Took a strange transport from NTU to Boon Lay MRT tonight. I was waiting for 179 at the Canteen B bus stop but the 1st bus arrived after I waited for 10mins, only to be completely filled with passengers. So after 5mins, a small, half-filled coach stopped at the bus stop and a middle-aged woman stood at the only entrance and waved a sign that said "Boon Lay MRT" while her other hand was making the "1" gesture.
I thought she meant there's room for one more and that it was some coach for some other company/event. But when half the people at the bus stop got on and she started staring at me, waving her "1" hand, I suspected that it may not be what I thought it was.
So I pulled off my ear plugs when the last guy boarded and she said loudly to me," One dollar to Boon Lay MRT."
Without thinking any further, I said,"OK," and got on.
When the coach left the campus, she started collecting a dollar from everyone. Apparently, from the bits of conversation I accidentally overheard, there were quite a number of undergrads in the coach.
This coach was a 30-seater, pretty cramped and I suspect to be illegal. But heck, it was 10.15pm and the bus frequency for 179 was rather inconvenient. And I don't have the bus concession anyway. In any case, $1 wasn't too far from what I was going to pay for a ride on a 179.
It dropped us off at a bus stop outside of Jurong Point, behind the area where the bus drivers rest during their breaks. Not actually worth the dollar but the damned 179 was taking too long and it was so late already.
This seems like quite a good idea, making money off the facts that the bus frequency at night for 179 is bad and everyone wants to return home as quickly as they can at such hours.
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