Brunei-Muara Metro Service: A Proposal.
Considerations
The metro routes were first created on Google Maps. The lines focused on the Brunei-Muara district and was created by following major roads, and also going through shopping or recreational areas. View the final map here.
After working out the typical routes, which was created arbitrarily with no statistical or qualitative basis, we took into account residential areas such as Mata-Mata or Manggis. We considered how people would get to work or school, or go from their houses to public places for food or recreation.
As mentioned under “Populations” in our main article Brunei-Muara Metro Service: A Proposal, it was only much later that we ‘analysed’ the residential populations near each station. We realised that some areas were left out despite their sizable residential populations. (Read the section on “Station Names” below for more info.) However, we believe that the residents could be served by a complementary transport system, such as buses, shuttle boats, or bicycles.
The residential populations revealed by the JPKE’s Preliminary Report of the Population and Housing Census 2011 are only one factor, out of many that could be considered for planning and building such a metro service. Other factors could be:
- business populations, or the number of people working in a given area, such as the commercial areas of Gadong, Kiulap, Serusop, or Bandar Seri Begawan;
- populations of educational buildings such as schools or colleges;
- numbers of students living in hostels for UBD or other higher level institutions;
- standard of living for people living in the area;
- number of cars in the residential area;
- events where the metro service could be strained such as the SEA Games, or an international summit.
Districts
Our choice of Brunei-Muara district seemed obvious since it is the most populous and the district we (personally) know the best.
A railway system from BSB to Belait has been suggested before. Others may want to consider the transport systems within other the districts i.e. from Bangar to Ulu Temburong National Park, or, from one district to another i.e. Tutong to Kuala Belait.
Station Names
Station names tend to refer to general areas, not necessarily the kampong or the name of the road the station would be on. For the sake of saving space, as well as, clarity, the word kampong was not used i.e Bebatik instead of Kg Bebatik.
On the Western Line, we changed the name of Madewa station to “Madewa-Telanai”, to reflect the ratio of the residential populations for the area: Kg Madewa had 700 less residents than Kg Telanai. However, due to time constraints, we didn’t do the same for other stations, such as Sg Tampoi.
In retrospect, if population was going to be a major consideration for the creation of lines, there are a number of stations that may not serve a relatively high population, such as Batang Perhentian or Lupak Luas; whereas areas with high populations such as Mulaut, Kiarong, and Peninjau, do not have their own stations. So, as mentioned earlier, residential population may not be factor enough for the consideration of stations.
Schools, colleges, university
Initially the trains led directly to schools, colleges and universities such as Sultan Saiful Rijal Technical College and Jerudong International School. After some consideration we thought this would seem that certain schools are more favoured than others, so we replaced these with other areas or landmarks. We did, however, retain the station Univeriti Brunei Darussalam, as the biggest university in Brunei.
