Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) what are the specific inputs and assessment of LTA on the provision of a community-specific shuttle bus service through the South East Community Development Council and People’s Association, in Marine Parade GRC, which is an additional service outside the public transport system; and (b) whether LTA assesses a potential need for similar supplementary services in other parts of Singapore to improve last-mile connectivity.
Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) what is the total cost of the cluster-wide community shuttle bus service covering Marine Parade GRC, MacPherson SMC and Mountbatten SMC as announced by the South East Community Development Council and the People’s Association on 30 June 2024; and (b) how much of the expenditure for this one-year pilot is attributed to (i) public funds (ii) donations or (iii) other sources, respectively.
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) since the start of the Marine Parade Cluster shuttle bus service, what has been (i) the average daily ridership and (ii) the average load factor of the service; (b) what is the total amount budgeted for the service; and (c) why is the People’s Association and South East Community Development Council providing public transport services directly and only for those residents instead of working with LTA to improve public transport services for all commuters in the area.
The Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth (Mr Alvin Tan) (for the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth): Mr Deputy Speaker, can I have your permission to take Question Nos 12 to 17 on today’s Order Paper together, please?
Mr Deputy Speaker: Please do.
Mr Alvin Tan: Sir, Community Development Councils, or CDCs, were established to foster community bonds and strengthen social cohesion. They develop and implement new initiatives for their districts, to foster a more inclusive community, taking into account residents’ profiles and the needs of their respective districts.
CDCs rally the community to donate to community causes. They also provide matching grants to support ground-up community projects that meet the priority needs of the community. The Grassroots Advisers of Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (GRC), MacPherson Single Member Constituency (SMC) and Mountbatten SMC, collectively the Marine Parade Town Cluster, proposed a shuttle bus service that could complement the existing public transport service, to better connect residents to key nodes within the Marine Parade Town Cluster.
Several factors were considered. These divisions have a high proportion of residents who are seniors. Seniors have given feedback that as they age and get more frail, it is more physically challenging to walk to the various transport, healthcare and community nodes. A significant part of Marine Parade Town Cluster also comprises older estates with narrow roads, which are difficult to be served by large public buses.
Sir, such community-based shuttle bus services are not new. In the past, a few Grassroots Advisers too have raised funds to organise such services in their respective divisions.
In the case of Marine Parade, they have decided to do it as a Town Cluster and for the shuttle bus to ply designated routes, with a limited number of designated stops, such as at polyclinics, neighbourhood centres and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations.
The shuttle bus operates in non-peak hours from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm on weekdays, excluding public holidays. The route is designed to help residents, especially frail and older residents, get to amenities more easily, encourage them to continue leading active lifestyles and remain connected to the community.
The shuttle bus pilot costs approximately $1 million to operate annually. It covers a total of seven shuttle bus routes, operated by seven buses. This works out to approximately $150,000 per division, for each route.
The South East CDC supported this pilot with a one-off seed grant of $200,000. This amount came from matching grants that the Government provides to every CDC. Essentially, the Government matches donations raised by the CDCs with grants, which the CDCs can then use to support ground-up initiatives that foster a cohesive and inclusive community. The rest of the amount – in fact, the bulk and majority of the amount – was raised from donations by the South East CDC, as well as by the respective Marine Parade Town Cluster Grassroots Organisations. So, the South East CDC funding through the one-off seed grant comes up to about $2,400 per division per month.
Sir, the pilot has just started and it is still too early to make an assessment on the effectiveness of the service. To date, over 10,000 have registered for the shuttle, of which over 40% are seniors aged 65 years and above, and around 1,000 residents have taken the shuttle service every week over the past three weeks.
Beyond utilisation, the critical factor is the financial sustainability of the service. The CDC grant was provided on a one-off basis. So, Marine Parade Town Cluster Grassroots Organisations will have to eventually raise funds to cover the entire cost of operations or to refine its financing model for greater sustainability.
Operating an efficient and successful shuttle service at this scale is not straightforward. Many previous attempts at trying out local shuttle services have been discontinued because of low utilisation or financial challenges. Hence, there are still many aspects of the service to validate and to refine through this pilot. The other CDCs will study the experiences and findings from the pilot first, before considering starting similar initiatives.
