Singapore’s four public bus operators and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will jointly review their management of the free bridging and regular bus services they operated in response to the recent major rail disruption on the East-West Line (EWL).

“After every incident, we call for a review to take on the lessons learnt and what we need to do in order to strengthen our incident management (plans),” said LTA director of bus regulation Amos Ang.

He said this in response to a question from The Straits Times during an interview at LTA’s headquarters in Hampshire Road on Oct 2, which was also attended by representatives from public bus operators SBS Transit, Tower Transit Singapore, SMRT Buses and Go-Ahead Singapore.

Mr Ang was asked how rail incident management plans have been adjusted to account for such prolonged MRT disruptions.

The operators ran free regular and bridging bus services for passengers affected by the six-day disruption, which was one of the worst in the 37-year history of Singapore’s MRT system.

Between Sept 25 and 30, there was no train service between Jurong East and Buona Vista MRT stations, after a train caused extensive damage to the tracks and trackside equipment. About 2.6 million passengers were affected before rail services resumed on Oct 1.

Free bridging buses ferried passengers between Jurong East and Buona Vista, while free regular bus services plied the stretch between Boon Lay and Queenstown stations.

SMRT, which operates the EWL, will foot the bill for the bus services. It said it is in the midst of calculating the cost of this.

Mr Ang and Mr John Tan, head of bus engineering and support at SMRT Buses, acknowledged the confusion and frustration experienced by passengers who had to navigate snaking queues for bridging buses on the first two days of the disruption.

They said the authorities and bus operators had adjusted their plans after Sept 25 to ease congestion, such as introducing better queue management measures.

Mr Ang added that LTA also chaired a daily meeting to “take in the lessons for the day, to improve for the next day”.

In an MRT disruption, the rail operator – SMRT in this case – alerts LTA and the bus operators, which in turn activate free bus services for affected passengers.

Bus operators will then begin to redeploy bus captains on duty and recall others on their days off.

To cope with the passenger load, about 80 bridging buses and at least 160 bus captains were deployed daily between Sept 25 and 30.

One Tower Transit depot manager, Mr Jack Ng, 32, took matters into his own hands when he realised that his bus captains may not have enough rest between shifts.

Mr Ng, who joined Tower Transit as a bus captain in 2016, jumped behind the wheel and started driving a bridging bus between the affected stations. He did this for three days.

On why he took over some bus captains’ shifts, Mr Ng said: “My main objective was to make sure that the bus captains were able to have their breaks.”

The bus operators also provided free rides on 85 regular bus routes between Boon Lay and Queenstown stations.

At Buona Vista station, the authorities worked with the Ministry of Education (MOE) to free up space in front of the MOE building in North Buona Vista Drive to form more orderly queues. LTA also adjusted traffic signals to allow a smoother flow of the buses.

Roadworks were paused along the bridging bus route and enforcement officers were deployed to deter illegal parking, ensuring that lanes were freed up for buses to pass through, Mr Ang said.

Mr Tan said teams were also stationed at bus stops and in the affected MRT stations to direct commuters and answer their questions, including a team that looked out for vulnerable passengers, such as the elderly.

About 600 ground staff from LTA, the bus operators and the police supported operations daily.

Among the challenges of operating bridging buses for six days was dealing with the sheer number of people affected.

Each train delivers 400 to 500 people, who would have to be guided to a queue to board free buses, Mr Ang said. Four or five buses would be lined up to take one trainload of people away, only to be replaced with another trainload every two or three minutes, he added.

The authorities allowed commuters to board the buses from the front and back doors to speed up boarding, and put up more signs to direct passengers, in addition to playing recorded messages and using loudhailers.

Mr Ang noted that LTA runs a yearly exercise – known as Exercise Greyhound – with bus and rail operators to rehearse their plans in case of a disruption.

This meant that when free bus services were activated from Sept 25 to 30, and bus captains had to operate bridging buses, they had already been trained and were familiar with what they had to do.

Bus captains also have access to mobile apps developed by the bus operators to help them navigate bridging bus routes. If needed, another staff member can be on board to help the bus captain navigate.

Mr Tan said some confusion among the public about how bridging buses worked is inevitable as plans kick in.

SBS Transit senior bus captain S. Muthiah Suppiah, 63, operated a bridging bus service between Jurong East and Buona Vista stations for five days, working about nine hours daily. Mr Muthiah, who has worked at the bus company for 29 years, said: “I’m very proud of it because I served the public.”

He said some passengers thanked him with a smile. “They said good work... I appreciate them for being so patient.”