Learnings from Singapore

Part 3 - Public transport and walking

My nine-year old son LOVES trains. I think all kids do, no, almost all men do when they were kids (most still do as adults). I have yet to meet a boy who wants a "toy bus" for Christmas. It's always the "choo-choo-train." So, I was surprised the last time we were in Singapore, when Samuel chose to ride the bus going around. "I like trains, but my feet hurt when we walk too much, papa," he reasoned. That, my friends, was a paradigm shift.

Rail-based and bus-based mass transport systems are basically the same, and their components are identical. The only physical difference between them is the wheels -one is made of steel, the other, rubber. They operate in the same way. Trains have bigger holding capacity and are faster, an advantage which is also a disadvantage, especially in an urban setting. Both need to stop, load and unload passengers, then proceed to the next station. This is where they differ.

No matter how fast a train is, it needs to accelerate (increase its speed from zero to its maximum), then decelerate again (reduce speed) to stop at the next station. If the stations are too near each other, it will not reach its maximum speed before decelerating for the next stop. That's why the LRT and MRT in Metro Manila have stations 1 to 2 kilometers apart. For Metros, especially subways, these are even farther apart. Meaning if you are in between two stations, or if your destination is, it's possible you may need to walk more than a kilometer to complete your trip. At both ends. And sometimes you walk almost a kilometer to "transfer" to another line if you need to. Anybody familiar with urban rail can attest to this.

The commuter bus is different -smaller capacity, less speed, but you have stops at almost every other corner. Most hotels in Singapore and most of their tourist attractions have bus stops in front. If you're a visitor there, it's a no-brainer that you go around visiting places faster, easier, and, yes, according to Samuel, with less walking, by bus rather than riding the LRT/MRT system. It's different if you're Singaporean, especially those who live outside the city center, who commute every day to work -the rail may be better (and faster). At the end of the day you have the LTA statistics, there are more than four million bus trips in Singapore per day, one million more than the three million MRT/LRT trips.

And this is the same all over, in London, Hong Kong, etc., with their extensive railway network. Around 60 percent of the total daily trips are by bus, 40 percent by train. We're not comparing which is better, we're saying both have their qualities, and your use depends on what trip(s) you have. We need to remember, though -the BRT is much closer and more like a rail system than the commuter bus! In fact, their only difference is their wheels!