Quality of Service (QoS) Standards

The PTC establishes basic bus service standards to safeguard commuters’ interest in terms of bus service provision. Currently, the QoS standards for basic bus services comprise of two categories:

• Operating Performance Standards (OPS) measure minimum daily or monthly operational deliverables, either at the bus network or route levels. They cover the aspects of bus reliability, loading and safety; and
• Service Provision Standards (SPS) measure overall bus route planning and provision of services. They cover the aspects of service availability, integration and information.

In 1994, the PTC first introduced a comprehensive set of bus service guidelines to regulate the performance of basic bus service operators. Following a review in 2006, the PTC introduced a more stringent set of QoS standards to improve the travel experience of commuters and after a trial period, two standards were further tightened as follows:

• Effective August 2007, timetables should be displayed at bus stops for bus services with long headway i.e. more than 20% of the bus trips having frequencies of 20 minutes or more.
• Effective August 2009, at least 80% of bus services should operate at frequencies of not more than 10 minutes during weekday peak periods.

As part of the Land Transport Master Plan to improve the connectivity of feeder connections to the public transport hubs, the PTC also initiated a new standard in August 2008, requiring operators to run at least 85% of their feeder bus services at frequencies of not more than 10 minutes during weekday peak periods. This was raised to at least 90% one year later in August 2009.

The QoS results are released on a six-monthly basis, beginning from April 2008.