New S’pore Bus with 3 Doors Looks Sleek & High-Tech With 2 Stairs

“In the future, our buses will have an extra staircase and an extra door,” said no one ever.

Still, we can’t predict everything because here we are talking about the new and improved(?) public buses we have to look forward to.

A Bus That’s Already Operating

As someone who regularly takes bus 7 near Kembangan, I assumed these buses were old news. Turns out they’re not that ubiquitous and I’m just lucky to have encountered them a few times now.

For those who aren’t as lucky, glitchFan2428’s got you covered with this video he posted on Youtube touring the buses in question.

Alternatively, here’s a 360 video (though admittedly lower quality) by Tower Transit instead so you can feel like you’re actually touring the bus yourself.

The Details

(Read: why so many staircases and doors??)

Our usual double-decker bus has 2 doors and 1 stairway. The doors located at the front and middle of the bus is the entry and exit respectively, while the single staircase is the only way you access the bus’ upper deck, facilitating the flow of passengers going up as well as down (though not at the same time).

(You probably don’t need a picture but here’s one anyway.)

The extra staircase and door in this new model are placed in the middle of the bus to serve as an exit straight from the upper deck.

In that way, each staircase is dedicated to either only climbing up or down and not both (original stairway up, the new stairway down). The new door is accessible only via the second staircase due to a barricade in place.

Note the 2 stairways.

For a better look at the barricade.

Other features that may or may not be in the newer buses that stick to the 2 door 1 staircase model include the lights along the staircases that you can see in the pictures, USB charging ports at the seats, a 12-camera CCTV system, wider knee room and the Passenger Information Display System that indicates the next stop on the route.

Purpose

The presence of 2 staircases reserved for going up and coming down respectively improves the flow of passengers. In other words, it saves time since passengers entering the bus who want to go to the upper deck don’t have to wait for the passengers from the upper deck to stream down the single, narrow stairway.

On the other hand, another staircase and point of exit would logically require some space as a sacrifice, which means less space for people.

This has been verified by the decrease in capacity from 155 to 139 passengers, counting seats in the upper and lower deck as well as standing room.

Really Necessary?

It’s flashy alright, but for all that work to put in another staircase, is the trade-off really worth it? A full 10% fewer people will be able to board but the rest of the passengers who managed to squeeze themselves on will experience a quicker ride.

It’s probably a valid sacrifice since buses aren’t required to expend their maximum capacity all the time anyway, whereas the increased efficiency will definitely help even in off-peak hours.

The charging ports and definitely the Passenger Information Display System will come in handy, but I’m not sure how necessary the lights along the staircase are. Perhaps they are crucial for those with poor vision.

Regardless…

100 new 3-door buses are arriving in 2020, though there will be slight changes to the design like a spiral back staircase to increase capacity on the upper deck, and perhaps the third door at the back of the bus instead of the middle.

Look forward to it!