inquired about historical complaint data and reliability measures, to which Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Transport Jeffrey Siow responded. He noted that complaints averaged fewer than 100 monthly over five years and attributed the recent disruption to a memory cache build-up in on-board equipment. The restoration required manual firmware re-uploads and transmitter replacements, prompting the Land Transport Authority to evaluate system reliability improvements such as over-the-air transmissions. These steps are intended to prevent future system-level resets and ensure the accuracy of real-time bus location information on digital and physical platforms.
Transcript
52 Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Acting Minister for Transport (a) in each of the past five years, how many complaints have LTA received on inaccurate bus arrival information on its online and physical platforms; (b) whether other approaches were considered to fix such inaccuracies before deciding on a system-level reset; and (c) whether the Ministry expects such resets to recur in the near future and what steps are taken to address this.
53 Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Acting Minister for Transport (a) for the latest status of investigations into the recent bus ETA system technical issues affecting commuters' access to real-time information; (b) the identified root causes; and (c) what measures are being taken to improve (i) reliability reduce (ii) commuter inconvenience and (iii) prevent recurrence of such system disruptions.
Mr Jeffrey Siow: Over the last five years, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) received fewer than 100 complaints on bus arrival timings per month.
The recent disruption to the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) system was due to a memory cache build-up in the on-board equipment used to track the live location of buses. The affected buses encountered errors communicating with the server, which led to bus location information not being displayed correctly on apps and at bus stops.
To remedy the problem, the firmware had to be re-uploaded manually on each bus. This required some time. Some transmitters had to be replaced before the ETA system could be fully restored. LTA will examine how to improve system reliability further, including whether over-the-air transmissions can be activated for such software updates.