City Direct Bus Service 678, operated by Go-Ahead Singapore, is a weekday peak-hour City Direct service connecting Punggol East to the Central Business District (CBD). It is introduced under the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme (BCEP).
| Route Overview | ||||||||||||
Route  |
[AM]: Punggol Central (Blk 162B) → Temasek Boulevard (Suntec Twr Two) [PM]: Temasek Boulevard (Suntec Twr Three) → Punggol Central (Blk 649) |
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| Passes Through | Edgefield Plains, Punggol Nth Ave, Punggol East, Anson Rd / Shenton Way, Marina Blvd / Central Blvd, Bayfront Ave | |||||||||||
| Route Length | Towards Temasek Blvd: 28.1 km |
Towards Punggol Ctrl: 27.3 km |
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| Travelling Time | [AM Peak] 95 mins | [PM Peak] 100 mins | |||||||||||
| Operator Information | ||||||||||||
| BCM Route Package | Loyang Bus Package | |||||||||||
| Current Operator | Go-Ahead Singapore | |||||||||||
| Current Depot | Loyang Bus Depot | |||||||||||
| Current Fleet | Single-deck & Double-deck buses | |||||||||||
| Operating Hours | ||||||||||||
| Departure Times from Punggol Ctrl |
Weekdays, except Public Holidays | |||||||||||
| 07:25 – 07:40 | ||||||||||||
| Departure Times from Temasek Blvd |
Weekdays, except Public Holidays | |||||||||||
| 18:00 – 18:15 | ||||||||||||
| Operating Frequency | ||||||||||||
| From Punggol Ctrl |
15 mins | |||||||||||
| From Temasek Blvd |
15 mins | |||||||||||
| Fare Information |
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| Fare | Charges express distance fares |
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Service 678 offers residents of Punggol East improved connectivity to the Central Business District, including Marina Bay Sands and Suntec City, providing a direct travel alternative to commuters who typically rely on the rail network and feeder buses. As a City Direct service, it only operates on weekdays.
Starting from Punggol Central (Blk 162B) in the morning, the service calls at stops along Edgefield Plains, Punggol North Avenue, Punggol East, and Sengkang East Drive. It then plies express from Sengkang East Drive to Anson Road via the KPE and MCE. The route is similar in the reverse direction, plying express from Shenton Way to Sengkang East Drive.
If the eves of Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Chinese New Year fall on a weekday, the Evening Peak departures will be brought forward to the afternoon. Revised departure times will be provided by the operator closer to the affected date.
Routing
Service 678 is the third City Direct service to be introduced in Punggol, after Services 666 and 673. Two pairs of bus stops are shared with City Direct 666—along Punggol East (65181 – Aft Punggol Ctrl / 65189 – Bef Punggol Ctrl; and 65231 – Riviera Stn Exit B / 65239 – Riviera Stn Exit A).
Despite the similar catchment areas around Riviera, both routes head to the CBD via different directions; with Service 666 headed west towards Punggol Way, TPE and CTE, while Service 678 headed south towards KPE, making the latter a faster option towards the City especially for residents near Riviera.
Service 678 also serves two new pairs of bus stops along Punggol North Ave, making it the first bus service to call at these bus stops.
The last pair of bus stops before the express sector is along Sengkang East Drive before Sengkang East Way (67521–Blk 160 / 67529–Opp Blk 157A), after which two pairs of bus stops along Sengkang East Drive are skipped before the bus enters Buangkok East Drive. These skipped stops are only served by Bus Service 62 and could have been skipped to avoid duplicating catchment areas with City Direct 654, which plies nearby via Rivervale Drive.
This service was introduced under the Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme (BCEP), a scheme launched in 2024 that facilitated the introduction of more bus services, including peak-hour City Direct services.
Travel Smart Journeys
This bus service is part of the latest Travel Smart Journeys – North-East Line Scheme, starting from 2 January 2025. Eligible commuters who switch to this service can earn cashback in the form of e-transport vouchers.
