All these are important long-distance inter-town bus services that complement our MRT network, but they are too slow. Basic bus services travel at about 15 kilometres per hour, about half the speed of the MRT. While we currently have faster express buses like Service 30e, many of them only operate during peak hours. What we need is a network of skip-stop buses to complement the MRT in moving people between towns quickly. This is especially important for areas currently not served by MRT.
The second type of skip-stop services is to connect more far-flung areas to key transport nodes and community hubs faster. These may be similar to the "express feeder" bus services that LTA is going to introduce under the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Plan. For example, we should introduce skip-stop service 870E to connect Tengah with Jurong East MRT and a skip-stop service 871E to connect Tengah with Bukit Gombak MRT and Beauty World MRT. These will be much faster than the current services 870 and 871. We can also introduce a bus service linking Tengah and Boon Lay, which is something many Tengah residents have asked for during my engagement with them.
The Progress Singapore Party (PSP) urges LTA to seriously consider using the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme as an opportunity to boldly reimagine our bus system. This should be done at a national level, but it is especially important in the West, where rail connectivity is not as good as the East, but the commuting population is fast building up. Mr Speaker, in Mandarin please.
(In Mandarin): Mr Speaker, last month, an unprecedented six-day massive disruption occurred between Jurong East and Boon Lay stations on the East-West Line. This made Singaporeans living in the western part of Singapore, especially in Jurong West, Jurong East and Clementi, realise how reliant they are on the East-West Line as a critical rail infrastructure.
In the Land Transport Master Plan 2040 released by the Land Transport Authority in 2019, a vision was set that by 2040, Singapore would become a "45-minute city", meaning that 90% of public transport journeys during peak hours could be completed within 45 minutes. However, for residents in the west, this vision is far from reality at present.
PSP believes that to achieve this vision for western residents, the Government should implement two proposals currently under study regarding the JRL.
The first is to extend the JRL from Pandan Reservoir station to Haw Par Villa station on the Circle Line. The second is to connect Jurong Town Hall station on the JRL with Jurong Lake District station on the CRL to form an interchange station.
To expedite the extension of the MRT network in the west, we also suggest that the Government include skip-stop services in this year's Bus Connectivity Enhancement Plan, connecting various parts of the island to allow western residents to commute to work and travel more quickly.
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