Submitted by Anonymous
The LTA announced today that new measures will be tried out on a 2-year trial to try and improve bus reliability.
Announcing the new measures, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said that 22 bus services will come under the new framework which will penalise public transport operators for excess waiting times.
The excess wait time is calculated by comparing commuters actual and scheduled wait times to see how delayed certain bus services are.
The delay will then be scored and averaged to estimate a baseline score for each service. That is, what level of excess wait time is acceptable for each bus route.
Then, when buses run behind schedule in excess of the baseline scores, the operators can be fined between $1,300 to $4000 for every 6 seconds of delay. The penalties are applied as 6-month averages.
On the other hand, public transport operators can be rewarded in the form of payouts of between $2000 and $6000 for any improvements on the wait times compared the baseline scores.
Essentially, it sounds like the buses are allowed to run slightly behind schedule as long as they are on par with all the other buses on that route. Where the baseline score is behind the scheduled times, public transport operators may be getting cash incentives despite still being behind schedule.
Seriously? Is this really what our government is thinking of? This should not be the only way to do this.
