In our process of reaching out continuously to the NUS community to seek feedback on campus mobility, we have gotten to know of many students in NUS who are Internal Shuttle Bus enthusiasts. For them, studying and riding the ISB network is a hobby and passion. We reached out to one such ISB enthusiast, Ryan Ch’ng (better known as “The ISB Man”), who is currently interning with us, to get his personal thoughts on the network changes that took effect last month.

Here is what Ryan has to say:

As some of you may know, the Office of Campus Amenities has revamped the NUS shuttle bus network from 19 July 2021, together with a mobility consultant based on student travel data. While I’d qualify that I was not part of the planning of the routes and focus group discussions, I had the honour of being able to assist OCA during my internship in the lead-up to the launch.

To me, the new network is a welcome change. While the core purpose of the ISB, to connect the various venues on campus, has remained unchanged over time, the dynamics have changed. The main entry point on campus has shifted over time from the Central Library (CLB) to the Kent Ridge MRT station, and a large campus extension with housing and facilities has opened which we call UTown. It is therefore imperative that the transport network evolve with the needs of people on campus.

I think this network redesign solves many problems that have plagued the network and truly updates the ISB network for these modern times. It helps meet the needs of residents staying both on and off campus and across the faculties. Below are my thoughts about the changes!

Summary

• The changes to Services A1 and A2 ensure everyone takes the shortest path to Kent Ridge MRT Station.
• The changes to Service BTC ensure that all residences in the Kent Ridge Campus and UTown have direct connection to and from Bukit Timah Campus.
• The new Services E and K give Engineering and SDE new connections to the rest of the ISB network.
• With all the changes, the ISB network is more comprehensive and better connected.

Services A1 and A2

Services A1 and A2 reprise their role as circular services connecting the various faculties and residences in the main Kent Ridge Campus. They cater to students heading between different buildings in campus (eg. for cross-faculty classes), and to students commuting to and from the Kent Ridge MRT station. For many staying off-campus, the A services are the first and last buses they will take every day.

What has changed, however, is the start and end of the services. Previously, these services started and ended at PGP, which is adjacent to Kent Ridge MRT in our circle-shaped campus. This resulted in huge crowds on Service A1 in the morning and on Service A2 in the evening — even though faculties such as Computing and Business are near to Kent Ridge MRT on the circle, passengers were reluctant to transfer buses at PGP, and would rather go one round around the campus.

With the amendments made, Services A1 and A2 now start and end their trips at Kent Ridge Bus Terminal. This is located more or less across the circle from Kent Ridge MRT, which ensures that passengers will always take the shortest and most direct path from Kent Ridge MRT to their faculty or residence.

I think this will have a great impact on reducing crowding in the mornings. Instead of everyone waiting for the bus at the Kent Ridge MRT bus stop, those heading to FASS, SoC and BIZ will cross the underpass to Opp Kent Ridge MRT to wait for Service A2. Meanwhile, passengers heading to Science or CLB will continue to wait for Service A1 (or the new Service K) at the Kent Ridge MRT bus stop with fewer crowds to jostle with. The passenger loading will be balanced between the two services and the two bus stops. In the evening, the converse will take place.

Overall, this is one of the amendments that I am the happiest to see as it really makes the most efficient use of resources on A1 and A2. Even the Bus Captains that I regularly chat with notice the difference, and feel that passengers are making shorter and less crowded journeys with the new routes.

Services D1 and D2

Services D1 and D2 connect UTown with the main Kent Ridge Campus, each taking about half the campus. These services are heavily used by students staying on-campus at UTown, but also whenever students have lessons in UTown. They saw amendments of a much smaller scale.

For Service D1, there is no change right now and it continues to connect between UTown, CLB, Computing and Business. When the COM 3 building is completed, Service D1 will be extended by a bit to start and end at COM 3, but no longer enter COM 2. This will shorten the length and travelling time of the route, while giving Computing students an even better connection to their faculty.

Service D2 continues to connect UTown with Science, Kent Ridge MRT and PGP. It no longer plies up to TCOMS as it used to, as passengers there can now take Services A1 and A2 to connect to Kent Ridge MRT without changing buses.

Nothing much to see here, as there aren’t that many changes.

Services BTC and L

Service BTC, connecting the Kent Ridge Campus and the Bukit Timah Campus, has gotten a major overhaul. The previous version of this service started and ended in Kent Ridge, and only passed through half the Kent Ridge Campus on its way up to Bukit Timah. On its way back, passengers would need to transfer buses if heading anywhere other than Museum. There was no connection to UTown, even after multiple student residences were built there.

