Boon Lay Bus Interchange

Boon Lay Bus Interchange is an air-conditioned bus interchange located in Jurong West Central, in the western part of Singapore. It is situated within the Jurong Point Shopping Mall and integrated with the nearby Boon Lay MRT Station. This interchange serves a variety of passengers, including those from Nanyang Technological University, Jurong Industrial Estate and Tuas Industrial Estate. This interchange has 31 bus services until some services get relocated to Joo Koon Bus Interchange and it is the biggest in terms of bus services and the busiest bus interchange in Singapore.^[1]

History

Boon Lay Bus Interchange began operating on 1 July 1990 with services that used to terminate at the former Jurong Bus Interchange at Jurong Port Rd and Jurong East Bus Interchange being re-routed to terminate there. That time, the Jurong West extension and Tuas Industrial area was still largely under development. As both areas are undergoing development, more bus services were introduced and by the early 2000s, there were about 30 bus services terminating at the interchange.

That time, there used to be an empty land beside the former interchange. In 2006, the land where the former interchange sits at and the land beside it was sold together as a 'White site' to Prime Point Development Pte. Ltd. and soon the land where the former interchange sits at was acquired to construct the Jurong Point Extension.

The old bus interchange

The temporary bus interchange which operated from 18 June 2006 to 26 December 2009

From 18 June 2006 to 26 December 2009, the interchange had it operations temporarily next to Boon Lay MRT station, at an empty plot of land surrounded by Boon Lay Way and Jurong West Street 64 while the bus interchange was being rebuilt as part of the Jurong Point extension project and this project consisted of the extension of Jurong Point (JP2),the new Boon Lay Bus Interchange and a 16-storey condominium that is known as 'The Centris'.^[2]

On 27 December 2009, the interchange moved back to its original location and all operations (except for bus Service 179, 179A and 199 which continued to operate at the temporary interchange till 7 May 2010^[3]) resumed at the re-constructed interchange located along Jurong West Central 3.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Built over 20,000 square metres, it is Singapore's fourth air conditioned bus interchange and the first along the East West Line. In total, it has 60 bus bays and 31^[4][9] boarding/alighting wheelchair accessible^[10] berths with 22 of them being end-on and 9 of them being sawtooth (6 for boarding and 3 for alighting). Together with Boon Lay MRT station and Jurong Point, it is part of the Boon Lay Integrated Public Transport Hub.

With the opening of Joo Koon Bus Interchange in November 2015, Services 256 and 258 were introduced to Joo Koon Bus Interchange, while Services 182, 182M, 254, 255 and 257 were relocated to Joo Koon Bus Interchange. At the same time, Services 192, 193, 194 and 251 also had their routes slightly modified.^[11]

References

External links

• Interchanges and Terminals (SBS Transit)
• Interchange/Terminal (SMRT Buses)