Bukit Panjang New Town - Transport

Transport

Bukit Panjang is a quick gateway to other towns, as well as vice-versa, as is situated just next to one of Singapore's major highways, the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE), as well as the Kranji Expressway (KJE) connected adjacent to it. As such, many motorists coming from the western parts of Singapore use Bukit Panjang's major roads as one of the ways to access the BKE and thus, the KJE.

There are two forms of public transportation that serves this town: One of it is the public buses (predominantly SMRT Buses as of late). Out of all the SMRT Buses that have its home-base in Bukit Panjang, a few of these are intra-town "feeder-service" buses that ply the various neighbourhoods, and a few only because of the existence of the Light Rail Transit system. The rest are long-distanced buses; they serve as a mode of transport to other towns and to the city.

The other is the estimated $2-billion, driverless, and fully automated Bukit Panjang LRT Line, finished on June 11, 1999. Its purpose was to serve the growing town and as a replacement to the many buses that plied through the town, especially during rush hour.

There were several petitions by the residents of Bukit Panjang on why SMRT decided to replace the buses plying Bukit Panjang with the LRT after the latter has been built. Some complaints were about the preference of the previous bus system that covered most parts of the Bukit Panjang neighborhoods, because of its many within-walking-distance bus stops that were more efficient than the 14-station Bukit Panjang LRT system, with its stations being spaced hundreds of meters apart.

Despite the complaints, the residents of Bukit Panjang as well as Choa Chu Kang take the LRT on a daily basis, making this mode of transport one of their daily modes of transport. This is also largely due to the fact of no other mode of transport, after bus services were halved.

The future Bukit Panjang MRT Station will also serve the town.