[BSEP] New City Direct bus services in 2014
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de. (2013, December 27). Three new City Direct bus services start in January 2014. Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/
SINGAPORE: Three new City Direct bus services from the heartlands to the Central Business District (CBD) will begin operations from January 2014.
Service 652 from Ang Mo Kio to the CBD will begin on 6 January 2014. On weekday mornings, it will ply Upper Thomson Road, Yio Chu Kang Road, Ang Mo Kio Avenues 3, 4, and 10 before taking the Central Expressway to the CBD, including Bras Basah Road and Shenton Way.
On weekday evenings, the service will run from Robinson Road back to Ang Mo Kio.
Service 653 will start its operation from Bukit Batok/Hillview from 13 January 2014. It will ply Hume Avenue, Hillview Avenue, Bukit Batok East Avenue 2 and Bukit Batok East Avenue 3 before heading towards Robinson Road and Marina Boulevard via the Pan-Island Expressway and the Ayer Rajah Expressway. In the evenings, the service will head back to Bukit Batok/Hillview.
Service 654 will start from 20 January 2014 from Sengkang. It will ply Anchorvale Street, Compassvale Street and Rivervale Drive before heading towards Central Boulevard and Shenton Way via the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway and East Coast Parkway. In the evenings, the service will bring commuters back to Sengkang.
Three other services will begin operations in February 2014 and will cover West Coast, Sembawang and Jurong East. Details will be announced closer to the implementation dates.
- CNA/de
David Ee. (2013, December 27). Six new City Direct bus services to start from January and February. The Straits Times. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/
Six new City Direct bus services from the heartlands to the Central Business District will begin from January and February next year.
City Service 652, which starts on Jan 6, will ply Upper Thomson Road, Yio Chu Kang Road, Ang Mo Kio Ave 4, Ave 3 and Ave 10, before taking the Central Expressway (CTE) downtown. Meanwhile, from Jan 13, City Service 653 will serve Hume Avenue, Hillview Avenue, Bukit Batok East Ave 2 and East Ave 3 before taking the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) and Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE).
The route for City Service 654, which starts on Jan 20, will include Anchorvale Street, Compassvale Street and Rivervale Drive before taking the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) and East Coast Parkway (ECP) to the city. The other three routes serving West Coast, Sembawang and Jurong East will commence in February. More details on these three routes will be announced later, said a Land Transport Authority spokesman on Friday.
The City Direct bus services are run by private bus operators to give heartland commuters an extra option in and out of the city. A total of nine will be rolled out. For a start, the new bus services will make two one-way trips to the city on weekday mornings and two one-way return trips in the evenings. More trips may be added depending on demand, said the spokesman.
(2013, December 27). Six New City Direct Bus Services Starting From January 2014. Land Transport Authority of Singapore. Retrieved from http://app.lta.gov.sg/
- Six new City Direct bus services from the heartlands to the Central Business District (CBD) will begin operations from January 2014. Three of these services will be implemented in January 2014, followed by another three in February 2014. The three services commencing operations in January 2014 are:
- 6 January 2014 : Ang Mo Kio City Direct Service 652;
- 13 January 2014 : Bukit Batok / Hillview City Direct Service 653; and
- 20 January 2014 : Sengkang City Direct Service 654.
- For a start, these bus services will make two one-way trips to the CBD on weekday mornings and two one-way return trips in the evenings, excluding public holidays. More trips may be added depending on the demand for the services. With limited stops and the use of expressways, journey times will be comparable to that of taking a bus or LRT and transferring to the MRT into the city.
- From 6 January 2014, commuters travelling from Ang Mo Kio to the CBD on weekday mornings will be served by City Direct Service 652. Operated by Ren Quan Transport, the bus service will ply Upper Thomson Road, Yio Chu Kang Road, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, Avenue 3 and Avenue 10 before taking the Central Expressway (CTE) to get to the CBD, including areas such as Bras Basah Road and Shenton Way. On weekday evenings, the service will connect commuters from Robinson Road back to the Ang Mo Kio neighbourhood.
- On 13 January 2013, City Direct Service 653 will start its operation from Bukit Batok / Hillview. Service 653 will ply Hume Avenue, Hillview Avenue, Bukit Batok East Avenue 2 and Bukit Batok East Avenue 3 before heading towards Robinson Road and Marina Boulevard via the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) and the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE). In the evening, it will bring commuters back to Bukit Batok / Hillview. Service 653 is operated by ComfortDelGro Bus Pte Ltd.
- Ren Quan Transport will operate City Direct Service 654 from Sengkang from 20 January 2014. The service will ply Anchorvale Street, Compassvale Street and Rivervale Drive before heading towards Central Boulevard and Shenton Way via the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) and East Coast Parkway (ECP). Similarly, the bus service will bring commuters back to the Sengkang housing estate in the evening.
- The other three City Direct bus services from West Coast, Sembawang and Jurong East will begin their operations in February 2014. More details will be announced closer to the implementation dates.
- Last month, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) awarded contracts for six City Direct services to five private bus operators (PBOs) under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP), with a total value of about $7.16 million over a two-year period.
- The move is in line with the Minister for Transport’s announcement at the Committee of Supply 2013 to tap on the resources of PBOs to augment those of the public transport operators (PTOs). Of the fourteen parallel bus services which will be introduced under BSEP, four will be operated by the PTOs#1 and ten others will be operated by the PBOs as City Direct services through competitive tenders. The tendering process allows the most cost-efficient operators to win the rights to operate the services. Successful operators will have to apply for bus service licences from the Public Transport Council (PTC), which regulates bus services.
In future, in 2014, when there is news regarding City Direct bus services (new service launches or more trips added), please post them here in this topic.
If you have any complains about City Direct bus services, do post them here to share with everyone. Maybe other people also have the same encounter and can help you cope with your encounter.
If you feel that the City Direct buses are starting to become more packed and more trips should be added, you can write it here for everyone to know. Speaking of which, I am still waiting for Comfort Delgro to add more trips to service 651.
When everything related to City Direct bus services is posted to this one topic, we may have more things to discuss and in return, we may be able to come up with good (better) suggestions, ideas, etcetera which we can suggest to the relevant operators/authority for consideration.
Meanwhile, if you would like to suggest new City Direct bus routes, I think a more suitable topic for this would be the [Route Suggestions] series.
- Six new City Direct bus services from the heartlands to the Central Business District (CBD) will begin operations from January 2014. Three of these services will be implemented in January 2014, followed by another three in February 2014. The three services commencing operations in January 2014 are:
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652 route similar to 549 route....and is much cheaper... but...is standing allow?
a fare of S$2.20/pax mean that 250 persons have to squeeze into one bus for LTA to break even.the cost of operating... lol...
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by looking at the Ren Quan web site. I think the buses it has is good for sitting only. unless they get buses like sbst or smrt. only 2 trips per peck hours. humm look like PAP just use this city direct thing as a tool for political gain