That problem has been addressed by the new Service BTC, which begins and ends at the Oei Tiong Ham Building in Bukit Timah. It loops within the Kent Ridge Campus, so passengers do not need to transfer to other routes. When the bus comes down to Kent Ridge, it passes through Kent Ridge MRT, UTown, Kent Vale, CLB and Business. This means that the whole of Kent Ridge Campus is served by Service BTC both to and from Bukit Timah without the need to change buses.

I am personally quite happy to see Service BTC make a stop in UTown. Student representatives have been calling for it to serve UTown for quite a while, as Law students residing in hostels inside UTown make up a fair proportion of BTC passengers. However, due to various constraints such as the need to for a bus terminal, it was not possible to amend Service BTC such that it would stop at UTown, without compromising on the provision of the service or wasting resources. In recent years, these constraints have been overcome — it was only in recent years that functions of the bus terminal were digitised, making it possible to begin and end the service at Bukit Timah. To me, this proves that bringing Service BTC into UTown was an issue of feasibility and not one of unwillingness, and credit should go to OCA and student representatives for always looking at this seriously and for making the effort to meet the needs of users. From my observations on the ground, the new service is indeed serving more passengers.

Due to the length of the Service BTC route, the frequency is set at 30 to 45 minutes. In the evenings, the new Service L operates as a higher-frequency supplementary service during the evening peak hours. This one simply loops between Oei Tiong Ham Building and Botanic Gardens MRT to clear crowds out of the campus every 15 minutes. I notice that it is not well-utilised though, but I’m hoping that this is due to the pandemic measures keeping people at home — hopefully, the utilisation will pick up as more staff and students return to campus.

Hopefully, with these changes, the needs of all the students at Bukit Timah Campus will be better met, regardless of whether they live in the main Kent Ridge Campus, UTown, or elsewhere in Singapore.

E and K

Services E and K indirectly replace the old services B1, B2 and C which have been withdrawn. They introduce new connectivity to the area around Clementi Road and Kent Vale.

Students at SDE and Engineering will be the primary beneficiaries of these services. All this while, they have been served by public bus service 96. This provides connection around the area of EA, SDE 3 and IT in an anticlockwise direction and to Clementi MRT station.

With the introduction of the new ISB network, this area is now better served by the ISB network as well. First, SDE is now finally served directly by the ISB network with its own pair of bus stops, with direct connections to UTown and Kent Ridge MRT. Secondly, connectivity is boosted — Service K provides connection around this area in a clockwise direction and to Kent Ridge MRT, while Service E provides connection around this area in an anticlockwise direction and to UTown.

I noticed that Service K helpfully supplements Service A1 and A2. It duplicates the routing of Service A1 from PGP to CLB, and that of A2 from Museum to PGPR, allowing it to help the A services along this high-traffic corridor during peak hours. However, the 40-minute frequency certainly raised eyebrows when the route was introduced. As I heard from the Bus Captains, while Service K is good for passengers, it is not easy to drive. The number of traffic junctions — particularly at Kent Vale — along the route causes delays which impact the BCs’ rest time. This is one reason for the frequency of the service — to ensure the BCs for this route have just enough rest. The service will be reviewed continuously, and if it is possible to do something about this (due to traffic conditions or user needs) improvements will be made.

The Bus Captains doing Service E have to work pretty hard for this service, as it requires them to travel multiple rounds before getting a long break. Reliability, however, is not compromised. There is a schedule that the bus must meet, by arriving at UTown at the 15-minute mark. And from what I have observed, the Bus Captains are pulling this off with aplomb, stopping at UTown on schedule every trip. I’m impressed by and thankful for how hard they are working to get us to our classes on time. Of course, this is not easy on them, which is why this service is only provided during peak periods in the morning, lunchtime, and afternoon. I’m a bit concerned that this service isn’t being used much, based on my observation during the first week of school — hopefully the ridership will pick up and better justify the number of trips.

Overall, these new connections by Services E and K (in what was previously the exclusive domain of bus 96) is a particularly novel approach and enables the ISB network to better complement the public transport network in getting students to and from their lessons. They extend the coverage of the ISB network to the whole Kent Ridge Campus.

Conclusion

I have been looking forward to such a change to the network for a long time. This revamp was made possible through digital transformation — every part of the process benefitted from a form of going digital. The routes and frequencies were planned based on student timetable data, while digitisation of Bus Captains’ workflow enabled us to overcome physical constraints and plan new routes that would not have been possible in the past. With better-designed routes that distribute demand across the entire network, I’d say the ISB network has been brought into a new era and is ready to handle a new generation of students’ transport needs. As a student who has been heavily interested and invested into the system since I matriculated in 2018, I am glad to see it moving in this direction.