More commuters in the heartland will have access to direct bus services to the Central Business District (CBD) when five more City Direct services are rolled out from later this month.
These services will operate during weekday morning and evening peak periods, excluding public holidays. Of the five, Aedge Holdings will operate three - CDS 661, 662 and 664.
CDS 661 will serve Pasir Ris residents while CDS 662 will serve commuters in Yew Tee. Both services will operate from Sept 22. CDS 664 will serve Tampines East and Simei residents from Oct 6.
Bus Hub Service will operate the other two services - CDS 663 and 665. Service 663 will serve Yishun residents from Sept 28, while the 665 bus will serve Marsiling and Woodlands residents from Oct 12.
These five bus services will join the existing 10 City Direct services that operate in towns like Ang Mo Kio, Bedok, Bukit Batok, Eunos, Hougang, Jurong East, Sembawang, Sengkang and West Coast.
They are meant to mirror MRT routes, giving commuters an alternative to travelling on packed trains.
The first batch was rolled out last year, and the buses have proven to be fairly popular with commuters.
According to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), average daily ridership for the first 10 services is around 1,800 a day, or 45 per bus.
Each day, four buses ply the route for each service - two in the morning and two in the evening. In total, the LTA has awarded close to $20 million in City Direct contracts, each with a two-year tenure.
Separately, fares will now be distance-based, and range from $1.39 to $2.67, compared with $2.09 to $2.90 for the first 10 services - which will be converted to distance fares by the fourth quarter.
Another five City Direct services, which will link commuters in Ang Mo Kio, Bedok, Clementi/
Dover, Punggol and Yishun to the CBD, will be implemented from the fourth quarter of this year, LTA said yesterday.
Meanwhile, with the introduction of CDS 663 and CDS 665, two existing parallel bus services operated by SMRT - service 850E in Yishun and service 951E in Woodlands - will be amended.
Service 850E will provide residents living along Yishun Street 41 and Yishun Avenue 1 with a direct route to the CBD. Residents along Yishun Avenue 6, Yishun Street 31 and Yishun Ring Road, where service 850E would have plied, will be able to take CDS 663 to the city.
Residents along Woodlands Avenue 1 and Woodlands Avenue 4, who used to take service 951E, will be able to take CDS 665.
The change will also provide residents along Woodlands Avenue 5 with a new direct route to the city.
Christopher Tan
