Jurong East Bus Interchange - History

History

The original facility used for the bus interchange was built in the 1980s, west of Jurong East and opposite the Jurong CPF building at Jurong Gateway Road. Most of the bus services in the bus interchange originated from the from Teban Gardens Terminal and some from the former Jurong Bus Interchange, which were re-routed to this interchange when it opened. For years, despite being in the zone marked as Jurong Regional Centre, the bus interchange had a rather low level of passenger flow as compared to the larger Boon Lay Bus Interchange serving Jurong West New Town, the Jurong Industrial Estate, as well as institutions in the west including the Nanyang Technological University. The interchange serves mainly commuters travelling to the various housing estates, schools, religious places, tourist attractions and industrial places in Jurong East and those travelling to Malaysia via Tuas Checkpoint.

Following the redevelopments in Jurong, the original facility had been slated to be rebuilt into an air-conditioned facility as part of a commercial development on the site, which the commercial development and surrounding commercial places, together with Jurong East will be collectively known as the Jurong East Integrated Transport Hub, similar to the earlier hubs in Toa Payoh, Sengkang, Ang Mo Kio, Boon Lay, Serangoon and Clementi. Bedok interchange is also currently being rebuilt into an Integrated Transport Hub too . The rebuilding plan came along with the other plots of land surrounding the original facility being sold off to developers for commercial developments on 27 October 2010 when the Land Transport Authority released a tender for a "Proposed Jurong East Temporary Bus Interchange" indicating the redevelopment of the bus interchange. The land(MK05-08622X) occupied by the original facility was to be acquired by Singapore Land Authority for development into a commercial centre 10 years later and the original interchange to relocate to a temporary facility. The construction of the temporary facility spanned from the middle of 2011 to the end of 2011.

The temporary facility is located at the south of the Jurong East along Jurong Gateway Road, roughly 0.2 km South-East from the original facility, opposite JCube at the western end of it and the JTC Corporation headquarters at the eastern end. It has the same colour scheme of red as the original facility and it somewhat resembles the temporary facility used by Boon Lay Temporary Bus Interchange. It would serve as Jurong East Bus Interchange for about 5 years while the site of the original facility is rebuilt as the new shopping mall, Westgate. Construction of Westgate is expected to start soon.

The new bus interchange brought about changes in routes. The bus stop outside Blk 131 is now being reused after the Jurong East Modification Project three years ago. Some former sawtooth bus services now call at the bus stop outside Seventh-Day Adventist Church.