Got a Ticket to Ride?

 

The old Beatles song played on, bringing back memories of our bus rides to school. Many of us crammed like sardines, into hot rickety buses. Nevertheless, these buses dutifully brought us to old RI at the junctions of Bras Basah, North Bridge, Stamford and Beach Road. We came from kampongs faraway or from old Chinatown nearby. 

Lionel Lee, Amos Koh Ah Meng, Alec Lim, Tan Boon Tee and Cheong Moon Foo lived in the Airport Road-Lorong Tai Seng area. We trudged for two miles along the gangster streets of Tai Seng, Malay kampongs, passed smelly soya sauce factories and dirty pig sty to meet at the Singapore Traction Company (STC) bus stop along Airport Road. We clambered onto the #12 STC bus which took us about 10 miles and 45 minutes through MacPherson, Serangoon, Jalan Besar and North Bridge Road. and alighted at the bus stop opposite the old Odeon theatre. 

It took us a long time to get the school. We didn't mind so long as we got there in time for at least 30 minutes of football before the school bell rang to start our classes. Many of us commuted to school through long start-stop routes from miles away; some from Jurong, Katong, Changi, Bukit Timah taking these old buses managed by different companies, Hock Lee, Green Bus, Tay Koh Yat, STC, Changi Bus and others. 

Strangely we did not think it was a hassle because we were proud that we were in the premier, top school in Singapore; boys from poor families going to Raffles Institution. It never bothered us that another boy's school had their pupils chauffeured in big luxurious cars.  

William Chan remembered that the price of tickets was 10 cents from one end of route to the other end from Havelock Rd to RI.

Chen Wen even kept his bus concession card to this day! He noted that Principal Philip Liau had to physically sign every single bus card. 

James Foo said he always paid $0.10 to ride from home to anywhere. The bus conductors never ask to see concession card. In crowded buses they like to shout for us to move in and crack the overhead hand bars with their bus ticket clippers. Some nasty conductors will shout “ behind bus got no ghost la!”

Kheng Leong paid 10 cents too for a STC bus ride from Geylang to RI during 1964 to 1966. The bus conductors never asked to show the bus pass. However, the fare was raised after 1966, no more 10 cents.

Yap Cheng Hua said "I don't have a student card. I have a free bus card from the Hock Lee Bus Company that my father gave to me. My father was a bus conductor. That's why."

Teo Joo Huak, who later ran the Trans-Island Bus Service (TIBS)  wrote: "I stayed in Somapah ( a road name that was erased following the redevelopment of the kampong & resurfaced when the G built the Sg Uni of Technology & Design ), Changi 10 milestone & AG Joseph in Changi Point, Changi 14 m/s, we paid 20 cts onboard Changi Bus to Capitol. Usually I would cling on for my dear life on the steps as the buses were normally packed. When most student passengers got off at the Changi/Bedok junction to take the Bedok bus to their schools along East Coast Rd, I managed to get safely into the bus, then I paid 10 cts for the balance journey to Capitol or Odeon.

Many of us had to change buses to school because there was no direct bus to take us. Bus routes were limited as the operators only plied the more lucrative routes only. Chen Wen recalls those living in the Tiong Bahru, Queenstown, Chinatown and surrounding areas had to walk several miles to get to the Hock Lee bus terminus at Chulia Street for the convenience of using only one bus.

In those days there was no OMO or One Man Operator buses, it was usually two, a bus driver and a bus conductor. The bus tickets were of different colours for different fares and it showed the different numbered bus stops in one strip. Whenever someone boarded the bus, the conductor would punch a hole in the ticket with his chromed single hole metal puncher and passed the ticket to the passenger. One wonders how these conductors like Cheng Hua's father could remember from which bus stop these passengers boarded. 

Lionel said that to save his bus fare for the tuckshop, he would pretend that he already paid the fare. He could get away if the bus was crowded or when many passenger boarded the bus from a single bus stop. He could get away with it until a third bus employee boarded the bus, the bus Inspector! His duty was to ask the commuters to produce their tickets. He would make a tear on at the top end to indicate the ticket was inspected. When this person came on board, Lionel claimed that he would dismount at the next bus stop so as not to get caught. Then he would wait for the next bus but risked being late for school. 

