KUCHING: A Singapore land transport senior official has suggested that Kuching draw lessons from the city state’s successful transportation system in striving to address its traffic congestion problems.
COMMON INTEREST: Loh (right) speaks with fellow speaker Neil Perks from the United Kingdom during a conference break.
Deputy director of Land Transport Authority Academy, Singapore, Loh Chow Kuang, pointed out that Kuching needed good input to come up with a good and effective public transportation system.
The International Public Transport Conference 2010 held here is therefore an opportune time for the island republic to share its experience with Kuching, said Loh, who is one of the speakers.
“We are most willing to share our experiences so that Kuching City can adapt or design its own system and we can also serve as a reference,” he said.
He disclosed that the commuter network for Singapore’s public transport system was planned for the long term and was well integrated with the main and surrounding development of the city.
Integration was essential to the transport system, particularly in terms of bus and rail links and in terms of information and physical integration of the surrounding development — for example providing amenities for other mode of transportation besides the train station.
Singapore has also recently introduced a distance fare where bus or train commuters would be charged according to the distance regardless of the number of transfers they made.
It also has a high quality infrastructure including air-conditioned transport hubs such as the bus interchange which provides a conducive environment to commuters.
Loh explained that if the quality of bus terminal and bus interchange was poor it would put off commuters.
Often, unattractive bus environment led to bus users being seen as second class commuters.
Loh said the Singapore government wanted to ensure that bus and train networks are well integrated for convenience of all sort of commuters.
Asked whether Singapore has a better system compared to the rest of the world, Loh replied that in terms of hardware they are no better than those in Europe and cities in Japan.
However, he felt they were better in the software aspect such as final touches such as regulating the service level of operators who are there to provide the right schedule and to make the system reliable.
Even if they have the best system in the world it would not attract commuters of any kind unless it is efficient, he pointed out.
According to Loh, the greatest challenge facing Singapore is land constraint and on top of that it also has to deal with an aging population.
He added that Singapore has an educated society and Singaporeans have a higher expectation so it would be a continuous challenge for the government as it had to meet the diverse needs of the commuters.
Loh said that they want to make the system more attractive such that 70 per cent of the people will use the public transport compared to 60 per cent now.
On Malaysia’s transportation system, he has high praises for the system in Peninsular Malaysia which according to him is of a high standard.