MR V. ANILAN, 45, runs one of the more expensive premium bus services in Singapore at $6 per trip, but that has not stopped Seletar residents from taking it.
The two-year-old service provides a direct link to Orchard Road and Shenton Way.
It has since expanded to two trips in the morning, and a return leg in the evening. An average of 30 commuters ride on each morning trip.
On a Wednesday morning, most of the seats on the 45-seater bus were filled by the time it hit the Central Expressway.
Setting off from its first stop on Seletar Road at 7.25am, the bus arrived at One Raffles Quay at 8.20am and then made its way to Cross Street. There are 16 stops in all on the service, which saves commuters about 10 to 20 minutes in travelling time.
Most commuters said they did not mind paying for the service, which is convenient and more comfortable than other forms of public transport.
Housewife Sherilyn Teo, 36, takes her four-year-old son on it to nursery school in Cairnhill. They used to take the train, which Mrs Teo found too crowded. 'My son would get smacked on the head by bags.'
Mr Anilan, who used to work with SMRT's subsidiary Bus-Plus, also runs a service from Yio Chu Kang to town and services for tourists to local attractions such as Sentosa.
He plans to start a couple more premium bus services next year, and will buy two new buses to add to his fleet of six.
He is excited about the opening up of the public bus service next year, when the Land Transport Authority will take over centralised planning and tender out routes to operators.
It is hoped that other bus operators will then step into the market to compete with SBS Transit and SMRT.
'If the parcels of routes are small, I will compete,' he said.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on Dec 8, 2008.
