Random Thoughts on Buses in the East Area

I was taking the 32 last week when I went to Old Airport Road Food Centre. While the bus was going down Frankel Avenue, my only thought as the big houses went by, was that this place doesn't really need one anyways. From Bedok Interchange, there are 4 different buses you can use to go to Old Airport Road - 16, 30, 32, 33. The 30 is the cheapest, the 16 most expensive, while the 32 and 33 cost the same (fare zone pricing.... I still have no idea why you can travel to the same place but be able to pay different fares). When I got off the bus opposite the food centre, the buses behind me happened to be a 30 and a 33. So that made me feel like I chose the right bus. Even though I paid 20 cents more than if I did take the number 30. Oh well.

And on my way home from Aljunied, I took the 21. I passed by the Geylang Serai Market on the way. There are still loads of people eating there, which is good I suppose. What was not good was all the people getting on clutching bags of groceries on a already crowded bus. Please, more double decker 21s, please.

While taking the 28 just now, I was appalled to see the entire lower deck crammed to the gills. Luckily many people got off at the Bedok MRT stop so there was space. I went upstairs, to find the whole place quite empty ie there was no one standing with a few vacant seats scattered around. Is standing not allowed upstairs? Oh yeah, there was this ang moh guy who got onto the bus at the same time as me. And he got off at the same stop as me. And he followed me all the way back to my block. Poor ang moh guy; forced to take public transport when all the other ang mohs have cars. Seriously, what is with all the overcrowded buses in Bedok? The MRT station was also rather scary, with so many people everywhere. Listen up, MP for Fengshan, please take notice, and please do something about this problem. Either kick some people out of Bedok, or get more buses. 

What is with the Little Nyonya reruns on TVMobile? But congrats to Joanne Peh anyways for winning Best Actress. But yeah for the Ninja Warrior on TVMobile. I started laughing while watching on the bus just now and some people started staring.

And finally a freaky thing just now. I saw a bus 5 - electronic destination board version - and the number "5" on the board kept sliding in and out of the sign. Weird. Too bad about my camera! Why do I keep forgetting it????

I Saw A Unicorn!

Ok, not quite. I did see a double decker 5 bus, though, which in my opinion is just about as rare. And I managed to hitch a ride home on it, too. So, hooray I guess? But too bad I didn't take a photo. Otherwise people might think I hallucinated it or something. Haha.

The Blacklist

This week, I read in the newspaper about SBS and SMRT getting fined because of overcrowded buses. Let me go through the list one by one -

7 - Totally overcrowded, especially on Saturday afternoons. Not to mention slow like crazy as well, especially on the stretch between Holland Road and Victoria Street.

8, 10, 16 - Never taken regularly, so I have no comment.

21 - Taken many times, but fortunately all in non-peak hours. I'm guessing the overcrowded part if this service is the long stretch along Sims Avenue, but I dunno.

28 - Wow. I know about this all too well. I took this once on a weekday morning and I was shocked to discover it took about 20 mins to travel down Bedok North Avenue 3. Not to mention so many people on it was hard to move around. The evening peak is not much better, even with a double decker bus, there was almost no room to stand when I got on at Bedok MRT.

58 - Never taken. 

59 - Only sat at non-peak times, but I would hate to be on an overcrowded 59 on the long PIE stretch, standing the whole way. (There was once I stood the whole way on a 502 Express from Jurong East to Orchard, but the less I try to remember from that traumatic incident the better.)

90, 97, 145 - Dunno. No comment.

196 - Awful, awful mess. Very slow sometimes. Just another annoying service. Unless you take it around the Dover area - then its ok.

198 - I have taken it before when I went to NUH - not that crowded, but then again it wasn't 6pm.

246 - Never seen before.

254 - Oh yes. I have seen this service at the evening peak time, and I swear I have never seen more foreign workers trapped on the same bus together before. I wonder what its like on the non-air con buses. Not to be mean or anything.

255 - Same as for the 254. But less so.

Oh yeah, why is the 5 not on this list? Because there have been multiple times that I have barely been able to squeeze onto the 5 because it was too packed, and one of those times it wasn't even peak hour. It was 10pm. Not to mention that I had another traumatic 5 incident today. I was waiting at the bus stop for the 5. I had been there almost 30 mins, and I realised that I had not even seen a 5 bus, in either direction. But 2 of every other service had already passed me. I got worried as I thought maybe it wasn't operating today. I called the LTA Hotline, and to their credit, were very helpful, telling me that it was working, and said the next bus was due in 15 mins. Just before I started getting impatient (I mean, why should I have to wait 45 mins for a bus. Even in KL you don't have to do that) a 5 just suddenly pulled up to the bus stop. I really feel that the 5 service is out to irritate me as best as it can. Thanks to them, I was late for dinner. But that is always to be expected.