SINGAPORE - Residents in Tengah and Bukit Batok West will have more transport options from Sept 24, when new bus services 992 and 993 are rolled out.
Existing bus services will be replaced by the two new ones, which will ply extended routes to serve more areas – service 992 will replace feeder service 944, while service 993 will replace service 160M.
The Housing Board has been offering a temporary shuttle bus service since Aug 29 for residents of the Plantation Acres estate, who started collecting their keys in end-August. The shuttle service will cease on Sept 30, after the two new bus services are launched.
Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor on Wednesday said service 992 – operated by Tower Transit – will connect residents to amenities between Bukit Batok West and Tengah.
According to a Land Transport Authority (LTA) travel guide issued to Plantation Grange residents, service 992 will link commuters to places such as Le Quest mall, Bukit Batok Polyclinic and Bukit Batok MRT station.
Service 992 will ply three additional stops when its route is extended to Plantation Crescent in Tengah town: Block 111 of Plantation Crescent, opposite Block 443D Bukit Batok Road and Block 464A Bukit Batok West Avenue 8, said Tower Transit.
The bus operator said in a Facebook post that service 992 will be further extended when works for the Jurong Region Line are completed.
Service 993 – run by SBS Transit – will serve new developments within Bukit Batok West, said Dr Khor in a Facebook post.
It will ply a longer route to and from Jurong East Interchange, and call at a new bus stop at Bukit Batok Road as well as a future one along Bukit Batok West Avenue 8, said SBS Transit.
Residents in Tengah whom The Straits Times spoke to have mixed reactions. Some are looking forward to the added convenience the new bus routes will bring, while others lament the long walk to the new bus stops.
For Madam Mavis Tan, a 40-year-old housewife who will be collecting the keys to her Plantation Grove flat in the first half of 2024, the new services will be useful as both bus stops are within a five-minute walk from her block.
She said she will be using service 993 very often to travel to Jurong East, as she prefers to buy groceries from bigger supermarkets like FairPrice Xtra at Jem, compared with the FairPrice Finest outlet at Le Quest which offers a smaller variety of brands.
Madam Tan added that she will also be using service 992 to travel around Tengah, once she familiarises herself with the area around Le Quest mall after moving in.
Other residents in Plantation Grange – who will be collecting their keys by the end of this year – flagged the inaccessibility of the new bus stops and limited destinations served by the bus routes.
Homemaker Chan Yuke Man, 58, said his family does not benefit greatly from the new services as his daughters would need to change buses twice to get to St Anthony’s Primary School in Bukit Gombak.
This is similar for most nearby destinations in the Bukit Gombak area, which his family frequents, he added.
Mr Chan noted that he will have to walk 15 minutes along the perimeter of Tengah Grange to the bus stop at Block 111 to take service 992, as construction work for other residential blocks is still ongoing.
He said his 94-year-old mother, who will be living with him in his three-generation flat, will face difficulties walking such a long distance to the bus stop.
Mrs Priscilla Ng, 51, said Tengah residents could face the problem of overcrowding on service 992, as the route also serves residents in West Edge and West Scape in Bukit Batok.
Bus 993 is also not a plausible option for the teacher, as she said its nearest bus stop is outside the Tengah estate and 30 minutes away on foot.
Mrs Ng said: “As (Tengah is) going to be a green town, we should have a better public bus system for commuters (to travel) to and fro home before the Jurong Region Line is ready.”
