For unlucky tourists who visits Singapore during MRT breakdown or during maintenance schedule, and would like to go to Changi Airports to catch a flight, here are the alternatives you can use or take to reach Changi Airport. These list hopefully helpful especially for those without internet connection, you can just print screen this page and save it to your phone.
I wrote this article because of the recent condition where Singapore MRT, especially the Green line (East-West Line) – one of the oldest MRT tracks here and the one that connects entire Singapore to its Airport- often encounter breakdown or undergo maintenance which render no service.
These are the available alternatives to go to Singapore Changi Airport
1. Take taxi.
Difficulty level: Super easy.
Cost: Super expensive.
Ride time taken: Super fast, within half an hour.
Flagging a taxi should be pretty easy. However during MRT breakdown and/or peak time, finding an empty taxi who would like to pick you up sometimes can be super challenging and harder than to look for hidden treasures.
In case you need, here are the important taxi phone numbers.
- Common Hotline – 6342 5222 (6-DIAL-CAB)
- Comfort & CityCab Taxi – 6552 1111 (blue or yellow painted cars)
- Premier Taxi – 6363 6888 (silver painted cars)
- Prime Taxi – 6778 0808 (pinkish/rose gold painted cars)
- SMRT Taxi – 6555 8888 (Maroon painted cars)
- Trans-Cab Taxi – 6555 3333 (red painted cars with white color on top)
- Yellow-Top Taxi – 6293 5545 (black painted cars with yellow color on top)
Phone numbers, sourced from TaxiSingapore.com.
2. Take Blue line (Downtown line).
Level: Super easy.
Cost: Cheap.
Ride time taken: Half an hour to one hour, depends on where you are.
Blue Line – the newest line in Singapore – goes from Bukit Panjang all the way to Expo MRT.
Once reach Expo MRT, switch to Green line (East-West Line) to go to Changi Airport.
Good option if you are coming from Bugis area, Chinatown area, Little India area, Marina Bay Sands area, or Orchard area (need to first take the Red line to Newton to switch to Blue line).
MRT Map is updated as of November 2017 and sourced from LTA website here. LTA is Singapore statutory board under the Singapore Ministry of Transport, which spearheads land transport developments in Singapore.
3. Take public bus heading to Changi Airport.
Level: Medium.
Cost: Cheap.
Ride time taken: About one hour to one hour and half, depends on the traffic and where you are.
There are 7 public bus going to and leaving Changi Airports from tourists spots. Here, I summary them for you:
24, 27, 34, 36, 53, 110, 858.
If you spot any bus number mentioned above, flag them and ask them if they are bound to Changi Airport (and not the opposite direction), if the answer is yes, then get in.
In case you are coming from the following tourist spots:
If you are from Bugis MRT, first go to City Hall MRT (by any bus that goes to City Hall MRT) then take Public Bus Service 36.
If you are from Chinatown, first go to Dhouby Ghaut MRT, then take Public Bus Service 36.
If you are from City Hall MRT, take public Bus Service 36.
If you are from Dhouby Ghaut MRT, take Public Bus Service 36.
If you are from Holland Village, first go to Dhouby Ghaut MRT, then take Public Bus Service 36.
If you are from Little India/Farrer Park, first go to Dhouby Ghaut MRT, then take Public Bus Service 36.
If you are from Jurong, first go to City Hall MRT, then take Public Bus Service 36.
If you are from Marina Bay Sands/Gardens by the bay, first go to Suntec area, then take Public Bus Service 36.
If you are from Orchard area, take Public Bus Service 36.
If you are from Sentosa/Harbour Front, first go to Dhouby Ghaut MRT, then take Public Bus Service 36.
If you are from Suntec, take Public Bus Service 36.
If you are from Tampines MRT, take Public Bus Service 27.
If you are from Tanah Merah MRT, take Public Bus Service 24.
If you are from Woodlands, take Public Bus Service 858.
Tips: Try to ask the Bus Captain/Driver before really hopping to the bus, ask them if the bus is going to Changi Airport (and not the opposite direction). Only if the bus captain say yes, then hop in to the bus.
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4. Take hotel bus/shuttle.
Level: Super easy.
Cost: (mostly) FREE.
Ride time taken: Half an hour to one hour.
Check your hotel concierge or customer service. If you are staying at 3-5 stars hotel, chances are they provide shuttle service from and to Changi Airports. While most of them are providing the service for free, but there are probably some will charge you money. Do check with them.
5. Take Uber/Grab/Other Online Ride Hailing.
Level: Medium.
Cost: Moderate to expensive, depends on demand.
Ride time taken: Super fast, within half an hour.
If you already have the Uber/Grab account, you can use them here as well. Try to book in advance and try to avoid peak hour, otherwise the charging fare shall be pretty high and expensive.
6. Use combination of them.
Level: moderate.
Cost: moderate.
Ride time taken: half an hour to one hour and half. Plus extra waiting time.
Combine them to make your journey to Changi Airport much cheaper and more affordable. But do spend more more time since you need to switch one to few times to reach Changi Airport.
Say, calling taxi to go all the way from Singapore City area to Changi Airport will cost you sum amount of money, you can instead opt to call the taxi to drive you to the nearest MRT or Public Bus stop that has Bus Services going to Changi Airport, and from there you either change to MRT (if not under maintenance/breakdown) or take Public Bus. In total, it will cost you cheaper rather than taking full taxi – but will take more time.
7. Reschedule to other day
Level: Super easy.
Cost: Can be super expensive – cost of one more night at hotel/hostel.
Ride time taken: NA.
Though it seems impossible and doesn’t make sense to many, but there are some of tourists who actually have the flexibility to change their flight time to another time or even another day. If today the MRT is undergo maintenance and you think it will be super hassle for you to take the public transport and at the same time you won’t spend that much money just to pay taxi and rather spend it for another night in Singapore, then you may want to consider this option to reschedule your flight to another day/time.
Bring It All Together.
Though Singapore normally doesn’t encounter MRT breakdowns or delays, but with the system (Green Line – East-West Line) is getting older and older and recently they (Singapore) are trying to improve the system (thus plenty of maintenance time needed), so if you are visiting Singapore, do take precautions and try to find alternative ways and/or back-up plan to go to Singapore Changi Airports and do spare extra time. Don’t go last minute.
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