Where should we meet in Singapore?

How do you find a fair place to meet in Singapore?

Add where each person starts, and pick the MRT station or bus interchange where the longest journey among you is shortest. NAVIG compares estimated weekday-morning trips from every starting place to every station and interchange everyone can reach, then ranks them. The fairest places come first, and the least total travel is marked separately.

Last updated 26 October 2026. Times are modelled estimates for a weekday morning.

Example: meeting between Tampines, Jurong East and Woodlands

For three people starting at Tampines, Jurong East and Woodlands, the fairest place on Bus + MRT is Caldecott: the longest trip is about 36 min and the shortest 30 min. Woodlands has the least travel in total (90 min across the three trips), but one person travels 57 min to get there. All times are estimates for a weekday morning.

This is a fixed example and does not use your places. Modelled for a weekday at 9 am from OneMap and LTA data, built 26 October 2026. Each time includes the walk from the starting place to a nearby station or stop.

Open this example in the tool

Fairest or fastest: how a meeting point is scored

A fair meeting point is one where the longest journey is as short as it can be. NAVIG ranks places by that longest trip first, then by the gap between the quickest and slowest trip, then by total minutes. The fastest-overall ranking uses total minutes alone.

The two rankings answer different questions. Total minutes is the sum of every person's trip, so it rewards a place that is next door to one person and far from another. A place can have the smallest total and still send one person on the longest ride in the group. The longest-trip rule stops that, because it only improves a place when the person with the most travel gains.

Use Fairest for everyone when the group wants to arrive at about the same time, or when one person has less patience for a long commute. Use Fastest overall when the group cares about total travel, for instance when one person lives close to a busy station anyway. The tables below show real examples where the two disagree.

Ties are common because journeys are estimated in whole minutes. When two places have the same longest trip, the smaller gap between the quickest and slowest trip wins, so equal trips rank above an uneven pair with the same longest trip. That is why each result shows every person's minutes beside its rank, and why the tag next to a place tells you which ranking it leads.

Fair stations for common starting places

For 8 typical pairs and groups, this table shows the station where the longest modelled trip is shortest. Tampines and Jurong East, for example, meet at City Hall: 24 min and 24 min. Your own starting places will differ, so treat these as examples.

Minutes are listed in the order of the starting stations. Rail model for a weekday at 9 am, station to station, with no walk to the station and a 6 minute allowance for each change. When the fastest station differs, someone travels further to get there.

Stations that are easy to reach from everywhere

Across the 181 MRT and LRT stations in the timetable model, Serangoon, Bugis and Little India have the shortest median trip in from every other station, between 21 and 23 minutes. A well-connected station is a good fallback when nobody wants to work out a pair of starting places.

Median and longest are across the other 180 stations, station to station, for a weekday at 9 am. They leave out the walk at each end. A short median does not make a station fair for your group: use the finder for that.

Where to meet, by part of Singapore

If you are coming from different sides of the island, pick the part of Singapore nearest to the person with the longest trip, then use the finder to compare stations there. These are the stations in each region with the shortest median trip in from the other four regions, in the same weekday model.

Central

Central Singapore has 84 of the 181 stations. Coming from the rest of the island, the shortest median trips in are to Bartley, Little India and Dhoby Ghaut: 28 min, 28 min and 29 min respectively. The closest hawker centre, park or library to each is Woodleigh Village Hawker Centre, 956 m from Bartley, Buffalo Road Blk 665 (Tekka Centre/Zhu Jiao Market), 233 m from Little India and Queen Street Blk 270 (Albert Centre), 903 m from Dhoby Ghaut. Area guides: Toa Payoh, Kallang and Museum.

East

East Singapore has 16 of the 181 stations. Coming from the rest of the island, the shortest median trips in are to Kembangan, Bedok and Kaki Bukit: 33 min, 36 min and 36 min respectively. The closest hawker centre, park or library to each is Eunos Crescent Blk 4A, 969 m from Kembangan, New Upper Changi Road Blk 208B, 110 m from Bedok and Bedok Reservoir Road Blk 630, 682 m from Kaki Bukit. Area guides: Bedok.

