SMRT Bus Service 969 is a trunk route between Woodlands Temporary Interchange and Tampines Interchange, passing through Admiralty, Gambas Avenue, Yishun, Khatib and Tampines Concourse. The popular route plies a long express sector along the SLE and TPE, offering the fastest bus connection between Tampines and Khatib/Yishun.
| Route Overview | ||||||||||||
Route  |
Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange ↔ Tampines Bus Interchange | |||||||||||
| Passes Through | Admiralty, Gambas Ave, Yishun Ave 2, SLE, TPE, Tampines Concourse | |||||||||||
| Route Length | Towards Tampines: 27.6 km | Towards Woodlands: 27.2 km | ||||||||||
| Traveling Time | 70 mins | |||||||||||
| Operator Information | ||||||||||||
| BCM Route Package | Sembawang–Yishun Bus Package | |||||||||||
| Current Operator | SMRT Buses Ltd | |||||||||||
| Current Depot | Ang Mo Kio Bus Depot (AMDEP) Buses park at: Woodlands Bus Park (WLBP) |
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| Current Fleet | 12-metre Single Deck Bus: – MAN A22 – Mercedes-Benz Citaro |
12-metre Double Deck bus: – Alexander Dennis Enviro500 – MAN A95 18-metre Articulated Bus: – Mercedes-Benz O405G – MAN A24 |
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| Operating Hours | ||||||||||||
| Departure Times from Woodlands |
Weekdays & Saturdays | Sundays / Public Holidays |
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| 05:30 – 23:45 | 05:45 – 23:45 | |||||||||||
| Departure Times from Tampines |
Weekdays & Saturdays | Sundays / Public Holidays |
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| 05:30 – 23:45 | 05:45 – 23:45 | |||||||||||
| Operating Frequency | ||||||||||||
| 6:30am–8.30am | 8.31am–4.59pm | 5.00pm–7.00pm | After 7.00pm | |||||||||
| From Woodlands | 4 – 8 mins | 5 – 10 mins | 5 – 9 mins | 9 – 12 mins | ||||||||
| From Tampines | 3 – 7 mins | 5 – 10 mins | 5 – 7 mins | 3 – 10 mins | ||||||||
| Fare Information |
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| Fare | Charges regular distance fares |
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Service 969 is an inter-town route serving between the housing estates around Woodlands, Yishun and Tampines. The route is frequented as a fast connection between Yishun and Tampines owing to its express sector along the Seletar Expressway (SLE) and Tampines Expressway (TPE). The route also calls at Tampines Expressway (Punggol Road) Bus Interchange for convenient transfers to and from other TPE Corridor bus services.
From Tampines Interchange, Service 39 also plies between Tampines and Yishun, but takes a much longer journey by serving Pasir Ris. Service 168 also covers the Tampines to Woodlands sector with a faster journey time than 969 by skipping Yishun town.
As the fastest public transport link between Tampines and Yishun, this service experiences good demand all day round with significantly higher demand during peak hours. Many buses are added during peak periods to cope with the demand increase, and high capacity Alexander Dennis Enviro500 double-deck buses were deployed from August 2014 to cope with peak hour loads. The journey between Yishun and Tampines takes around 40 minutes during off-peak periods.
At Tampines Interchange, passengers who wish to get a seat for the long express journey usually queue up at the boarding berth. Passengers can board the bus without joining the queue, usually only after all seats have been occupied.
Extension via Tampines Concourse
As part of the Bus Service Enhancements with the opening of Tampines Concourse Bus Interchange, Bus Service 969 was amended to ply Tampines Concourse from 18 December 2016. As a result, Bus Service 969 calls at 3 pair of new bus stops (2 pairs along Tampines Concourse and 1 pair along Tampines Ave 9).
MRT Stations Served:
Special Departures:
- Sembawang Road (Blk 114) → Tampines Int
Weekdays: 05:40, 05:45, 08:01 & 08:24
Short Trip Service
- Service 969A: Tampines Int → Yishun Ave 2 (Yishun Stn)
Weekdays, except Public Holidays: 07:05, 19:11, 19:32 & 19:39
Service 969A was introduced in 2013 to cope with high demand between Tampines and Yishun, where most of the demand of Service 969 is encountered.
Gallery:
Operator History
- 2001 – 2004: Trans-Island Bus Services Ltd
- 2004 – Present: SMRT Buses Ltd
- (~September 2021) onwards: Tower Transit Singapore Pte Ltd
Operations for this route would be transferred to Tower Transit in 2021 as part of the Sembawang – Yishun Bus Package.
The Bus Service Operating License (BSOL) for this route will be renewed in 2026 under the Sembawang – Yishun Bus Package.
History
- 2001 (15 Apr): Introduced between Woodlands Regional Int and Tampines Int.
- 2013: Service improvement under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP)
- 2013 (07 Jul): Designated wheelchair-accessible bus route (WAB)
- 2014 (18 Aug): Alexander Dennis Enviro500 double-deck buses deployed
- 2014 (05 Oct): Calls at Tampines Expressway (Punggol Road) Bus Interchange
- 2016 (12 Mar): Amended to Woodlands Temp Int
- 2016 (18 Dec): Amended to ply Tampines Concourse instead of Tampines Ave 7
- 2020 (22 Mar): Calls at a pair of new bus stops along Gambas Ave
2 pairs of new bus stops along Gambas Avenue for SMRT Bus Services 965 & 969.
Kindly consider service 969 to divert left after Yishun sports hall into Yishun Ave 1 to better serve commuter going to jalan kayu, punggol instead of plying a non productive route along lentor Ave., SLE, punggol where service 39, 85, 858 are duplicating.
bus 969 – SG5504T -date 01NOV18
I board this train 0840 from yishun ..after 20min the bus just reach LENTOR bustop B12
I wonder why this bus was so slow in his speed .while he drove on the bus lane ..no traffic jam in front yet he still taking his own sweet time. Please aware that we are takking on way to work . I don mean he should speed but i guess the speed is soooo slow until i can see all the vehical passing us until disappear in my view spot …you can imagine on the high way and no traffic jam …what is the reason the bus driving super slow speed . I guess i will be super late today .
22 March 2019 at 6:03 AM Bus Stop 59119
Why the driver didn’t open the door? I was in a hurry to catch this trio. The bus still at the bus stop when I reached. I was waving at the driver but never bothered to open the door. Could you please ask your driver to check the passengers at the bus stop before leaving?
Knock the door 3 times the driver will look
I must compliment on this bus svc 969 12 July 6.25pm, SG5821C! I rarely come across bus which is so quiet and running smoothly along TPE! Maybe this bus is really well maintained and driven by a good driver!
But why SMRT bus service 969 are getting full single deck Citaro & OC500LE Bus Fleet since it was selected under LYDEP? Only can see 1 or 2 double deck buses on Sv 969! Sv 969 should get at least 8 – 10 double deck buses like SMRT does when it was under WPDEP.
I hope this service will be majority Amdep/Lybp when SMRT park at Loyang and deploy more A95