Acting Minister for Transport Mr Jeffrey Siow and Minister of State for Transport Mr Baey Yam Keng's Remarks on Updates to the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme at Tampines North Bus Interchange

1.          Ag Minister Jeffrey Siow: Good afternoon, everybody. I am here with my colleague, Minister of State, Baey Yam Keng, from the Ministry of Transport. We are here at Tampines North Bus Interchange today to show appreciation to our bus captains, many of whom will be working over the festive period in the coming weeks.

2.          Tampines North is one of our newest BTO estates and we have big transportation plans for Tampines North. There is going to be an Integrated Transport Hub, which will include the MRT station integrated withthe bus interchange, as well as retail shops. That would be one of the centres of activity here at Tampines North. At the moment, we are in the process of constructing the infrastructure, so it will take a bit of time. In the meantime, I know many residents are already moving in and we are trying to build up the bus network to support the transport needs of the residents who are already here.

3.          In October last year, I updated about the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme (BCEP), the government-funded programme to augment our bus network. At that time, I talked about how we were going to add another 13 new and extended bus services to the bus network. I am very happy to announce that all 13 have already been implemented and are in operation. The BCEP is intended to connect HDB estates that are further away from the city, to give residents there more public transport options and shorten the transport time for them by public transport.

4.          I have more good news for our residents and commuters. In the next few months, there will be another 9 new and extended bus services as part of BCEP for estates that are away from the city centre. For example, in my constituency in Chua Chu Kang GRC, we are going to have one new feeder bus service for Tengah town – Service 831 – which will connect Tengah residents to facilities throughout the town, including the polyclinic that is coming up, and Pioneer Primary School. There will be a new commercial development, which I know my residents are looking forward to – Parc Point – which is opening up in end of March. It will have a supermarket, food court and childcare centre. The new Service 831 will be able to bring residents throughout Tengah to that new development.

5.          There will also be one more extension of an existing bus service, Service 97. Currently it stops and starts at Jurong East Bus Interchange; now it will terminate and begin at Tengah Bus Interchange. It will travel along Tengah Drive, which will be an important connection for residents to get to employment centres, not just in the CBD, but also in the Labrador Park area. It will also connect to Jurong East MRT station, which will bring Tengah residents very quickly to the MRT network. There will be other bus services throughout the rest of Singapore, as part of the 9 that I talked about, and MOS will give more details later.

6.          Buses are very important for our commuters. First of all, they bring commuters to the MRT network and that increases the speed of the journey. It allows them to travel to many parts of Singapore. I also know that some commuters like to take buses without having to get onto the MRT station, and these additions through the BCEP will be options for these commuters.

7.          I would like to add as many buses as possible, but it is not easy. As I explained before, if I add a bus service, I have to buy the bus and build the infrastructure, including the bus interchanges and bus depots. Most importantly, I have to recruit bus drivers. That is the most difficult task. We have been trying very hard to recruit local Singaporean bus drivers, but despite our best efforts, it has not been easy. For every one local bus driver we recruit, we usually lose about two due to resignations or retirement. As a result, the median age of our local bus drivers is at 56 and continues to rise very quickly. I would like to have more Singaporean bus drivers. Today, the starting salary of a local bus driver is about $3,600, including overtime. That is comparable to the earnings of a private hire car driver, but because the job is more difficult, such as longer hours and split shifts which starts sometimes at 4am and finishes at midnight, I can see why it is difficult to attract Singaporeans. But we need to do more. I know the bus operators already have a $20,000 sign-on bonus for our local bus drivers, but we have to look at the starting salaries to see whether we can adjust more.

8.          In summary, the BCEP is going well. We are introducing another 9 bus services in the next few months. We face the constraints of local bus drivers, which we are trying very hard to overcome. If we can manage to hire more, that will allow us to have more options and expand the bus network more quickly. Our priority will be for estates such as Tampines North, which are new HDB estates that are further away from the city. I want to give more public transport options for residents here, and do so through BCEP.

9.          Let me just finish to thank our bus captains and commuters, and to wish them a happy Lunar New Year for the coming festive period. To our Muslim friends and colleagues, I wish them a blessed Ramadan and happy fasting month. I will hand the time over to MOS Baey.

10.        MOS Baey Yam Keng: Let me add on with what we are doing to improve connectivity for our commuters, so that they can get to the MRT stations more directly and in a faster manner.

11.        Let me start with the Northeast region. We are looking at residents living in Hougang, Sengkang and Punggol. They can look forward to new bus services in the coming months – 457, 458 and 459 – that will bring them directly to Tai Seng MRT station without having to take the North East Line. This means that they can get onto the Circle Line directly and move on with the next phase of their journey. We hope that these new bus services will offer viable options for commuters and, at the same time, ease congestion along certain sections of the North East Line during peak hours. We hope that this will bring residents in the Northeast region better connectivity and more pleasant commuting experiences.

12.        Next, we are also making efforts to help those in newer estates where there are more BTOs being completed and more residents moving in. For example, in my constituency, Tampines, we have seen the introduction of bus services 299 and 454 to help residents moving into these new BTOs. Under BCEP, existing services have also been enhanced to provide better connectivity. By the next quarter of this year, residents living along Tampines St 64 will be able to use a new peak period service – Service 460 – that will bring them directly to Tampines MRT station. This new service will skip stops along the route, providing more direct and quicker first- and last-mile connectivity to public transport nodes. We hope that residents who are in the new BTOs will be able to enjoy these additional services on top of what they have now.

13.        Besides Tampines, we are also looking at Yishun. That is where a new service – Service 461 – will connect residents to a nearby MRT station for their commuting needs. LTA will share more operational details when ready.