History of Marine Parade Bus Services

Introduction:

Marine Parade is a residential housing estate located in the south-eastern region of Singapore, spanning from Amber Road to Bedok South Avenue 1. The town has been and continues to be primarily served by various trunk services along Marine Parade Road, since the development of the residential estate through land reclamation in the late 1960s.

The town centre for Marine Parade is located between the junctions of Marine Parade Road with Joo Chiat Road and Amber Road, consisting of the Parkway Parade shopping mall and neighbourhood retail and F&B amenities, which are also served by multiple trunk services through a pair of bus stops along Marine Parade Road, rather than a typical bus interchange as seen in other towns in Singapore.

Bus Services in Marine Parade (until 1981):

While Singapore Bus Service (SBS) may have been the primary public bus operator in Singapore in the 1970s, the 1st bus services to be launched in Marine Parade were actually operated by National Trades Union Congress Comfort (NTUC Comfort) and Singapore Shuttle Bus (SSB), which were established in May 1975 to operate the City Shuttle Services (CSS) under the Park & Ride scheme, where motorists were encouraged to switch to public transport to enter/exit the Central Business District (CBD).

Due to the persistently low demand of their CSS bus routes, the government had allowed the operators to extend the coverage of their supplementary bus services in June 1975. As such, CSS Bus Services 1, 4 & 8 were extended to the newly developed Marine Parade estate, operating from a newly built roadside bus terminal along Marine Terrace.

Several weeks later, SBS would introduce former Bus Service 15 as the public bus operator’s 1st bus route for Marine Parade, connecting the new housing estate with the City areas of Robinson Road and Shenton Way. More bus services would gradually be launched or amended by SBS to serve the developing town, including a new Feeder Bus Service 211, which linked Marine Parade with the nearby East Coast Road.

In 1977, the roadside terminus along Marine Terrace would be relocated from its current location outside Block 54, to a new site located opposite Block 52 along the same road, affecting all 4 SBS and CSS bus routes that operated from the original terminus at the time.

While other developing housing estates around Singapore have been served by bus interchanges since the late 1970s, SBS had never planned for the development of a bus interchange in Marine Parade. Instead, a new bus terminal was proposed to be constructed at the junction of Marine Parade Road and Siglap Road.

Marine Parade Bus Terminal was subsequently opened on 5th July 1981, absoring 4 SBS bus routes from the roadside terminus along Marine Terrace. However, CSS Bus Services 1 & 4 continued to operate from the terminus along Marine Terrace, while CSS Bus Service 8 had already been extended further to Bedok New Town in the late 1970s.

Summary of Post-Amendment Bus Routes in Marine Parade (as of 5 Jul 1981):

• 15: Marine Parade – Mountbatten Road – Shenton Way (Loop)
• 16: Marine Parade – Old Airport Road – Orchard Road – River Valley Road – Bukit Merah
• 31: Bedok – Marine Parade Road – Old Airport Road – Kallang Park (Loop)
• 41: Chai Chee – Marine Parade Road – Guillemard Road – Bugis/Chinatown – Redhill Close
• 135: Marine Parade – MacPherson Estate – Toa Payoh
• 211: Marine Parade – East Coast Road (Loop)
• CSS 1: Marine Terrace – Kallang Park – Orchard Road – Queensway
• CSS 4: Marine Terrace – Kallang Park – New Bridge Road (Loop)
• CSS 8: Bedok – Marine Parade Road – Shenton Way – Havelock Road – Bukit Merah

More detailed information for operational bus services can be found in the Historical Routes of Bus Services article.