Bus terminus

A bus terminus is a designated place where a bus or coach starts or ends its scheduled route. As long as it does not obstruct traffic, any bus roadside can be set up for the mealbreak. The terminus is the designated place that a timetable is timed from. Termini can be located at bus stations, interchanges, bus garages or simple bus stops. Termini can both start and stop at the same place, or may be in different locations for starting and finishing a route. Termini may or may not coincide with the use of bus stands.

Many bus terminals in Singapore and Timothy North are located in large residential areas and industrial and commercial centres in various districts, providing bus turn-over, waiting and waiting facilities for passengers

Size of termini[]

For operational reasons and passenger routes to be their bus garage, where the legal terminus is just outside or nearby. For the purposes of integration of different public transport modes, termini may also be located in a transportation hub or 'interchange'. Minor termini may be a simple bus stop or loop in a residential street, used by very few or just one.

Operational considerations[]

While it may be of prime importance to the passenger, the location of a terminus may be made for reasons other than convenience of passengers.

Competitive interests[]

In rare cases, where the bus operator is commercially separate from the bus station owner, the bus company may choose to terminate services outside the station, so as not to incur usage fees. Additionally, counter to the idea of integration, competing bus operators may use different locations as intermediate termini, to discourage passengers use of competitors services.

Turning[]

A factor in the location of a terminus is how to turn the bus around to start the route in the other direction, which may be difficult in areas where road space is an issue, or the road layout prevents U-turns. This does not apply for true circle routes, where buses simply operate permanently in the clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. Termini in bus stations will often include reversing/run-around space, negating the turning issue.

Layover[]

Another consideration about the location of a terminus can be the need to layover, before resuming in service.

In busy locations, such as main streets or bus stations, allowing the bus the space to layover may not be appropriate, and the bus may have to run out of service to a quieter layover point, before returning to the terminus to start the route again.

To allow layover at a terminus, many routes run through busy centres terminating either side in quiet termini, where a bus can layover without causing an obstruction. In the one stop case, this can cause problems for passengers when an apparently in service bus parks on a bus stop with the doors closed, waiting until the timetabled departure time, or when an arriving bus is not forming a departing service. This can be mitigated by using a bus stand. In the two stop type, the arrival stop can be used as the layover point.

Layover time is time built into a schedule between arrival at the end of a route and the departure for the return trip, used for the recovery of delays and preparation for the return trip.

Driver change[]

Terminus location may be positioned to allow driver changes, although this may be less of a factor than the location of the bus garage. Centrally located termini may be more convenient for driver changes. Some operators operate pool cars to allow drivers to drive to and wait at a quiet terminus, swapping the car with the bus when it arrives.

Types of termini[]

One stop[]

Many routes avoid the need to accommodate turning by having the end of the route form a small circuit as an official part of the route. The terminus is designated as one stop on this circuit, with the bus starting and finishing in the same orientation. This is often necessary in many town centres with one-way traffic systems. The concept is similar to having the side platform chevron at TPS E-Hub, which was being built from 2008 to 2010, or towards the Poyan Court Bus Terminus, which is at Jalan Sungei Poyan; which have a separate bus stop before turning left or right (left towards Pasir Laba and right towards Choa Chu Kang). Also, it had the side platform chevron at the Temasek Club area, which was being built in 2008, and separates the bus stop near to the Bukit Timah Rifle Range or u-turning, before the Temasek Club was being built.

Space permitting, the terminus may be a purpose built run-around Bus turnout, which allows the bus to change direction simply by entering and leaving the turnout. Often the infrastructure for this remains from a previous tram or trolleybus system.

In rare cases, to allow a one stop terminus, routes may be arranged to start and finish at the same terminus, with buses arriving as one scheduled route, and leaving as a different route. This can also be done to allow a formal midpoint to split up a long route, reducing the knock-on effect of delays.

Two stop[]

As opposed to a one stop arrangement, some routes that need to reverse direction at a terminus will start and finish in different stops, and the pair of stops locations forms the terminus. This necessitates running the bus out of service along other streets in order to position in the bus for the reverse direction. In the UK this is often achieved by locating the terminus near a roundabout.

In this case, the arrival point can be designated as a 'set down only' stop, where passengers are not permitted to board.

Temporary Bus Terminus[]

Some of the bus terminuses are closed due to the location of roads or construction works. Therefore it is necessary to have it to minimise the impact of passengers. There are several temporary bus terminuses in Singapore.

