Direct Bus Services to Geylang Serai Market before Hari Raya Puasa and Hari Raya Haji

3 Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Transport whether LTA will consider planning for two direct bus services to the Geylang Serai market in the month before Hari Raya Puasa and Hari Raya Haji from main roads around Bedok South, Bedok Central and Bedok North.

The Senior Minister of State for Transport (Mr Ng Chee Meng) (for the Minister for Transport): Mdm Speaker, Bedok residents can take several bus services to the Geylang Serai market. They include Services 7, 26 and 30 from Bedok Interchange in Bedok Central, 28 and 67 from Bedok North Avenue 3, and 2, 24, 28 and 67 from New Upper Changi Road which serves Bedok South. Residents can also take the many feeder services available to transfer to one of the bus services mentioned. From previous years' experience, these bus services are sufficient to cater to the festive crowds.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Non-Constituency Member): I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. I have two supplementary questions. One is, has the Ministry conducted any assessment on the ridership patterns and bus route surveys for the route between Geylang Serai area and Bedok?

The second question is this: I thank the Senior Minister of State again for the elaboration on the bus routes, but certainly, there are certain areas in Bedok North and Bedok South where the residents will require to take feeder transfers. We receive quite some feedback from residents in Bedok complaining about the waiting time for both the feeder services, as well as for the main transfer from New Upper Changi Road or from Bedok Interchange. Some of the complaints that we have recorded show us that, say, for example bus service 229, the waiting time could take up to 16 minutes, and, for example, if you take bus service 229 and you transfer to bus service 2 or 28, bus service 2 takes up to 19 minutes' waiting time, bus service 28 can be up to 15 minutes.

For a relatively short distance between Bedok and Geylang Serai, there is a lot of waiting and transfer time. Especially for residents during the Hari Raya period, when they have to carry a lot of purchases on their way back, this can become rather inconvenient and cumbersome.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Dennis Tan, could you summarise your supplementary question.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong: Yes, there is a precedent of Chinatown Direct services. For example, there is the Chinese New Year service from Clementi to Chinatown, plus two other direct services that run round the year. So, there is precedent for such a service. Would the Senior Minister of State consider having such a service, especially during Hari Raya?

Mr Ng Chee Meng: Mdm Speaker, the assessment has been done by LTA and it is centred upon the level of ridership that would necessitate such a direct service. As the Member has mentioned, there is, indeed, a Clementi-Chinatown Direct service during the festive period. This includes charging higher fares, but it is still centred upon ridership. And even these services from different mature towns to Chinatown have low ridership of 150 to 200 riders per day. It comes back to my point in the earlier answer – whether the added services would be considered would depend on the demand. Should there be sufficient demand, LTA would certainly consider such services. But at the moment, with the surveys, there is not enough ridership to justify direct services.

Mdm Speaker: Mr Dennis Tan, next question.