Before its all gone

I checked the traffic on my blogs today and, for some reason which I am unaware of, the most read article is "Old bus stops in Singapore" which I wrote 2 years ago.

When I looked deeper into the statistics, I found that most readers arrived at that article as a result of Google search. People were searching keywords like 'old bus stops' & 'Singapore heritage'.
I guess that for these people old scenes and heritage of Singapore are an interest.

Perhaps the interest is due to the fact that these things are fast fading from the scene.
I had thought that bus stops were pretty much mundane.

I was thinking perhaps I should start taking and keeping photographs of another mundane object which we take for granted - overhead pedestrian bridges. Should I?

When you look at the new Helix Bridge, Henderson Waves bridge and the Alexandra Arch which are all pedestrian bridges, perhaps one day, the typical bridges we use daily will just be a long forgotten memory.
Already the 1st generation steel truss pedestrian overhead bridges are no longer seen,  having been replaced by the concrete types.

I looked up the LTA website and it stated that there are 480 pedestrian bridges in Singapore under their care.
So I'll try and capture as many as I can. It will be a long ongoing project.
Perhaps one day in future, someone will do a search for 'old pedestrian overhead bridges' and laugh at the current designs.

Here's a bit of trivia.
Which was the 1st overhead pedestrian bridge built in Singapore?

Here's an archive photo of it.

The Collyer Quay pedestrian bridge opened on 8 April 1964.
The same bridge eventually evolved into the Change Alley Aerial Plaza.

Nostalgic photo - Beauty World

I was doing a search for some information for a piece I intended to write about the Upper Bukit Timah area when I came across this picture that really hit me hard in the face!

Originally, my first thought was 'Hey, this picture would be nice for my previous blog on old bus stops' when it suddenly hit me that this was the bus stop at the old 7-1/2ms Upper Bukit Timah Road which I had used long ago when I was just a young boy during my school days!

This was the bus stop opposite the original Beauty World. The picture must have been taken in the 1960s. The buildings on the left are still in existence at the junction of Chun Tin Road and Cheong Chin Nam Road. On the right where a gully separates the road from the vegetation used to be an old kampong where now stands the Bukit Timah Shopping Centre and Beauty World Centre. In the far background is Bukit Timah Hill.

The bus approaching the bus stop is service no.1 from the Green Bus Company. This service ran from Queen Street to Johore Bahru. This service is still in operation today under SBS Transit no 170.

Old bus stops in Singapore

I used to live at a small housing estate called Princess Elizabeth Estate, located at Hillview Avenue in Upper Bukit Timah. Was reminiscing about it with my sisters when I decided to look for old photos of our childhood.

While looking for those, I came across an album consisting of photos of bus stops taken around 1989. These, being 20 years ago, I thought it might be interesting (boring?) for some to see these relics. In fact, some of these bus stop designs are still in used, although most today are being replaced by the new standard design.

This is the current standard bus stop design (c.2009). I believe that the bus stops now are designed, constructed and maintained, not by the government or bus companies, but by a media company (JC Decaux? correct me here). This is in exchange for all advertising rights at the bus stops.

Here are the photos from the past. Click on it for a larger image.

Finally, the coup de grace.....
This was the bus terminus at Princess Elizabeth Estate. First used by the Green Bus Co with service No 5. Later taken over by United Bus Co No 173 and finally by the SBS bus 173 and 193. The estate was demolished sometime in the 1990s and the terminus no longer exists, though SBS service 173 still runs through the area.


Postscript:
The following pictures were sent to me by reader Sue who found them after reading my blog. Thanks Sue.
If any of you have more pictures of old bus stops to contribute, I'll be happy to upload them here.

Comments by contributors.

Old car at old bus stop along old road in Changi









Bus stop that looks more like a bucket system toilet without the door in old Sembawang.

Old concrete bus stop at Ang Mo Kio 1980s

Bus stop in rural district c.1960s.

Orchard Road 2011. Lucky Plaza