North-East

North-East Singapore has 40 of the 181 stations. Coming from the rest of the island, the shortest median trips in are to Serangoon, Lorong Chuan and Tai Seng: 24 min, 25 min and 25 min respectively. The closest hawker centre, park or library to each is Woodleigh Village Hawker Centre, 1209 m from Serangoon, Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 Blk 409 (Teck Ghee Square), 1574 m from Lorong Chuan and Circuit Road Blk 80 (80 Circuit Road Market and Food Centre), 825 m from Tai Seng. Area guides: Serangoon and Hougang.

North

North Singapore has 11 of the 181 stations. Coming from the rest of the island, the shortest median trips in are to Khatib, Springleaf and Yishun: 38 min, 38 min and 40 min respectively. The closest hawker centre, park or library to each is Yishun Park Hawker Centre, 1558 m from Khatib, Sembawang Hills Food Centre (Jalan Leban Food Centre), 3071 m from Springleaf and Chong Pang Hawker Centre & Market, 684 m from Yishun. Area guides: Yishun.

West

West Singapore has 30 of the 181 stations. Coming from the rest of the island, the shortest median trips in are to Hume, Clementi and Hillview: 33 min, 34 min and 35 min respectively. The closest hawker centre, park or library to each is Bukit Timah Interim Hawker Centre and Market, 1678 m from Hume, Clementi Ave 3 Blk 448, 213 m from Clementi and Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre, 1787 m from Hillview. Area guides: Bukit Panjang and Clementi.

Distances to hawker centres, parks and libraries are straight lines from OneMap themes, not walking routes. Regions follow the planning-area groupings used on the area guides.

Meeting by MRT, by bus, on foot or by bike

Bus + MRT is the default and suits most groups in Singapore. It takes the quicker of an all-bus journey and a rail journey for each person. Choose Bus only when someone does not use the train, and Walk or Cycle for places that are only a few kilometres apart.

With Bus + MRT the candidates are MRT and LRT stations and bus interchanges, so a result can be a train station on one line or a large interchange such as Bishan, Tampines or Woodlands. With Bus only the candidates are bus interchanges, and a place appears only if everyone can reach it by bus. If you want the specific service numbers, the bus route planner shows which buses to take and how many changes each journey needs.

Walk and Cycle use straight-line distance with a detour allowance, at 80 and 250 metres a minute. They ignore road layout, crossings and hills, so they suit a quick check for two friends in neighbouring estates, not a long ride. If the best place is far away for someone, the tool says so and suggests Bus + MRT. Everyone uses the same mode in one search, so for mixed groups run Bus + MRT and compare it with Bus only.

Tips for couples, friends, families and work

The best way to use a meeting point depends on who is meeting and what they need on arrival. Start with the starting places, read each person's minutes, then check what is near the station before you commit. These tips apply the same ranking in different situations.

Couples and first dates

For two people, Fairest for everyone usually gives the answer both of you will accept, because it keeps the longer trip as short as possible. Open the Nearby list for a place to see the closest hawker centre, park and library, with straight-line distances. A short walk from the station to somewhere to sit is easier to arrange than a long one, and a station nearer one person is not a fair trade if the other person has a change to make.

Friends from different parts of Singapore

Add each friend's starting place and read the gap between the quickest and slowest trip. If one friend is far from everyone, the list shows what meeting nearer them costs the others. For a regular meet-up, save the link: it holds the places and settings, so you can rerun it when someone moves or a new person joins. Groups of three to six work the same way, with one row per person.

Families

With children or older relatives, look at the number of changes in each person's route, not only the minutes. Select a place and open each person's route to see the walk, the services and the changes. A direct bus or a single train line can be easier than a faster trip with a transfer. The tool does not model lifts, crowding or stroller access, so check those with the operator before you go.

Work meetings and clients

For a meeting that starts at a fixed time, add the route for the slowest person and allow slack, because the ranking uses a weekday 9 am model and your meeting may be at another time. Stations and interchanges are easy to describe in an invitation, and the share message lists each person's estimated minutes. For longer commute comparisons, where to live by commute works from workplaces instead of friends.

