SMRT Bus Service 178

SMRT Bus Service 178 is a trunk route between Woodlands Temporary Interchange and Boon lay Interchange, passing through Marsiling, Woodlands Centre, Woodlands Road, Upper Bukit Timah, Bukit Batok, Jurong Town Hall, AYE and Corporation Road.

Technical Information
Route	Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange ↔ Boon Lay Bus Interchange
Passes Through	Marsiling, Woodlands Ctr, Woodlands Rd, Upp Bukit Timah, Bukit Batok Ctrl, Jurong Town Hall, AYE, Corporation Rd
Route Length	29.7 km (D1) | 30.3 km (D2)
Travelling Time	90 mins
Operator Information
BCM Route Package	Woodlands Bus Package
Current Operator	SMRT Buses Ltd
Current Depot	Woodlands Bus Depot
Current Fleet	12-metre Double Deck Bus: – MAN A95 – Volvo B9TL 12-metre Single Deck Bus: – MAN A22
Departure Times from Woodlands	0530 – 2330 (Daily)
Departure Times from Boon Lay	0545 – 2330 (Weekdays & Saturdays) 0600 – 2330 (Sundays / Public Holidays)
Frequency	Direction 1	Direction 2
	0630 – 0830: 06 – 14 mins 0831 – 1659: 07 – 15 mins 1700 – 1900: 14 – 16 mins After 1900: 14 – 17 mins	0630 – 0830: 14 – 15 mins 0831 – 1659: 12 – 15 mins 1700 – 1900: 14 – 15 mins After 1900: 15 – 17 mins

Service 178 is a supplementary inter-town route serving between the housing estates of Woodlands, Bukit Panjang, Bukit Batok, Jurong East and Boon Lay. Much of its route plies through industrial areas (such as those around Woodlands Road, Corporation Road and International Business Park), hence demand is strongly skewed towards peak hours. It shares the Woodlands – Boon Lay termini with Service 187, while plying a longer route.

This route experiences very low off-peak demand and operates at borderline QoS standards. Its low frequency is attributed to the presence of multiple duplicating routes and little demand from industrial estate portions. It is believed that this route is highly unprofitable and SMRT’s requests to convert it to a peak-hour route prior to the Bus Contracting Model in 2016 was turned down by the Public Transport Council. Despite this, it encounters considerable demand between Woodlands Int and Kranji MRT during weekday morning peak hours due to industries at Marsiling Industrial Estate and Woodlands Road, and Short Trip 178A was introduced to cope with the additional demand.

Formerly a Singapore Bus Service (SBS) route since the 1970s, the route was transferred to Trans-Island Bus Service (TIBS) in 1983 and has been operated by SMRT ever since.

Double decker buses are deployed on this service on a regular basis since 25 February 2019.

MRT / LRT Stations Served

• NS9 Woodlands
• NS7 Kranji
• BP6DT1 Bukit Panjang
• DT2 Cashew
• DT3 Hillview
• NS2 Bukit Batok
• EW25 Chinese Garden
• EW27 Boon Lay

Special Departures

• Woodlands Ctr Rd (Woodlands Train Checkpt) → Woodlands Temp Int
  Sundays & PHs: 0535hrs, 0552hrs, 0609hrs, 0626hrs, 0643hrs

Short Trip Service

• Service 178A: Woodlands Temp Int → Woodlands Road (Kranji Stn)
  Weekdays AM Peak hours: 0538hrs – 0835hrs | 14 – 42 min frequency

Fare: Charges basic distance fares. See Bus Fares.

Gallery:

Operator History:

• 1974 – 1983: Singapore Bus Services Ltd
• 1983 – 2004: Trans-Island Bus Services Ltd
• 2004 – Present: SMRT Buses Ltd

The Bus Service Operating License (BSOL) for this route will be renewed in 2023 under the Woodlands Bus Package.

History:

• 1974 (03 Feb): Introduced between Corporation Drive and Upper Bukit Timah Road
• 1975 (21 Jul): Amended to Boon Lay Gardens
• 1978 (01 Jun): Extended to Jurong Int
• 1981 (29 Nov): Extended to Woodlands Int
• 1983 (10 Jul): Handed to Trans-Island Bus Services (TIBS)
• 1990 (01 Jul): Shortened to Boon Lay Int with closure of Jurong Int, and amended to serve Bukit Batok
• 1996 (04 Feb): Extended to Woodlands Regional Int, covering parts Feeder service 372 (now service 903).
• 2006 (19 Jun): Amended to Boon Lay Temp Int
• 2009 (27 Dec): Amended to Boon Lay Integrated Transport Hub (ITH)
• 2013: Service improvement under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP)
• 2013 (15 Jul): Shortworking trip 178A introduced
• 2013 (29 Sep): Designated wheelchair-accessible bus route (WAB)
• 2016 (12 Mar): Amended to Woodlands Temp Int
• 2016 (11 Dec): Serves the new Bus Stop 43991 – Opp Blk 635A, Woodlands Road
• 2017 (23 Apr): Calls at relocated bus stop 43453 Aft PIE along Bukit Batok Rd
• 2017 (28 May): Calls at relocated bus stop 47071 Bef Mandai Rd and no longer calls at bus stop 45081 Opp Mandai Rd along Woodlands Rd.
• 2018 (25 Mar): Amended to Woodlands Ave 3 and Woodlands Centre Road towards Woodlands
• 2018 (10 Jun): Calls at a new bus stop along Woodlands Road (44999 Bef Yew Tee Flyover)
• 2019 (25 Feb): Start of regular double-decker bus deployments

Past Routings:

• Refer to this article
• 2018: Amended to present routing. No significant route changes since 2018.

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