Sir, today, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) and Land Transport Authority (LTA) plan for public transport services, taking into consideration commuter demand, connectivity to key transport nodes and amenities, and financial sustainability. This does not preclude localised efforts – for example, private shuttles by condominiums or people sector transportation for seniors – to address very specific needs. LTA was consulted to ensure that the shuttle bus services would not adversely affect public bus operations when using bus stops. This is similar to what LTA would do for other privately-operated shuttle services.
Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Pritam Singh.
Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Sir, I had filed the specific Parliamentary Question (PQ) on LTA’s role in the roll-out of the Marine Parade Cluster bus service to MOT, but this was re-directed to the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY). So, I have no choice but to put my supplementary questions to MCCY.
Sir, over the last few years, there has been significant public unhappiness reported among Singaporeans across the island when bus rationalisation exercises have been undertaken to remove bus services with the operationalisation of new MRT lines. This was most recently manifested late last year when residents in Sembawang, Yishun, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan and Bukit Merah raised unhappiness about LTA’s decision to amend services 75, 121, 162 and 859, and in addition to performing a U-turn to cancel bus service number 167.
Commuter grouses over the bus service rationalisation exercise centred on the loss of a direct bus route connecting northern Singapore to the city and the inconvenience of having to make multiple transfers.
Mr Deputy Speaker: Mr Singh, I appreciate you want to give some context, but could you please ask your questions in light of Question Time being guillotined at 12.30 pm?
Mr Pritam Singh: Noted, Deputy Speaker.
In striking contrast, the Marine Parade Cluster Bus Service was announced about a week after new MRT stations were opened along the Thomson-East Coast Line in Marine Parade GRC. Does the Minister of State not agree that the introduction of the Marine Parade Cluster Bus Service will make it far more challenging for the Government to undertake future bus service rationalisation exercises, especially in view of the growing population of seniors in many mature estates in Singapore who, like the residents in Marine Parade, would prefer easier and more convenient accessibility to polyclinics, hawker centres and MRT stations?
My second supplementary question: in 2022, my colleague Gerald Giam had said in this House that LTA should strive to retain trunk bus services as these serve many elderly and disabled residents and suggested switching to smaller buses or extending bus intervals instead of removing services.
On the launch of the Marine Parade Cluster Bus Service, Minister Edwin Tong was quoted as saying, “Even with a widespread transport system of public buses and MRTs, there is sometimes a gap, and that gap can translate into something that is quite difficult, especially if you are a senior.”
And on 30 July, after the Parliament deadline for Members to file PQs had passed, LTA announced a $900 million —
Mr Deputy Speaker: Again, Mr Singh, I appreciate you want to give context, but could you please get straight to the question?
Mr Pritam Singh: I will come to the question, Sir.
Mr Deputy Speaker: Thank you.
Mr Pritam Singh: LTA announced the $900 million Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme. My question, Sir: in view of Singapore’s growing population of seniors, where one in four Singaporeans will be 65 years of age and above by 2030, does the Marine Parade Cluster Bus Service open the door for LTA to introduce similar cluster services elsewhere in Singapore through the public transport system? And if not, what does the launch of the Marine Parade Cluster Bus Service say about the Government’s approach to equity and fairness in the use of taxpayer-funded grants to serve Singaporeans? Thank you for your indulgence, Sir.
Mr Alvin Tan: Sir, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his supplementary questions. With regard to the broader connectivity questions, might I ask the Member to file a separate PQ to LTA? But given that this — [Interruption.]
An hon Member: He did!
Mr Alvin Tan: Yes, for a larger perspective on connectivity issues.
But let us focus on the Marine Parade Shuttle Bus because Members have all filed related questions on the Marine Parade Shuttle Bus. And let me, as MCCY, explain the context of this shuttle bus. And I will leave it, and if there are separate questions with regard to LTA and MOT, from a wider national perspective, to file those specific to MOT and LTA.
So, let me provide that context.
First, this is a ground-up initiative. It is a ground-up initiative, very similar to other kinds of ground-up initiatives that the CDC supports. And let me just share with Members that, for example, the CDC supports community markets or Ready for School Kits, for example. They support these through grants, but a proportion of that is also funded by, for example, grassroots organisations, donors. So, this shuttle bus can be seen as also a ground-up initiative.
