I REFER to Mr David Soh Poh Huat's letter, 'Reveal criteria for transport report' (my paper, Oct 28).

The Public Transport Council (PTC) measures the performance of basic bus services, including those of feeder services, against a set of Quality of Service (QoS) standards that cover key attributes such as service reliability, service availability, loading, safety and service information.

Financial penalties are imposed on operators which fail to comply with the standards. The performance of the basic bus-service operators, i.e. SBS Transit and SMRT Buses, are assessed on a six-monthly basis.

In the latest review for the period of Dec 1 last year to May 31 this year, the operators were observed to have shown an improvement in performance, compared to the previous six-monthly review.

Full details of the QoS standards and review results are given in our press releases posted on the PTC website at www.ptc.gov.sg

We should also note that the travelling speeds of buses, as well as their arrival time at bus stops, are very dependent on traffic conditions outside the operators' control.

Incidents, such as traffic accidents or road works, could impede smooth traffic flow and disrupt bus services at times.

To address this, the Land Transport Authority has been introducing more bus-priority measures to help make bus travel more reliable.

Mr Looi Teik Soon
Secretary
Public Transport Council

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