What happened to my favourite long rides?

I have read a news article not long ago regarding the government planning to remove long "cross country" bus rides and replacing the long bus rides with only short distance bus rides.

I feel that there would be a lot of problems if such an action were to be taken. Think of it this way, many commuters take the bus from one end of the country to the other everyday, most of the time to go to work or school and return. If such bus rides are removed, how would the commuters and students go to work or school each day? How would they get to work on time?

The lack of long bus rides may be replaced with more MRT stations and more sophisticated MRT train services. However, there are already many commuters and students taking the MRT trains. Even if the train services are improved, how much more efficient can the MRT train services be? If every person who takes long bus rides to get to their destinations take the MRT trains instead, would the MRT trains be as efficient as it is now? With more passengers, the MRT trains would be more packed. Every time I enter the MRT train cabin, the MRT train cabins are always fully packed. There is barely space for us to stand straight, let alone for us to find a seat. There is also the issue of getting to our destinations quickly. By removing the long bus rides that may be able to get us to our destinations quickly and directly, we are forced to use the only alternative of taking the MRT trains. The MRT stations are not stationed at a lot of destinations, unlike the bus stops. If we use the bus services, we are able to reach our destination a lot quicker as we can reach there directly. If we are only left with the choice of taking the MRT trains, how are we able to get to our destinations quickly when we have to use a bus service after reaching the MRT station? How does this make our lives easier. Also, there may not be MRT stations around our homes. We are hence forced to use a bus service to get to a MRT station, before taking the train. After that, we may still have to use another bus service to get to our final destination. This clearly shows that by removing the long but direct bus rides, we are greatly inconvenienced.

Perhaps the government's intention of removing such long bus rides is to lessen the congestion of the roads during peak hours, but is this really the right solution to this problem? Is removing long bus rides the way to reducing the number of vehicles on the road? Doesn't this "solution" simply inconvenience even more people? The original intention of reducing the number of vehicles on the road is to make it more convenient for road users. However, by doing so, even more people are inconvenienced.

Moreover, one can do several things while in a long bus ride. One can catch up on lost sleep while on a bus ride. One can also read a book or start one's revision in the bus. There are several things that one can do in the bus. By removing such bus rides, it is akin to removing one's opportunity to rest in the bus, and to spend time wisely on the bus.