Senior Minister Of State, MOT, Chee Hong Tat to meet MPs Liang Eng Hwa and Edward Chia

Senior Minister Of State, MOT, Chee Hong Tat Facebook Page

“Residents from Bukit Panjang have been writing to Ministry of Transport, Singapore to reflect their concerns on the changes of the bus routes and withdrawal of Service 700.

I have discussed the matter with Land Transport Authority. The key reason for this change is prudence in spending public funds.

When the Downtown Line started running from December 2015, ridership on buses running parallel to DTL fell significantly.

This is not surprising as the MRT system is designed to carry much larger numbers of commuters than buses, especially for longer journeys across the island. In Bukit Panjang, bus service 171’s ridership fell by more than one-third and bus service 700’s ridership fell by more than half in the first year after DTL Phase 2 opened.

Today, DTL operations itself is subsidized by Government with public funds – over $60 million a year- for the stretch between Bukit Panjang and the city.

Meanwhile, lower ridership on the buses meant Government also have to provide higher amounts of subsidies to continue operating these services. Before COVID-19 started, $14 million of subsidies are needed every year to keep S171 and S700 running.

LTA has been engaging the local grassroots advisers on this matter since 2016.

So the recent changes announced by LTA is to exercise financial prudence in the use of public funds. We need to optimise the allocation of limited resources to benefit as many commuters as possible living in different parts of #Singapore.

But we also understand the concerns that residents have and that some of them will experience inconveniences.

I will be meeting Advisers Liang Eng Hwa and Edward Chia tomorrow together with LTA colleagues. Will also hear from the grassroots leaders and residents, to understand their concerns and discuss what are the possible mitigation measures. — Hong Tat”