SBS Transit Rolls Out Nine New Wheelchair Accessible Bus Services
In the 18 months since she started travelling on wheelchair-accessible buses, Ms Lily Ho has written more than 400 commendation letters to SBS Transit.
After each ride, she would pen a letter of thanks to the Bus Captain who helped her during her journey.
"The Bus Captains are polite and patient when they help me up and down the bus. I just want to thank each and every single one of them," said the 52-year-old businesswoman, who has been wheelchair-bound since suffering a stroke in 2011.
Ms Ho often takes Service 27 from her home in Sengkang to Hougang Mall to shop. With nine new WAB services set to roll out on Sunday, 31 March, she will be able to go to even more places.
The nine new WAB services - 4, 50, 62, 82, 116, 119, 132, 158 and 513 - will be launched on Sunday, 31 March, bringing the total number of WAB routes operated by SBS Transit to 148. As a result, seven in 10 of our basic services are now wheelchair-accessible.
Mr Edmund Wan, President, Handicaps Welfare Association (HWA) said: "The HWA applaud the efforts by SBS in gradually moving to have all their buses accessible for wheelchair users to move around. Members of our Association have always advocated an affordable transport and buses are the cheapest means that answer their call."
"We are very encouraged to see SBS Transit introducing more wheelchair-accessible bus services," said Ms Chia Yong Yong, President, Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD).
"Public transport plays an important role in the independence of people with disabilities, and the introduction of more affordable and accessible WAB services also means people with disabilities can be better connected for work and social integration," added Ms Chia.
SBS Transit will continue to roll out more WAB services when it takes delivery of more wheelchair accessible buses and as more ground infrastructure become barrier-free.
Please refer to the attached poster for more details.
Background
SBS Transit introduced Singapore's first WAB service in June 2006 with Bus Service 21. Currently, 73.1% of its basic bus services are wheelchair-accessible. On average, there are approximately 3,900 trips made by wheelchair passengers every month.
As of December 2012, SBS Transit has 2,052 buses that are wheelchair friendly in its fleet of about 3,000 buses. The latest purchase of 1,000 new buses - all wheelchair-accessible - at a cost of $433 million will bring SBS Transit's total fleet size to about 3,400 by 2015. This means that by 2015, close to 90% of our fleet will be wheelchair-accessible.