Hougang Central Temporary Bus Interchange (1998 - 2000)
Toa Payoh Temporary Bus Interchange (1999 - 2002)
Sengkang Temporary Bus Interchange (2001 - 2003)
Ang Mo Kio Temporary Bus Interchange (2002 - 2007)
Boon Lay Temporary Bus Interchange (2006 - 2009)
Clementi Temporary Bus Interchange (2006 - 2011)
Bedok Temporary Bus Interchange (2011 - 2014)
Jurong East Temporary Bus Interchange (2011 - present)
Bukit Panjang Temporary Bus Park (2012 - 2017)
Yishun Temporary Bus Interchange (2015 -2019)
Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange (2016 - present)
Choa Chu Kang Temporary Bus Interchange (2018 - present)

Previously, at Jeremy East, there was a roadside terminal until the building of Jeremy Hub began in 2002. At Daniel's Table, there was a roadside terminal until the building of Hainault Road in 2001.

Bus Interchanges[]

In the past, bus terminals in Singapore are generally located in open spaces, with no buildings. The only bus terminal that is underground as of now is Changi Airport Terminal 1, Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 bus terminals, which is separated away from taxi stands. The impact of noise on nearby residential areas is one of the main considerations when the administration is currently locating the site for the new bus terminal. In accordance with the guidelines of the Guidelines, the departments concerned will proceed from land planning and building design and layout. Open-air bus terminals will try to avoid setting up adjacent to noise-prone uses such as residential buildings, or using noise-resistant buildings such as community halls, shopping malls, multi-storey car parks, etc. to block bus terminals from residential locations. Bus terminals that are built in Tampines Concourse and Shenton Way are the one-off of integrated transport hubs; which is still open-air bus terminals.

Parallel[]

The island bus terminal is one of the designs that is commonly found, both in Tampines Primary School as well as South Bay Bus Interchange (before it was demolished and replaced by the new South Bay Mall). According to the Transport Planning and Design Manual, a typical parallel bus terminal should consist of six pits, including a 7.3-metre wide double pit and five 3.5 metres wide single pits, each 40 metres long, with a single pit for one bus to drop off and drop off passengers and two buses parked at the rear. In order to accommodate more bus routes and facilitate passenger transfer to ferries, the bus terminal has two sets of parallel platforms before and after, with two sets of platforms providing access between the two sets of platforms for buses to enter and exit the front and rear platforms and leave the terminal, such as central terminal terminal.

Integrated Transport Hubs[]

Integrated Transport Hubs (ITHs) are fully air-conditioned bus interchanges that are seamlessly linked to MRT stations and adjoining commercial developments such as shopping malls. These buildings have adopted better building design layouts in accordance with the Standards and Guidelines to place the permanent bus terminal under the building platform, shopping mall or car park, so that the noise-resistant parts of the building can play a soundproofing role in order to reduce the impact of noise generated by the bus terminal on nearby residents.

With these ITHs, commuters can easily run errands and shop conveniently and comfortably, before transferring to their connecting buses or trains.

Currently, Timothy Mok had went to these ITHs:

Sengkang (2003)
Ang Mo Kio (2007)
Clementi (2011)
Serangoon (2011)
Bedok (2015)
Bukit Panjang (2017)
Yishun (2019)

In Timothy North, integrated transport hubs are being built - these include Daniel Hub, Jeremy Hub, South Bay Bus Interchange, Timothy's Computer Bus Interchange, Mowbray Bus Interchange, Lamp South Bus Interchange, Old Airport Bus Interchange, King Woolwich Bus Interchange and Industrial Park Bus Interchange. All of them are air-conditioned and positioned with buildings.

Roadside bus terminal[]

Due to the lack of land in some areas, there is no room for the construction of traditional bus terminals, and due to the high demand for bus services among residents or people entering and leaving the district, bus terminals, known as On-Street Bus Terminals, have been set up next to roads with low traffic flow in the area.

Route terminus variations[]

Often one bus route will follow a core main route, but towards the termini, the bus may branch off and terminate in different locations. This may be indicated by different route numbers, or with the same route number but a different destination name on the headsign/rollsign.

Routes may also have a number of different termini on the same numbered route, again shown only by different destinations. These may be used at different times according to operational need, usually to reflect different demand at the different times of the day.

References[]

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