By Maria Almenoar

COMMUTERS are disputing a report that says buses here run on time and are not overcrowded.

Two weeks ago, the Public Transport Council (PTC) noted that between last December and May this year, buses were late on only 25 occasions and too crowded only 28 times. It put these lapses against the fact that 260 bus services ply the roads daily.

But commuters who have to wait 45 minutes or more for their bus are far from convinced.

Administrator Chan Whye Chuen, for instance, said he often waits between 45 minutes and an hour for SMRT service 960.

The 54-year-old, who travels from his office in Bugis Junction to his Bukit Panjang home, said: "My bus stop is only five to six stops from the start point, so I can't imagine it would take 45 minutes to get here."

The wait is sometimes longer than the half hour the actual journey takes.

Other commuters have complaints of buses being packed to the rafters.

So what is causing this disparity in views?

PTC member Vincent Chua, a bus commuter himself, put it down to the "personal experiences" of commuters: "If you are counting on a bus to make an important appointment and it doesn't come on time, that makes a big difference to you and how you view the bus system."

But it also boils down to a difference in how punctuality is measured: To the PTC, a bus is "on time" if the computer at the interchange tracks it as leaving the interchange on schedule.

No tracking is done on the time it gets to each bus stop en route ? the only measure that counts to the commuter.

A frustrated Mr Chan said: "I know there may be delays on the road, but how can they allow their buses to run at intervals of more than 25 minutes?"

To this, Dr Chua's response was that the PTC's role was to balance the "commuters' and operators' views".

"We have to be fair to the bus operators and their long-term commercial viability...The delay on the roads caused by congestion is out of their control, so we cannot track them at bus stops," he said.

The only way to deal with the problem, he said, was to have more bus lanes and bus-arrival panels so commuters can decide whether to wait for the bus.

When it comes to how crowded buses are, operators are supposed to ensure that the buses are no more than 95 per cent full during weekday peak hours.

To track this, the PTC uses information from the buses' fare collection system, and adjusts for commuters who pay cash.

Here, Dr Chua again put crowdedness down to commuters' personal experiences: "If people don't move to the back of the bus, commuters in front feel it is really crowded. If they don't get a seat on several occasions, it affects their perception of how crowded it is."

The PTC bases its reviews on computer data, but sends out inspectors to do spot checks on "trouble spots". The Land Transport Authority also conducts such checks.

If operators do not buck up, they are fined. Two weeks ago, SBS Transit and SMRT were fined $9,300 and $1,000 for service lapses ? which commuters like business development manager Lynette Tan, 27, see as pocket change "in view of these operators' huge turnover".

To this, Dr Chua said the quantum of the fine mattered less than the "signal" that the PTC sent out to operators: "If they do falter on a lot of standards, the fines can accumulate to a substantial amount but the fact is, our operators really do a good job."

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Nov 1, 2008.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.