It was an experience to board a bus after school. That was when the girls from the next-door school, the Convent of Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) also boarded. We would mingle in crowded bus stops near the schools, Lionel's bus stop was along Stamford Road at the old Capitol theatre. The boys would ogle at the girls. Then, it was such a joy to cramp into the bus and squeeze in, sweaty bodies touching each other. Didn't think the CHIJ girls minded either. Sometimes they even wore their PE shorts home!

It was dangerous to board a crowded bus. The last few passengers had to cling onto the rails at the bus entrances sometime with only one foot on the platform. It was either this danger or wait the next 30 minutes for the next bus!

Eventually, the old bus companies merged under government direction. Chan Hiap Kong recalled that at first the government  first merged the 11 bus companies into 4 companies in 1971, then a couple of years later merged all into Singapore Bus Service (SBS). SBS was listed in 1978 when we were able to subscribe 500 shares of SBS. Years later a second bus company, TIBS, was founded and Joo Huak became its managing director.

Poh Seng remembers, "Those days most of us went to RI by bus. There were no long queues of cars as seen in popular schools including present day RI. I remember taking bus numbers 10 or 14 from Kim Keat Avenue to RI. I preferred bus number 14 because it goes along Bras Basah Road and stop opposite RI before proceeding to Shenton Way. With bus number 10 heading to Neil Road, I have to stop opposite Capitol Theatre and walk along North Bridge Road to RI. 

My bus stop was only 3 bus stops from the bus terminus. So very often, the buses will just skipped my bus stop because it was so packed, then I will be late for school and eventually told to report to the prefect room. Luckily, Lau Hong Thye was the one who listened to my case and waived detention class for me. Henceforth, I will walk to the bus terminus to avoid being late and not take too much advantage of Hong Thye’s kindness."

Hiap Kong said, "It was almost a daily habit of mine to count the same 4 cars on leaving the main gate at Bras Basah Rd after school and without fail, one of the cars was waiting for Koon Wah. STC No: 9’s terminal was just outside our main gate, and the regulars taking that service were Swee Chuang, Kah Meng, Kwok Wah and I. "

Ratnam could take STC bus numbers 4, 18, 18A or 18B to school. Whenever he did not wake up early enough, it was an expensive affair because he would alight somewhere along Jalan Besar and switched to a pirate taxi to make it to school on time. This cost Ratnam's transport fare to balloon from 10 to 40 cents, a princely sum in those days!

Chen Wen said, "My mum used to take me for a joy ride when I was under 5  in No. 6 Hock Lee bus shuttling between Tiong Bahru area and Chulia Street bus terminal.  We only rode around the Tiong Bahru area.  She called No. 6 Hock Lee bus the 5 cents bus. Chen Wen even had the 5 cents bus tickets in his memorabilia!

Soon Huat noted that Hock Lee Bus #6 served Tiong Bahru estate which had Spore oldest public housing flats built by the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT), the predecessor of HDB. As it looped round the  estate, before proceeding to Chulia Street, it also passed beside Tiong Bahru Primary School.

Hiap Kong added that the Hock Lee Bus Company used cute little small buses to service route #6 as it meandered through the small estate roads in Tiong Bahru. The other service #7 used the small lorry-like front end buses with rear entrances servicing the Henderson Rd area terminating at the Glass Factory.

Song Chye remembered that on occasions of the Kiwi Cup, the RI-St Andrews Rugby matches, the whole afternoon session of the school would be dismissed early to watch the games. We would be flocking to the bus-stop along Stamford Road to take the bus to St Andrews. There would be long lines of boys dressed in the RI white uniforms congregating at the bus-stop and we would walk in a 'snaking' long white line to the St Andrew's school field. 

Those were the days! The buses today are air-conditioned, operated by a single person, the driver now called a bus captain, the buses are scheduled by computers arriving on time at not more than 5 minutes intervals. The buses are never crowded. When we went by bus to school in our time, those buses run on diesel engines that strew out black smoke, no aircon, hot and dingy, ever jerky with their ride. They are nearly always so crowded and passengers, including RI school boys in white uniforms, squeezed in to the last step of the single no-doors clinging to the side railings for our dear lives!    

Contributed by Lionel Lee, Chen Wen, Poh Kheng Leong, Yap Cheng Hua, William Chan, Chan Hiap Kong, Teo Joo Huak, James Foo, Lim Poh Seng, Ratnam, Soon Huat, Chua Song Chye, Tan Boon Tee and others