Bus See TV

BRYAN WONG takes us on a bus ride down memory lane as the host of new Ch 5 documentary Buses: Dawn to Dusk. He tells us more about his experiences with Singapore’s most common form of public transport. P/S: His childhood dream was to be a bus conductor.

- Cheryl Ong

8 DAYS: You’ll be hosting Buses: Dawn to Dusk, a two-part documentary on the evolution of the local bus industry and what commuters here can expect in future. What have you learnt from filming this show?

BRYAN WONG: My understanding of buses was all from my childhood or schooling days. But now I know about the new bus contracting model, and how LTA is the one that owns all the buses and they have different tenderers bidding for the bus packages. And I understand why I see more buses on the road now — they have a rule that buses should arrive within 15-minute intervals. Also, we’ve all heard of pilots going into flight simulators. Apparently, there’s a bus academy in Singapore and all the bus captains, on top of their on-the-road training, go into the bus simulator to learn how to drive a bus. I got the pleasure of trying it out. Also, what’s interesting about the buses here in future is that every inner seat will have its own USB port, which is so cool.

So when was the last time you took the bus in Singapore?

It was when I was filming a drama back in 2001. It was a Ch U telemovie, Wonderful Life: Aspirations, where my character met the love of his life on the bus (laughs). At that time, not all buses were air-conditioned and the one we were filming on turned out to be not air-conditioned. But if you’re asking about me being on the bus as a commuter, it’d have to be in my early 20s. These days, I drive, so I don’t take public transport.

What were your fondest memories of taking the bus?