Tower Transit bus captain who skipped bus stop at Woodlands to undergo ‘remedial training’
A heated argument ensued after a bus driver allegedly failed to stop at Woodlands North MRT station, with a passenger repeatedly asking if he was “deaf” while he asked if she “wanted to apologise”.
TikTok user @nshkn.rs shared a video of the confrontation, which has since been taken down, claiming that passengers were “late to work” after a bus driver of Service 856 failed to stop at Woodlands North MRT station.
“Despite passengers requesting to alight, he refused and continued driving, only stopping at Khalsa Crescent (Drug Rehabilitation Centre) bus stop,” she wrote in the caption.
In the video, the TikToker asks the driver in Mandarin while jabbing a finger at him: “Why didn’t you stop? You made a lot of people late, you know?”
“We pressed the bell, didn’t you hear? Are you deaf?” she adds. “Are you going to open the door or not?”
The driver repeatedly asks if she “wanted to apologise” to him, while she insists that he is “in the wrong” and refuses to do so.
“Then I won’t move,” the bus driver says. He opens the door a few seconds later, and the woman alights.
She adds in the post’s caption that passengers were “forced to walk and cross the road from Khalsa Crescent to Woodlands North MRT”, calling for authorities to take action regarding the incident.
Stomp has reached out to nshkn.rs for comment.
Bus driver’s behaviour was ‘unacceptable’: Tower Transit responds
In response to Stomp’s queries, a Tower Transit Singapore spokesperson said that investigations found the bus captain to be at fault, extending an apology to passengers affected by the incident.
“While the bell was activated at the last minute, the bus captain could have exercised better judgement and not have bypassed the stop,” the representative explained, adding that his decision not to open the doors at the next stop was “unacceptable”.
The bus captain will undergo remedial training and counselling to prevent a recurrence of such incidents, the spokesperson said.
‘What kind of service is this?’: Fellow passenger appalled
The post garnered over 40,000 views, with some netizens calling the driver’s actions “outrageous” and “rude”.
One commenter, who identified themselves as a fellow passenger on the bus, said that many commuters were unable to alight. “What kind of service is this?” they asked.
Others questioned whether it was an isolated incident, noting that “bus drivers are humans too, they make mistakes”.
“Is this a one-off incident or ALL THE TIME?...if it’s a one-off, then should just forgive and forget...IF it’s ALWAYS, then just go and report to the corporate....early in the morning no need to argue and bring each other’s morale down…” one netizen commented.
When a user asked why the bus driver had requested an apology, nshkn.rs replied: “No apology is needed, the bell was pressed more than once, but the bus did not stop.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a statement from Tower Transit Singapore.
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