Sembawang residents face Singapore's longest work commutes, median 50 minutes
Residents of Sembawang have the longest median work commute in Singapore at 50 minutes, according to the 2025 General Household Survey. Many rely on two feeder buses to reach Sembawang MRT station, and the journey can stretch to 90 minutes or more in peak periods.
Sembawang residents face the longest work commutes in Singapore, with a median travelling time of 50 minutes, according to the General Household Survey 2025 published by the Department of Statistics (SingStat) in June. Residents in other outlying neighbourhoods — including Bukit Batok, Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong West, Punggol, Sengkang, Tengah, Woodlands and Yishun — reported a median work commute of 45 minutes.
The inaccessibility of Sembawang has been an issue for at least a decade: the same survey in 2015 listed Sembawang among the towns with the longest work commutes, with a median travelling time of 45 minutes. Many of the 13 residents CNA TODAY spoke to said their commutes to work were between 60 and 90 minutes.
Most residents rely on a train from Sembawang MRT station for the bulk of their journey to work. However, many said getting to the train station was the most draining part of their commute. The Housing and Development Board (HDB) cluster where Ms Bernice Ang lives is only served by two feeder buses — service numbers 859 and 859B — which head to Sembawang MRT station. During the morning peak period, bus stops along the route are packed with residents thronging buses that arrive, with many struggling to squeeze on board.
Ms Ang, a 57-year-old administrative executive, recalled a rainy day a couple of years ago when she had to wait for the third bus before she could squeeze on. What was supposed to be a 10-minute bus ride became 40 minutes. After getting to Sembawang MRT station, she still had to transfer from the North-South Line (NSL) to the North-East Line (NEL) to reach her Chinatown office. That day, she took two hours to get to work instead of the usual 90 minutes. She has since started a new job in Bukit Batok, but said her problem still lies in the bus to the MRT. "It's tiring, but there's no way around it," she said.
Mr Cheok, a 38-year-old freelance trainer who did not want to be identified by his full name, said the frequency of feeder buses is inconsistent. "Bus rides to Sembawang station are about 10 to 15 minutes, but the clumping effect means that one can wait between seven and 25 minutes and then three buses appear at once," said the Sembawang resident of six years. He also pointed to a lack of intra-town connectivity between the classic Sembawang town and the newer Canberra town. He recalled trying to make his way from his home near Admiralty Link to a Sheng Siong supermarket at Block 105 along Canberra Street; as there was no direct bus route, he ended up having to take a bus, then the MRT, then another bus. The supermarket was a mere eight-minute drive away, but he took 40 minutes to reach it via public transport.
Transport analysts said Sembawang's geographical location near the central catchment area makes it more inaccessible than other neighbourhoods. Associate Professor Lin Wei Qiang of the National University of Singapore's Department of Geography said Sembawang is further prevented from having a crow's flight path to the city centre due to the inlet of Seletar Reservoir. "There simply isn't any other way to speed things up further," he said. AP Gopinath Menon, formerly the chief transportation engineer at the Land Transport Authority (LTA), said the new North-South Corridor, a multi-modal transport link expected to open from 2029, will help the northern regions like Sembawang.
In response to queries, the LTA referred to a written parliamentary reply in August by Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow, which said the LTA had introduced two new bus services and enhanced 10 existing services in Sembawang Group Representation Constituency (GRC). In the longer term, the LTA is studying the alignment for the future Seletar Line to better connect residents in the north with key employment centres in the city centre. Dr Terence Fan, a transport analyst and Assistant Professor at the Singapore Management University, suggested that Sembawang might benefit from more express buses, adding that extending some express buses that originate from Yishun to start from Sembawang could be part of the solution.
