SINGAPORE: Eight new bus services will be introduced in Tengah and Brickland by the end of next year to help ease residents’ connectivity woes, said Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow on Sunday (Jun 8).

Complaints on the lack of amenities and transport options have arisen among early residents of Tengah, a new HDB town located in the west of Singapore.

The first two bus services will be rolled out by the end of this year. Service 872, which will start from Tengah Bus Interchange and serve areas like Tengah Boulevard, Plantation Crescent, Bukit Batok, Jurong Town Hall and Chinese Garden MRT, is slated to start on Aug 10.

The other service will start from Brickland and pass through Bukit Panjang and Jurong East MRT stations. More details will be announced at the start of the fourth quarter.

By the end of next year, there will be two express services, one a city direct service from Brickland, and the other is a privately operated bus route from Brickland to the One-North area.

There will also be four express feeder services by the end of 2026, which will take residents from their homes to nearby MRT stations, such as Beauty World, Bukit Gombak, Bukit Batok and Jurong East MRT stations.

Mr Siow was at a People’s Association family event at Tengah Community Club, where he was speaking to the media for the first time since assuming the transport minister role on May 23.

He took over the position from Mr Chee Hong Tat, who is now the Minister for National Development.

Mr Siow, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Brickland ward that is part of Tengah, touched on some issues faced by Tengah residents at Sunday’s event.

Mr Siow said in a speech to residents at the community club that there are four "C"s that the government hopes to address: not enough coffee shops, not enough childcare centres, not enough transport connectivity and concerns with the centralised cooling system in their HDB units.

He said that the government is “very focused” on tackling these issues, noting that a multi-agency committee has been set up to support those moving into new Build-to-Order (BTO) flats.

He said that the chairman of the committee is Senior Minister of State Sun Xue Ling, who has appointments in both Ministry for National Development and the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

“So just be a little bit patient, because I know we are doing these things as residents are moving in, and it will become better, very, very soon,” he said.

The Tengah Bus Interchange opened on Jul 21 last year. With it, a new service 871 was introduced to connect Tengah to Bukit Batok West, Bukit Gombak and Beauty World.

Two existing bus services, 992 and 870, were also extended to better serve Tengah residents.

Source: CNA