I overheard a conversation between a girl from Yishun Town
Secondary School and someone else the other day, and that inspired
me to create this route...
Route 802 - Yishun > Yishun Street 11
(loop)
Yishun Bus Interchange > Yishun Central > Avenue 9 >
Street 21 > Ring Road > Street 11 > Avenue 5 > Avenue 2
> Ring Road (loop)
This bus route is meant mostly for the students and staff of
what probably are the only schools in Yishun to not be directly
served by any bus route: Xishan Primary (XPS), Yishun Town
Secondary (YTSS), and Ahmad Ibrahim Primary (AIPS). This route will
be to these schools in many similar ways as to route 902 is to
Republic Polytechnic: serve as a quick link between the nearest
bus/MRT interchange and the schools. Unlike route 902, it will also
operate during the evening, as well as during non-school peak hours
and Saturdays (albeit on a much reduced headway). The route may
seem circuitous at first, but once you take a good look at it, you
will notice that it's a highly-compressed version of route 811's
northern loop (ex-route 801's route). Those going to XPS and YTSS
from the twon centre or MRT station have the choice of either
boarding the bus at the interchange or at the route 811 bus stop
opposite the MRT station, and those coming in from AIPS going to
the MRT station or town centre can alight at that same bus stop,
rather than taking the whole journey back to the interchange (they
will have to take the entire journey and run via XPS and YTSS
before reaching their school when travelling there though).
This route should ideally operate at headways of no more than
three minutes during school peak hours, using a mostly bendy bus
fleet. During off-peak hours, headways can be lengthened to 10
minutes, and/or one or two buses on this route during these hours
should suffice. Saturday operation is mostly meant for those
students who need to go back to the school on these days for CCA
activities, remedial classes, or such. The last bus should be
scheduled to leave Yishun no later than 7 PM on weekdays, and 2 PM
on Saturdays, with no operation on Sundays, public holidays, and
during school holidays.
And if you are wondering what I overheard that led to this,
well; I was leaving Yishun block 123 after purchasing a drink there
while I was out cycling the other day, and one of the shopowners
(or apparently a shopowner there) started up a short chit-chat with
a girl from YTSS that he apparently know. The shopowner asked her
why she walked all the way there from YTSS; I left before hearing
her answer, but I already knew that her answer is likely going to
involve a lack of a bus route as a reason. And to those two, if you
are reading this, my apologies for intruding a bit on both of your
privacy.
