Transport Minister outlines plans to increase capacity of trains and buses

Train capacity into the Central Business District during the busiest hour in the morning is expected rise to 70 per cent in five years' time, said Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew on Tuesday.

And with ridership unlikely to increase by the same magnitude, Mr Lui said it would likely lead to a less crowded ride.

He also indicated that the bus fleet could be scaled up beyond the 550 new buses committed by the public bus operators, by roping in private bus operators.

These operators will be given a chance to run not only more services to the city during morning peak hours, but also possibly new, shorter services that feed passengers to MRT stations.

A new scheme will be tried out to improve the reliability of some bus services on the road, Mr Lui said he is taking a leaf from London and Seoul, which use an incentive and penalty system based on commuters' expected waiting times, and whose bus operators invested substantially in fleet management systems.

Also, more priority will be given to buses on the roads, with close to $50 million set aside over the next two years. The measures include adding about 30km of bus lanes and quadrupling the number of larger bus stops from 10 to 40.

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