SMRT Bus Service 969

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.

Service 969 calls at a new pair of bus stops along Gambas Ave from 22 March 2020.

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)
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
Operating Hours
Departure Times from Woodlands	Weekdays & Saturdays								Sundays / Public Holidays
	05:30 – 23:45								05:45 – 23:45
Departure Times from Tampines	Weekdays & Saturdays								Sundays / Public Holidays
	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
Fare	Charges regular distance fares

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:

• NS9TE2 Woodlands
• NS10 Admiralty
• NS13 Yishun
• NS14 Khatib
• EW2–DT32 Tampines

Special Departures:

• Yishun Ave 2 (Yishun Stn) → Woodlands Temp Int
  Weekdays Mornings
• Sembawang Road (Blk 114) → Tampines Int
  Weekdays AM Peak hours
  
• Yishun Ave 2 (Opp Yishun Stn) → Tampines Int
  Weekdays AM/PM Peak hours

Short Trip Service

• Service 969A: Tampines Int → Yishun Ave 2 (Yishun Stn)
  Weekdays, except Public Holidays: 08:25, 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

The Bus Service Operating License (BSOL) for this route will be renewed in 2020 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

Past Routing