At the same time, the purpose of this bus was meant to serve as an added convenience. Let me provide further context where there are other divisions which also set up similar kinds of bus service. And, as I said, in my original reply, it is difficult to sustain because of utilisation rates as well as financial sustainability.
So, there are other kinds of bus services that have been trialled by other divisions. There is one, for example, where the local community had asked to provide a shuttle bus service to a local mosque. That was a one-off project for the Ramadan period. That one was funded primarily by the local CCC, for example.
Then, there is another bus service that was run specifically to get seniors to get out of their homes so that they can be active, be connected to community. That one was donor-supported, but was discontinued because of low ridership.
And then there were others where it was a bus service to help seniors to get vaccinated. And that is fully funded by sponsors.
So, these are the different kinds of bus services that are available or that have been set up by local divisions.
For this particular pilot, as I mentioned in my reply, the CDC will review this after one year and determine whether this works, and then, we will consider whether it is suitable for other divisions.
Mr Deputy Speaker: Minister Chee Hong Tat, do you want to say something?
The Minister for Transport (Mr Chee Hong Tat): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I just wanted to respond quickly to two of the points that Mr Pritam Singh mentioned earlier in his questions.
First, as Minister of State Alvin Tan mentioned, this shuttle bus at Marine Parade is a pilot community initiative. It is therefore separate from the public transport network.
So, when we responded earlier to Mr Gerald Giam’s suggestion to have shuttle buses be part of the public transport network, we explained that that would not fit well because you would still need to hire a driver and the capacity may not be enough to run as a public bus, part of our public transport network.
The second clarification to what Mr Singh mentioned earlier, we will continue to do rationalisation and optimisation of bus routes that run parallel to the MRT lines. I have mentioned this when we announced the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme, because this is part of how we make better use of our limited resources. So, the savings from the optimisation of the bus routes, the long trunk routes, can then be used to support new bus services that are needed because we have new estates coming up in different parts of Singapore.
But our assessment is that doing that alone would not be adequate because we have more demand than what we can rationalise. Therefore, we are pumping in an additional up to $900 million over eight years to be able to support more buses, hire more bus captains, so that we are able to meet the connectivity needs of our residents in both existing towns, but also in the newer estates.
Mr Deputy Speaker: Last question, Mr Gerald Giam.
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Sir, I do not believe that the Minister of State has answered my question regarding the average load factor of the bus service since it started. This is important in determining whether the service is being properly utilised.
Secondly, why are the Grassroots Advisors who are also People’s Action Party Members of Parliament fronting this service, for example, having their caricatures painted on the side of the buses and an article published in the petir.sg website, when public transport is something that should be provided by the Government through LTA and its public transport operators to all residents of Singapore?
Mr Alvin Tan: Sir, with regards to Mr Gerald Giam’s first question, it is still very early to assess it. It has only been running for about three weeks. So, the CDC, as I mentioned earlier on, will look at the ridership as well as the load and see whether that works.
For the Member’s second question, that has been answered in response to Mr Leong Mun Wai’s written PQ yesterday. The short answer is that there are pictures of other Marine Parade landmarks, including Wisma Geylang Serai Market and Old Airport Road Hawker Centre. These all help residents who would have familiarity with these landmarks and people who are familiar to them, to identify the buses. [Laughter.] I understand that, for example, Marine Parade and many other divisions, to help seniors recognise their blocks, have also put up images to help them to find their way. So, that is what is being done and that is also done to support many other seniors.
12.33 pm
Mr Deputy Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. The Clerk will now proceed to read the Order of the day and Notice of Motion. Yes, Leader of the Opposition.
Mr Pritam Singh: Deputy Speaker, I seek your indulgence. I believe, on one occasion, in the previous session of Parliament, we had extended Question Time because of the large number of questions on the Order Paper.
Can I request Deputy Speaker and perhaps even the Leader of the House to consider extending Question Time for about 15 to 20 minutes so that we could go through some of the supplementary questions on the Marine Parade Town Cluster bus service? With your indulgence, please.
Mr Deputy Speaker: Thank you for your suggestion, Mr Singh. We have actually extended Question Time by five minutes. So, my order stands.
Order. End of Question Time. The Clerk will now proceed to read the Order of the day and Notice of Motion.
Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth
7 August 2024
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=oral-answer-3616
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 