Common ways to ask the same question

People look for a meeting point in different words: meet in the middle, halfway between two addresses, or a midpoint between two MRT stations. They are the same problem in Singapore, and the answer is a place measured by travel time, not a point on a map.

Meet in the middle of two MRT stations

The station halfway along the line between two stations is often not the fairest, because the lines branch and interchanges save time. Enter the two stations as starting places and compare the shortlist. For an east and west pair such as Tampines and Jurong East, the example above shows how far apart the quickest and slowest trips can be.

Halfway between two addresses in Singapore

Search for each building, street or postcode, or use your location. NAVIG walks each address to the stations and bus stops around it, adds that walk to the trip, and compares journeys by estimated minutes. It does not draw a straight line and pick the centre, which can land in a reservoir or an area with no station.

Where to meet friends from the east and west

East and west Singapore are joined by the East West Line and the Downtown Line, with the central interchanges in between. Add one starting place on each side and the shortlist shows which central stations keep both trips similar. The east-west pair in the table above is a worked case, and each station links to its guide.

Groups of three to six

More people make a fair answer harder, because one place has to work for every direction. Add all of them, then check the heat map: it shades each planning area by the longest trip anyone makes to its stations, from yellow for shortest to ink for longest. If one person pushes every result up, try moving them closer or rerun without them to see the difference.

Try an example

Each link fills in the tool with these starting places and runs the search.

• Tampines and Jurong East East and west
• Woodlands, Punggol and Tampines North, north-east and east
• Yishun, Bedok and Clementi Three corners of the island
• Sengkang and Bukit Batok North-east and west
• Pasir Ris, Choa Chu Kang, Toa Payoh and Harbourfront Four people

How it works

1. Add where everyone starts

   Search for a building, a street or a postcode, or use your location. Two to six people. Each place stays on screen as a compact row.

2. Pick how you travel

   Bus + MRT, Bus only, Walk or Cycle. Everyone uses the same mode, and results update when you change it.

3. Compare the shortlist

   Each place shows every person's estimated minutes. Select one to see each person's route on the map.

Method and limits

• Candidate places are MRT and LRT stations and bus interchanges. Bus only considers interchanges.
• Times between places come from a model of a weekday at 9 am. Evenings, weekends, delays and crowding are not modelled.
• Rail times use OneMap's journeys between neighbouring stations plus a 6 minute allowance for each change. That allowance is an assumption.
• Bus + MRT takes the quicker of an all-bus journey and a rail journey with a walk at each end. It does not join a bus ride and a train ride into one trip.
• Each person's time includes the walk from their starting place to a nearby station or bus stop. The best of the stops and stations around the address is used for each journey.
• Walk and Cycle use straight-line distance plus 30 percent, at 80 and 250 metres a minute.
• Fairest means the smallest longest journey, then the smaller gap between the quickest and slowest trip, then the less total time. Fastest overall means the least total minutes.
• The shortlist is the eight fairest places plus the fastest overall if it is not among them.
• The map shades each planning area by the longest trip anyone makes to its stations. It is approximate.
• Selecting a place asks OneMap and LTA data for each person's route for the current time, so those times can differ from the 9 am estimate.
• The tables on this page leave out the walk at each end and cover rail stations only, so they differ from a search with real starting places.

Sources

• Places, routes, MRT stations, planning areas and nearby hawker centres, parks and libraries: OneMap, Singapore Land Authority.
• Bus services, stops and routes: LTA DataMall, Land Transport Authority.
• Base maps: OneMap and Esri. MRT and LRT lines: OneMap and LTA.

NAVIG is an independent project, not run by SLA, LTA or any operator.

More ways to plan and get there

• Where to live by commute Compare areas by travel time to work
• Bus route planner Which bus to take, buses only
• Bus + MRT planner Directions to the place you pick
• MRT stations, crowd and alerts Every station guide, and before you set out
• Area guides All 55 planning areas