Satisfaction with public transport holds steady

Survey shows 93% satisfied, similar to 2022; but fewer content with bus waiting times

- Esther Loi and Whitney William

While passengers' satisfaction levels with public transport held steady in 2023 compared with the previous year, fewer were content with bus waiting times, according to an annual survey by the Public Transport Council (PTC).

Some 93 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with public transport in Singapore, similar to the close to 93 per cent figure in 2022. But this is still much lower than the 99.4 per cent in 2019.

There was a 4 percentage point drop in bus passengers' satisfaction with waiting times, from 80 per cent in 2022 to 76 per cent in 2023.

Noting the decline, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said manpower challenges have impacted the ability of public transport operators to tackle operational emergencies, such as traffic delays, bad weather or staffing shortages due to medical leave.

It added that the public transport operators have been increasing their local recruitment efforts to attract more bus captains, but there are still vacancies and meeting full staffing requirements remains a challenge in the tight labour market.

The authority said the existing pool of bus captains is working hard to meet new needs, by doing additional trips to improve the frequency of existing services based on passenger demand and being redeployed to bus services serving newer estates.