Not only that, it also has to cover such long distances from bedok to kent ridge interchange including a long stretch of road within the CBD.same proximity as what many other buses are covering yet it is deserving such unequal treatment. =( bus 33 serves people from all walks of life! and I think it is one of the buses that had ferried the most number of various school students (cchmss, tkgs, tkss, broadrick, gess, queenstown, fairfield, acsi, newtown...and i havent considered the pri schs as well as those that took 33 to transfer to another bus. ) Passengers with other occupations include office workers, researchers ( you know, those that alight at the AYE's buona vista exit), old people ( alot !), foreign construction workers, NSmen...
Yes these people take bus 33 on a regular basis. So I always board the same bus as them in the morning. It is a usual sight for 33 to be congested with passengers, esp. during the peak hours. Being unable to withstand such tremendous weight, the bus breaks down quite erm frequently.
Actually, that is not the only factor that cause the bus to break down, I think. You know, very often, I smell disel leakage in the bus.
Although, 33 may be slightly inferior in terms of the mechanics...it had still shown me much things outside my comfort zone. It brought me from east to the southwest side of Singapore, home to sch and sch back to home for almost 4 of my teenage years, tkgs to home for 1/2 a year.If not for the long regular rides, I wouldn't have learnt that much of sg's geography. I've also gained both pleasant and unhappy experiences from them. gossips on the bus, missing stops, reminiscing, friendly smiles from a particular bus driver, reprimandings from bus conductor (I'm not gonna tell you why tho), harrassments (i could understand my parents' rationales better)random conv with old people,latecomings, ...Most importantly, these are times when I feel most real and undistracted.
I finally realised such a significance in my life. you wouldn't understand, esp. for those (lucky ones) that are chauffeured everywhere. Private transportations travel along expressways where trees , tar, and green signs at exits are the only ones in the surroundings and time and energy consumption are particularly monitored. No matter how many thousands of vehicles have bypassed you, they are just going to leave a trail of exhaust or probably a few figures and a letter as the sight of them diminishes. Whatever lies interior such as the driver will be oblivious. I don't know about you, but I would be feeling very isolated at expressways when I become a driver in a future.
My point is, sometimes we're missing too much details in life out of conveniences and our consciousness of the time.