ALS and CSS
the ALs scheme was introduce in 1975 to try to 'lower down car
population and reduce no of cars in town -> reduce
congestion"
As part of a revoltuionary idea, the primitive park and
ride idea was introduced.
car drivers can opt for the scheme whereby they drive to a
"fringe carpark". Fringe carpark are so called because they are at
the fringe of CBD and not within CBD. With ALS in place (aka ERP of
today), those who opt for the scheme need not pay the ALS fee
entering town).
instead take the CSS bus. so CSS buses services served from the
many fringe carparks. from Dempsey to Serangoon to newton circus
car park to national Stadium. and boy were they cheap.
All fringe car aprks were numbered by letters. The A B C D
E F G went to national stadium carparks, and the rest of letters up
to N went to other car parks. maps were produced to show
these car parks and CSS services were referred to by car park
letters. the legacy of these letters lives on as the National
Stadium Car parks still have these Letters.
Bus stop shelters (well designed) were built at many fringe
carparks to house the car drivers who wait for CSS bus after
parking their cars. today these shelters still exist at geylang Lor
1, Delta car park and Some at national Stadium.
the CSS services were offered by NTUC Comfort (blue livery)
routes 1 4 and 6 etc and SSB (orange 2 5 7 8 9 etc ).
a new rego series was created
CSS 1 --100 for NTUC to use
CSS 100 to er whatever for SSB to use
by 1977 CSS 1 -38 were in use by NTUC all Merc O309 mini bus and
SSB also use minibus CSS101 to dunno what no.
sadly by 1977 it is discovered ridership is low despite the
limited stops idea on CSS services and the CSS has to be
deviated from its true purpose as a part of the park and ride
scheme . as such routes were amended to serve insetad to the new
towns of the day. bt merah, marine parade, bouna Vista
etc. at this point as people found the fares on CSS to eb
cheaper, they switched to CSS services.
at first standees were not allowed on the minibuses. but haiyah
so crowded. i kanna sqaushed many times on NTUC1 from my hosue to
rochard ebfore. obvisuoly the rule was relaxed.
by 1981 the demand really was bull (red Bull) strong and so SSB
decided to buy more heavy duty buses like 10m Bedfords and big
carrying capacity stuffs like Hino Rk 176. note hte Hino were
numebred in the CSS178 --200 range. later when they were retired,
some very very famialr (lol) air-con UDs took over the
regto series. these are the UDs were see on the roads
today...although all may have died.
but by 1988 or so, NTUC decided to give up the CSS adventure and
withdrew their services. bye bye NTUC 1 4 and 6.
Hence the reason why we assocaite CSS with the orange SSB
buses and interchnagably refer to CSS as the ornage buses.
these bus services lived on much longer and became renumebred to
60x , eg CSS 2 became CSS 602 and CSS5 became CSS 605
I would like to propose we remmeber the legacy of CSS by
refrain from saying CSS is assocated with orange bus. dun forget
NTUC as well
Much later some of the UDs were CAC and the fleet also saw the
introduction of Dennis lance CSS310K and a ex TIBS bus TIB310
became CSS 294 the ex TIB DAFS lived out their final years on
CSS as well.
CSS services then began to be withdrawn in the most chui move .
cheaper bus services being withdrown. it chui-ed me alot. very very
chui. Even high demand svc 605 was withdrawn. in the end one
service stands alone CSS 608
I spent much of 2008 snapping CSS 608 UDs in a sort of CSS
themed locations or even governemnt municipal buidling backgrounds
. but finally on Aug 2008, CSS 608 ran its last bus for the last
time and so ends the 33 years of CSS.A post celebration party saw
many bus fans gather to big farwell to CSS. me included.
today a few of the CSS buses live on in SMRTbuses fleets.
TIb1257 the Dennis lance ex CSS 608 bus will be the only thing left
to connect to CSS after 2012. =-(
ZYX
Will the paark and ride Bus to town scheme return in todays
congested roads scenario...only time will tell...if so CSS may yet
make a return to the Singapore road scene.
