There has been a significant drop in public bus and train ridership, especially in the past week as Singaporeans are staying home and avoiding discretionary travel during the ongoing COVID-19 circuit breaker period. Compared to the pre-COVID-19 period, daily bus and rail ridership has fallen by more than 71% and 75% respectively. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will therefore adjust the operations of bus and train services this week, with effect from Wednesday, 15 April for buses and Friday, 17 April for trains. In so doing, LTA and the operators will ensure that there is sufficient space for commuters to maintain safe distancing from one another. These adjustments will help to mitigate the significant financial impact caused by the reduced riderships, and help keep public transport operations financially sustainable.

Bus Services

2              Selected bus services serving the Central Business District or recreational places will be suspended as the trips to these destinations have decreased the most. Details of these bus services are in Annex A. LTA will continue work closely with bus operators to adjust the frequency of the remaining services to match commuter demand during this period.

Train Services

3              Currently, the North-South, East-West, North East, Circle and Downtown Lines operate at train frequencies of no more than three minutes during peak periods and around five minutes during off-peak periods. These train frequencies will be reduced to no more than five minutes during peak periods and around 10 minutes during off-peak periods. In addition, operating hours for these lines will end around 30 minutes earlier. Details of the last train timings are in Annex B.

4              The Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) will continue to operate at frequencies of around seven minutes during peak periods, and 12 minutes during off-peak periods. TEL currently operates on shorter hours to facilitate system integration works for TEL Phase 2, and will see its hours further shortened to operate between 6.30am and 8.00pm.

5              Sengkang-Punggol LRT will operate a single loop service during off-peak periods and end train service around 30 minutes earlier, given reduced ridership. There are no changes to the Bukit Panjang LRT service, which is already operating a single loop service during off-peak periods.

6              The changes to bus and train services will be effective from 15 and 17 April respectively. LTA and the public transport operators will continue to monitor the situation on the ground, and adjust bus and train services as necessary.

7              Commuters can get the latest updates on affected bus and train services at MyTransport.SG as well as through the Facebook and Twitter feeds of LTA and the various public transport operators.