3 new bus services for Tengah, Choa Chu Kang and Woodlands in the pipeline
Ng Keng Gene
The Straits Times
Sept 20, 2026
Commuters can look forward to three new bus services serving the Tengah, Choa Chu Kang and Woodlands areas, and shuttle services that will shadow the Jurong Region Line (JRL) until the trains start running from mid-2028.
Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow, speaking at a Mid-Autumn Festival celebration at Tengah Community Club on Sept 20, said Tengah is growing quickly, and transport links are a key priority for the new town.
Siow, who is a Chua Chu Kang GRC MP, said there were about 12,000 residents in Tengah about a year ago.
“Today, we have about 28,000 residents, more than double... More people are still moving in every day. In another two years, we will be at 57,000 residents – double, and double again,” he added.
In the past year, more amenities have opened in the town, including Parc Point shopping mall and Tengah Polyclinic, he said.
When he became an MP for Chua Chu Kang GRC in May 2025, there were four bus services operating in the town, and that number has now grown to 11, he added.
They include services like 674, which is a city direct service that connects Tengah to the Central Business District during peak hours, and 831, a feeder service, as well as 97 and 97e, which go to Jurong East, Labrador Park and the city.
Some newer services operate only during peak hours, Siow added.
“The reason is we start off with a limited number of buses and bus drivers. I wanted to prioritise having more connections first – connect to more places first – instead of putting all the buses into one single service,” he said.
These services could be slowly expanded to become full-day services if there is more demand during off-peak hours and weekends, he added.
Now, Bukit Batok Road is the only trunk road serving Tengah, so a road linking Choa Chu Kang and Tengah is being built. When it is ready, the authorities can reconfigure the area’s bus network, and be able to add more services without congesting roads, he said.
Two of the three new bus services will begin on Oct 25.
The first, 873/873M, will link Tengah to Bukit Gombak, Hillview and Hume MRT stations, while the 874 bus service will link Tengah to Choa Chu Kang.
Siow said many residents have been asking for a Tengah-Choa Chu Kang service, as quite a few moved into the new town from Choa Chu Kang – where their parents live or where their children go to school.
“Today, when you go to Choa Chu Kang and go back and forth, it means having to change buses twice, maybe even three times. With 874, there will be just one bus,” he added.
The 874 bus service will pass by Choa Chu Kang town centre, Concord Primary School, Bukit Panjang Government High School, Chua Chu Kang Primary School, Sunshine Place and the Brickland neighbourhood.
The third new service, 968, will support the opening of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link, said Siow. The RTS Link is slated to open in 2027.
In a statement on Sept 20, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the 968 bus service will operate from Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange – which is located near Woodlands MRT station – and link residents to Woodlands North, Woodlands South and Admiralty MRT stations.
Siow also said existing services 674 and 861 will be improved. That means more trips will be added for both services so waiting times are cut, LTA said.
Details of the rollout of improvements to services 674 and 861, and the launch of service 968 will be made known in time, LTA added.
The new services and service improvements are part of efforts under the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme (BCEP), which was introduced in July 2024 to improve bus connectivity, especially in newer estates located farther away from MRT stations.
It also aims to provide alternative travel options along rail lines with high ridership.
Siow said the Government is pumping in nearly $1 billion to enhance bus services across Singapore.
Under the BCEP, he said, 37 new or extended services have been introduced islandwide so far, while another 76 services have been beefed up by adding capacity, improving frequency or expanding their coverage.
He said: “These improvements have benefited more than 300,000 commuters every day.”
The Government is also funding higher starting salaries and sign-on bonuses for bus drivers to attract more Singaporeans and continuing to expand bus networks, he added.
As for the JRL, buses that mostly follow the train line will be introduced from the second half of 2027, and run until the rail line begins service.
“So commuters will begin to enjoy the JRL’s connectivity on original timeline first by bus and then later by train when the JRL is up and running”, Siow said.
These shuttle buses, he added, will take commuters to key station locations.
Siow said in March that the opening of the JRL will be delayed by six months and start running in the middle of 2028 because of construction delays and testing.
On Sept 20, he said that when the shuttle buses and JRL start, they will be a “game changer for transport connectivity for the West with the rest of Singapore”.
Tengah resident Thirumany Kanesan, 56, who moved to the town in December 2025, said he appreciates the introduction of service 873 because it offers residents a second way to get to the Downtown Line apart from service 180.
However, he added that he would prefer if the frequency of service 180 could be improved instead, as service 873 is likely to take a less direct route to a Downtown Line station.
Another Tengah resident, Germaine Lee, 35, also wanted the frequency of the 180 bus service to be increased. Lee – who has lived across the road from Tengah in Bukit Batok West for seven years – said 180 is the main service that takes residents to the East-West Line, and she has noticed that it is getting increasingly crowded as Tengah’s population grows.
“Even if we get to the Chinese Garden MRT station, the east-bound trains are packed during peak hours, and commuters at the next stop Jurong East have a difficult time getting on,” she added.
One Tengah resident, who gave his name as Tay and works in Woodlands, said he hopes service 874 will make it easier for him to get to work. It now takes him about an hour each way, and he often changes buses once or twice.
The 34-year-old said he hopes he can take a direct bus to Choa Chu Kang MRT station and then continue his journey on train, which should reduce his travelling time.
“I used to live in Kallang and it was 30 minutes to anywhere from there. From here, it feels like 30 minutes to any MRT station, so hopefully things get better,” Tay said.
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