Bus Satisfaction Up For Third Consecutive Year; MRT Satisfaction Remains Stable
There was sustained improvement in commuter satisfaction with public transport in 2015, according to the annual Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey (PTCSS). Satisfaction levels continued to inch up and recorded a slight 0.5% improvement to 91.8% from 91.3% in 2014 (see Figure 1 below).
Figure 1 – Satisfaction levels recorded by the PTCSS from 2008 - 2015
Highlights of Survey Findings
Bus Services
2. Satisfaction with bus services improved for the third consecutive year, with satisfaction levels increasing slightly to 90.7% from 90.2% in 2014. The most significant improvements were in wait time (up 10.6 percentage points) and bus reliability (up 5.4 percentage points).
3. The improved results were likely due to the buses that have been injected into the public bus network as part of the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP), which have been used to bolster existing services and introduce new services to improve connectivity. In addition, SBS Transit and SMRT have on their own deployed higher capacity buses and/or added more bus trips along routes that experience heavy loading. The bus operators have also improved 17 out of the 22 bus services under the Bus Service Reliability Framework trial in the second assessment period1 which translates to more regular bus arrivals and less bus bunching.
MRT Services
4. Satisfaction with MRT services also registered improvements, with wait time (up 3.9 percentage points) and service information (up 3.7 percentage points) seeing the highest increases from 2014.
5. These improvements were likely due to the addition of new trains to the North East Line and Circle Line in 2015, which improved train frequencies and shortened wait times. Sleeper replacement works on the North-South Line were completed in end-April 2015 and speed restrictions were lifted subsequently, giving commuters a smoother and faster journey.
Efforts to Further Improve Services will Continue
6. LTA and the public transport operators will continue to invest effort and resources to further improve public transport services, so as to better meet commuters’ travel needs.
Annex A - Public Transport Customer Satisfaction Survey 2015
1 The second assessment period for the Bus Service Reliability Framework trial was from December 2014 to May 2015.
