Woman refuses to move from bus doorway & says captain skipped her stop, SBS says CCTV shows stop was made

Angry that the bus captain had allegedly skipped her stop, a woman held up the bus service on the morning of May 6 by standing at the doorway, causing about 20 commuters aboard at the time to be transferred to the next bus service.

Raised her voice at bus captain

Speaking to Mothership, one of the commuters on the bus, Rachel (not her real name), said that the incident occurred at around 11am.

The affected bus service was 198 and was heading in the direction of the National University Hospital.

The bus was full of commuters on their way to work, Rachel said.

She was seated on the upper deck of the bus at the time.

When the bus stopped at the German Centre bus stop, she heard a woman raising her voice.

"I heard her say, 'You want to stop here? You expect me to walk back?" Rachel recounted, adding that she wasn't sure which bus stop the lady had intended to alight.

After a couple of minutes, Rachel said she felt the situation was not "going to resolve", so she alighted the bus at around 11:02am.

That was when she saw the angered commuter standing at the doorway.

According to Rachel, the woman insisted that she had pressed the stop bell.

The bus captain apologised, but the woman did not seem assuaged by the apology.

"Everyone started alighting and got off at [the German Centre bus stop] to wait for the next bus," Rachel shared.

The affected commuters then boarded the next service 198.

"[The] bus uncle also [kindly] wheeled the uncle in a wheelchair to the next 198 bus," Rachel recounted.

According to Rachel, the bus captain was seen speaking to the operations centre while the woman was on a phone call.

Bus stopped at female commuter's stop: SBS

Responding to Mothership's queries, SBS Transit spokesperson Grace Wu said that the incident happened when the bus was travelling along Jurong Town Hall Road.

Wu shared that after the bus moved off from the bus bay, a female commuter came down from the upper deck, pressed the bell and asked the bus captain to stop the bus.

"For safety reasons, he was not able to do so as the bus was already on the move with another bus travelling behind it," Wu added.

According to Wu, the bus captain apologised, but the female commuter "raised her voice and remained displeased", causing the bus to be held back at the next bus stop.

The police were contacted for assistance, and the 20 passengers on board were transferred to another bus.

"Based on closed-circuit television footage, we note that the bus had earlier called at the female commuter's bus stop," Wu shared.

"A commuter alighted and, as there was no one else at the exit, the bus captain closed the door and the bus moved off," she continued.

Wu advised commuters to "prepare themselves for alighting if they have the intention to do so" to avoid such a situation.