Alvin Tan on funding of free shuttle bus service in Marine Parade GRC, MacPherson and Mountbatten SMCs
Grassroots advisers of Marine Parade GRC, MacPherson SMC and Mountbatten SMC - collectively the Marine Parade Town Cluster - proposed a shuttle bus service to complement the existing public transport service to better connect residents to key nodes in the estates. These divisions have a high proportion of residents who are seniors. A significant part of Marine Parade Town Cluster has older estates with narrow roads which are difficult to be served by large public buses. Marine Parade Town Cluster decided to have a shuttle bus to ply designated routes with a limited number of designated stops. The shuttle bus operates during non-peak hours - from 10am to 4pm on weekdays, excluding public holidays. The route is designed to help residents, especially frail and older residents, get to amenities more easily. It costs approximately S$1 million to operate annually, covering seven shuttle bus routes operated by seven buses. South East Community Development Council (CDC) supported this pilot with a one-off seed grant of S$200,000. This amount came from matching grants that the Government provides to every CDC. The rest was raised from donations by South East CDC, as well as by the respective Marine Parade Town Cluster grassroots organisations. Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth Alvin Tan, who gave these details in reply to Parliamentary questions on Wednesday (Aug 7), said the pilot has just started and it is still too early to assess its effectiveness. To date, over 10,000 have registered for the shuttle, of which over 40 per cent are aged 65 years and above. Around 1,000 residents have taken the shuttle service every week over the past three weeks. Mr Tan said beyond utilisation, the critical factor is financial sustainability. The CDC grant was provided on a one-off basis, so Marine Parade Town Custer and grassroots organisations will have to eventually raise funds to cover the entire cost of operations or to refine its financing model.
Grassroots advisers of Marine Parade GRC, MacPherson SMC and Mountbatten SMC - collectively the Marine Parade Town Cluster - proposed a shuttle bus service to complement the existing public transport service to better connect residents to key nodes in the estates. These divisions have a high proportion of residents who are seniors. A significant part of Marine Parade Town Cluster has older estates with narrow roads which are difficult to be served by large public buses. Marine Parade Town Cluster decided to have a shuttle bus to ply designated routes with a limited number of designated stops. The shuttle bus operates during non-peak hours - from 10am to 4pm on weekdays, excluding public holidays. The route is designed to help residents, especially frail and older residents, get to amenities more easily. It costs approximately S$1 million to operate annually, covering seven shuttle bus routes operated by seven buses. South East Community Development Council (CDC) supported this pilot with a one-off seed grant of S$200,000. This amount came from matching grants that the Government provides to every CDC. The rest was raised from donations by South East CDC, as well as by the respective Marine Parade Town Cluster grassroots organisations. Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth Alvin Tan, who gave these details in reply to Parliamentary questions on Wednesday (Aug 7), said the pilot has just started and it is still too early to assess its effectiveness. To date, over 10,000 have registered for the shuttle, of which over 40 per cent are aged 65 years and above. Around 1,000 residents have taken the shuttle service every week over the past three weeks. Mr Tan said beyond utilisation, the critical factor is financial sustainability. The CDC grant was provided on a one-off basis, so Marine Parade Town Custer and grassroots organisations will have to eventually raise funds to cover the entire cost of operations or to refine its financing model.
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