Networks and Transportation
The bus network has changed a lot in the last 60 years, growing alongside Singapore's urban development.
However, the bus network is not just a web of connections and infrastructure.
For everyday commuters in the past and present, it affected the way we lived, worked, and commuted.
Commuters queueing for the Singapore-Johore Express bus to Johore Bahru at Queen Street. 1978. (source)
Before 1965, Singapore’s bus routes mostly served commuters within the inner city and between peripheral locations and the city centre. However, after the rapid urbanisation of Singapore following independence, many new towns were created outside the city centre, creating dense clusters of residential and industrial location. More people meant more demand for commuter services from the residents of these new towns.
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Singapore Bus Route (1970)
Urbanisation
The Jurong Industrial Estate was the most famous industrial area established amid the government's industrialisation drive.
Left: Opening of Sugar Industry of Singapore (SIS) in Jurong Industrial Estate (1967) (source)
The Bus and MRT
A Complementary Relationship
By the 1970s, the government began looking into rail transport as an alternative to remaining on a wholely bus-operated public transport service. As passenger numbers gradually outstripped the growth of bus capacity, the opening of the first MRT services in 1987 saw Singapore’s buses once again realigning. Bus routes integrated passengership between neighbourhoods and the train network, replacing existing long-distance bus routes.
Left: Jurong East Bus Interchange (1988) (source)
Remembering Buses
In Our Lives
However, the bus network did not only represent the urban planning priorities of the Singapore government. It also represented a daily experience of millions of Singaporeans who commuted daily for work and recreation.
The ways we lived, worked, and played were facilitated by the services buses provided to our day-to-day lives.
Understandably, we hardly remember the mundane things in life like our tiring daily commutes, yet documenting the history of buses helps us appreciate these lived experiences lest change happens unnoticed and unacknowledged.
'OPERATION Q', A CAMPAIGN TO GET PEOPLE TO QUEUE UP FOR BUSES TAKING PLACE AT A BUS-STOP. 1969 (Source)
