LTA and Tower Transit: Three-door buses deployed in Singapore

Two three-door buses will soon be deployed on the roads. The two buses, a double-deck and a single-deck bus, will provide the Land Transport Authority (LTA) an opportunity to study the impact of such designs in improving commuter flow.
LTA will work with two public bus operators, Tower Transit Singapore (TTS) and SMRT, to study this over a six-month period, a joint news release by the LTA and Tower Transit said.
The services will cover both residential and commercial areas and will allow LTA to gather feedback from a diverse group of commuters. The LTA said it will study how the three-door models might reduce boarding and alighting time.
TTS Managing Director Andrew Bujtor said, “The deployment of the new three-door double-deck bus will help us understand if this layout is suitable for Singapore’s high-frequency bus services and how it might facilitate smoother boarding and alighting.”
Both buses, which were showcased at the bus carnival and the Singapore International Transport Congress and Exhibition (SITCE) last year, are designed by ST Kinetics, and will include user friendly features such as passenger information display system, USB ports and wheelchair space.
The double-deck bus will be operated by TTS on Service 143 starting on 13 March 2017, while SMRT will run the single-deck bus from the second quarter of 2017. The service number for SMRT will be announced at a later date.

LTA said it had sought public feedback regarding new features on buses at the inaugural bus carnival last year.
Of the 22,000 responses received, close to 90 percent of respondents were keen on having a third-door on buses, while more than 95 percent of respondents said a second staircase on double-deck buses would be useful.
Two other popular features which are already being tested on the roads are buses with USB ports and a new passenger information display system.
LTA Group Director of Public Transport, Mr Yeo Teck Guan said: “The three-door bus concept was a hit with the public at the bus carnival last year. Deploying the three-door buses will allow us to study this concept further by observing commuter flow and how the bus adapts to the existing infrastructure.”
“The review of public bus design is a key part of making public transport a choice mode of transport as we move towards a car-lite society,” Mr Yeo said.
The commuters on the three-door buses can provide their feedback to LTA.