Public transport satisfaction falls following major MRT incidents in 2017: PTC survey

[SINGAPORE] Commuter satisfaction with public transport here dropped last year, following serious incidents such as the MRT tunnel flooding in October last year.

The Public Transport Council's annual public transport satisfaction survey, conducted in October, found that commuter satisfaction fell from 96.4 per cent in 2016 to 94.5 per cent last year.

Close to 5,000 commuters were interviewed at bus interchanges, bus stops and MRT stations for the survey. They were asked to rate public transport here on factors such as travel time, reliability and accessibility of transport nodes.

Overall satisfaction ratings were brought down by satisfaction scores for MRT services which fell to 91.8 per cent last year from 96 per cent in 2016.

When asked if public transport had improved between 2016 and 2017, 67.3 per cent of respondents said they agreed, compared with 67.6 per cent in 2016.

The number who said MRT services had improved fell significantly to 50.3 per cent, from 60.6 per cent in 2016.

Commuters gave lower scores in areas such as reliability, waiting time, comfort and service information.

The PTC attributed this to the North-South Line being plagued by frequent delays due to testing for the new signalling system which started in March last year.

Only scores for MRT station accessibility improved. The PTC attributed this to the expansion of the rail network here.

Last year saw the opening of the 16 stations making up the third stage of the Downtown Line, as well as the four stations on the Tuas West Extension.

Meanwhile, satisfaction with bus services held steady at 96.7 per cent.

The PTC attributed this to the completion of the bus service enhancement programme, which provided commuters with more frequent buses and enhanced connectivity.

The survey also found that 80.8 per cent of respondents felt that bus services had improved year on year, an increase from 72.9 per cent in 2016

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