Next stop, Woodlands Checkpoint: Bus captain fails to follow route, stunning passengers

The phrase 'keep your eyes on the road' applies to all drivers, but even more so if you are a bus captain.

For one driver of SBS bus service 170 however, his eyes were set on a colleague's bus which he followed 'blindly', and ended up skipping several stops on his own route.

A passenger caught in the mix was Huang Shaoxiong, a 46-year-old caregiver who shared with Shin Min Daily News how he landed at Woodlands Checkpoint, sans passport.

Huang said he boarded bus service 170 from the bus stop outside King Albert Park MRT station last Friday (April 14) at about 6.30pm.

The man, who was on his way home, wanted to alight at the bus stop at Blk 25 Woodlands Centre Road.

During the journey, Huang noticed the bus captain straying off the route.

"It suddenly changed route after passing Kranji MRT station and drove directly towards Woodlands Checkpoint," he said.

Realising the bus driver had missed some stops, Huang immediately rang the bell hoping that the bus captain would take notice, but the latter didn't.

Huang said he felt anxious as he didn't have a passport with him, adding he was worried that he might be breaking the law as they were about to cross the land border.

Most of the passengers alighted at Woodlands Checkpoint, leaving Huang and two other passengers on the bus.

According to him, the remaining passengers had no intention to travel to Malaysia as well.

“There were many people at the Customs on Friday, we could only follow the crowd as we looked for immigration officers.

"After explaining our situation to the officers, we were brought out of the checkpoint, and had to take another bus home,” Huang said.

SBS Transit apologises

It turns out, the driver of bus service 170 had followed the route of express bus service 170X which travels in a similar direction but skips certain bus stops, SBS Transit told Shin Min. Both are cross-border bus services.

"We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and distress caused to the affected passengers.

"We have taken the necessary actions to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again," said the bus operator. 

Despite the apology, Huang was still unhappy about the incident.

Due to the bus captain's error, he had to spend a longer time getting home that day.

"I usually get home by 7.15pm but on this particular day, I didn't get home until 8.00pm, which left me exhausted."

Bus captains should not change their routes without informing passengers, he said, as this causes them inconvenience.

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