A man in Singapore, 46-year-old Huang Shao Xiong, was on board bus service number 170 on his way home and eventually found himself stuck at the Woodlands Checkpoint without a passport, and ended up having to spend another 45 minutes to go home.
Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, Huang recounted the incident and said that he was on Bus 170 on 14 April at about 6.30pm in the evening, boarding the bus from King Albert Park MRT Station.
His destination was at Block 25 Woodlands Centre Road, where he had planned to alight one bus stop before the Woodlands Checkpoint.
For contextual purposes, bus 170 is supposed to pass the Woodlands Train Checkpoint, before stopping at Block 25, and then on to Woodlands Checkpoint.
However, on the day of the incident, the bus drove past Woodlands Train Checkpoint and didn’t stop at Block 25, instead driving straight towards Woodlands Checkpoint.
Huang said that when he realised that the bus wasn’t stopping at Block 25, he immediately pressed the “bus stopping” button to let the driver know that he wanted to alight.
But the driver didn’t stop and Huang ended up being driven to Woodlands Checkpoint instead.
Because he never expected to be at the checkpoint, he didn’t have his passport with him. He said that he was on edge throughout and was fearful of being asked to show his passport.
He was afraid of being seen as breaking the law if he couldn’t produce his passport.
Huang said that his commute home usually takes about 40 minutes, and that he usually reaches home at about 7.15pm. But on that day, he struggled to find his way home and ended up reaching home at 8pm, all worn out.
The Vice President of SBS Transit’s Customer Experience and Communications, Grace Wu, told Shin Min Daily News that the driver of Bus 170 had blindly followed the bus that was ahead of him at the time, Bus 170X, which doesn’t stop at Block 25.
As such, the driver of Bus 170 then mistakenly followed the 170X’s route and missed the stop.
Wu apologised for the incident, saying that they are sorry for the distress and inconvenience cause to the passenger(s) who were affected, and added that they have taken action to make sure incidents like these are not repeated.
Huang has also lodged a complaint with SBS Transit, which apologised to him; however, he doesn’t intent to accept the apology.