MRT / LRT Stations Served
- PE4 Riviera
- EW15 Tanjong Pagar
- TE19 Shenton Way
- DT17 Downtown
- NS27CE2TE20 Marina Bay
- CE1DT16 Bayfront
- CC4DT15 Promenade
Departure Timings
Weekdays (except Public Holidays)
- Morning Peak from Punggol Central (Blk 162B):
07:25 & 07:40 - Evening Peak from Temasek Boulevard (Suntec Twr Three) :
18:00 & 18:15
Gallery
Poster Gallery
Operator History
- 2 Jan 2025 – Present: Go Ahead Singapore Pte Ltd
Route History
- 2025 (2 Jan): Introduced from Punggol Central (Blk 162B) to Temasek Blvd (Suntec Twr Two) during morning peak hours and from Temasek Blvd (Suntec Twr Three) to Punggol Central (Blk 649) during evening peak hours, as a City Direct bus service under the LTA’s Bus Connectivity Enhancement Programme (BCEP).
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Can 678 serves whampoa as well? Punggol not only does not have bus to Whampoa, also dun have bus to woodlands? What is transport going on in Punggol? Very disappointing and sad to say that Punggol transport network never improve all over the years. Building rails but not buses to improve connectivity to the northern and central side? People who disagree with me, lemme tell u, I have been a very patient person when I first moved in Punggol and that was many years ago. Now is already 2025, 85 the only bus to yishun? Punggol needs to go woodlands. I wanted to help the residents in Punggol and wrote in to LTA, yet they are saying still thinking. Come on, how many people are there living in Punggol? Sengkang has so Punggol dun need? This is not logical and we can’t just rely on TPE bus stop huh? 104 is starting on 26 October? If can improve northeast line, why not have more buses to woodlands and central? I am not the only one complaining. Many people takes public transport.
678 is a city direct supposed to go directly to the city, cannot amend to whampoa. For that need a new service
Peak hour NEL already 1 min apart. What you want to improve? If one of the train encounter a failure, already bottle neck all the way to HBF. Sometimes the behind train have to wait awhile to enter platform cos there is already one stopping in front.
Passengers need to adjust their travelling pattern. If CDS service is not meant for you, does not mean it is not useful for those who have the capacity to pay premium fares and later working hours.
They really pampered the north-east region with these four new city directs. Now they have so many options to get to the city. For reference, they are 654, 660/M, 666, 671, 672, 673, 675, 676, 677 & 678, which are 11 city directs.
Northeast is really REALLY lacking transport options, compared to the East & North (both having many trunk services to the central, plus having many alternative MRT such as TEL). The northeast (mainly focusing on Sengkang & Punggol) only has NEL to rely on with only a small handful of bus services to the central (62 & 80 are the only ones in SK & PG)
Hougang is a huge town, thus requiring quite a handful of CDS too.
It’s about convenience for residents.
(Meanwhile, the west is stagnant as well, despite having much more trunk services, thus expect the west to be “pampered” too, with Tengah as well)
Not really for west side especially in a town called Yew Tee which have lack of transport options to the city. In fact Yew Tee previously have CDS 662 not sure why they want to withdrawn it & force commuters to take 979 & trf to DTL instead.
Exactly what I’m saying. West side very stagnant, ESPECIALLY Yew Tee.
CDS 662 was withdrawn due to low demand though, so was Premium 556 & 590 before 662 existed.
Pork barel politics at work, mate. Election coming. Need to win back the areas in the northeast held by alternative party.
I don’t think it’s considered pampering, when LTA themselves made the mistake 20 years ago cutting, just some examples, 97, 106, 111, 502, giving them to the west instead.
Yep, 20 years ago that would work, because hougang, buangkok, sengkang and punggol are still being developed.
Now? It’s a mad house everyday, with trains being full directly from terminus stop (Punggol) itself. Making matters worst, this starts everyday from 0700, and became super crowded between 0800 – 0900. Sometimes, passengers from Buangkok can’t even board, let alone hougang and kovan.
I don’t think the CRL would even solve this problem since it doesn’t serve areas currently served by NEL.
Should have just merged 82/107. They only kept 147 because it was turning over fat profits. 133 was at risk and likely spared by the truncation of 82 and 97. As such, 107 had to be extended to avoid backlash.
They’ll really do anything except improve the NEL frequency huh 😭😭😭 what’s the point of going in a huge circle too before leaving the town just start from further in the circle… no one is going to have the time to ride one big round they’ll just get off at the other bus stop near the end of the circle
Think Think Think! Where do you think buses park after finishing the route? For 678, it is Loyang. The circular structure of the route makes it easier for drivers to navigate back to Loyang Bus Depot, else more resources is wasted outside of revenue service