The Public Transport Council's (PTC) regular review reveal that SBS Transit's and SMRT Buses' operating performance for the six-month period between 1 June to 30 November 2009 largely complied with the Quality of Service (QoS) standards.

There were, however, instances of non-compliance that were in particular related to the more minor clauses on adherence to scheduled headways (frequency) and maximum passenger loading.

A financial penalty of $100 is imposed for each non-compliant day on each non-compliant route for both headway adherence and loading.

The PTC, thus, has imposed financial penalties of $4,500 and $100 on SBS Transit and SMRT Buses respectively.

Nonetheless, the PTC has noted that both operators' have significantly improved in operating performance in comparison to the previous 6-month period.

Financial penalties imposed on SBS Transit and SMRT Buses then were $9,300 and $1000 respectively.

The QoS standard had also grown more stringent during the period. A new standard which requires at least 85% of feeder bus services to operate at headways of not more than 10 minutes during weekday peak periods was introduced in August 2008.

Although SMRT Buses was able to meet this new standard immediately, SBS Transit appealed for more time as it was facing an acute shortage of bus captains at the time. SBS Transit was granted more time and allowed to phase in their compliance with the new feeder standard by February 2009.

SBS Transit has since successfully met the standard from January 2009, to which PTC Chairman, Mr Gerard Ee, says is heartening.

Mr Gerard Ee also said that "on the whole, both operators have demonstrated their commitment to meet commuters' expectations and the standards set by the PTC."

This year, they are adding more buses to their fleets and recruiting more bus captains and service leaders".

"We are sure that the operators will continue to strive for better results".

The PTC reviews the QoS performance of basic bus services and announces the 6-monthly results in April and October every year.

The results of the next review are due in October 2009.

-AsiaOne