Bus

I don't take the bus much. Most times it is the train or car. Bus? No thanks and there is a perfectly good reason for it.

On Monday, I had an appointment at 3.30 pm at Beach Rd. Rather than take the train, decided to take the bus. From my office in the heart of the business district, it should be a mere 10 mins bus ride. But still kiasu kiasee uncle decides to leave at 3pm with some allowances for waiting time. Reached the bus stop - checked that the bus I was going to take will stop at the bus stop and not be affected by the road closure for the F1. Checked and done and sat down to wait. And wait. And wait. Then a bus came. hope leaps, alas service no 97 - not the bus I want. Immediately behind is another - and yes its **#^#% 97 again! Wait again and again and after 10 minutes another 2 buses came. This time no 75. Yes both 75! What the hell! By now it was 3.30pm, appointment time. What the shit! Where are the buses? Come to think of it, so far only seen 97 and 75. Where are the rest of the services? Went back to check the small little service disruption notice they had there and alamak! All the buses had been diverted away from Robinson Rd? What? This isn't part of the F1 circuit you know!

Sighed...no choice switched to a cab and $8.80 and 30 minutes of traffic jam later, finally reached my destination. 1 hour 10 minutes to reach a place I could have ran to in 20 minutes!
Unbelievably, I decided to give our bus services a second chance. Reached home last evening and decided to take the feeder bus instead of walking. Nowadays, the bus interchange like airport - got electronic board with departure times for each flight, I mean trip. Checked - 7.30pm next departure. Time on my watch - 7.28pm. Goody. And gullible me happily walked to the bus bay to wait. And wait. And wait. WTF, didn't the darned board said 7.30? 7.35 came and gone and finally the bus rolled in at 7.40pm. 10 minutes behind schedule. And guess what, not 1 but 2 of them together!

Seriously, I think our bus service provider got to get their act in order. If they can't even start their journey on time from the interchange, how can they manage with the different road conditions. And what is the point of having bigger and better buses when what most of us want is just a nice comfortable short and sharp ride to our destination and not have to wait hours for a bus to turn up.

It is bad experience like this that makes me avoid buses like the plague. Me think I think I stick to my MRT and car.