SMRT Buses

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SMRT Buses Ltd
MANA24-SMRT-Gemilang-SMB388S.JPG
Slogan Moving People, Enhancing Lives
Parent SMRT Corporation
Founded 15 May 1975 (as CSS)[1] & 31 May 1982 (as TIBS)
10 May 2004 (rebranded after merger)
Headquarters Singapore
Service type Bus service
Routes 102[2]
Stations 6 (Interchanges)
3 (Terminals)
4 (Depots)
Fleet Over 1400 buses (2015)[2]
Daily ridership 1.0 million (FY2015)[2]
Chief executive Desmond Kuek (President & CEO)
Website SMRT Buses
A mix of resprayed buses in red livery with some in older, yellow TIBS livery parked at Bukit Panjang Bus Interchange, shortly after TIBS's rebranding.

SMRT Buses, originally Trans Island Bus Services (TIBS), is a public bus transport operator in Singapore. Before the Government Contracting Model was introduced,[3] Singapore had a duopoly transport system in which SMRT's only competitor was SBS Transit, which also operates bus services in Singapore. The company was incorporated as TIBS on 31 May 1982, in a heavily regulated market, to be a competitor to Singapore Bus Service. In accordance with restructuring at parent company SMRT Corporation, TIBS was renamed "SMRT Buses" on 10 May 2004 along with the subsequent merger of City Shuttle Service.[4]

History

In 1982, the company ran with a fleet of 37 buses and two services, Service 160 (later renumbered Service 980) and Service 167. Later, more services were handed over to them by the government along with the tender to operate services in the northern region, mainly Yishun and the developing Woodlands.

In 1995, as part of the government's plan to make the local bus system more competitive, 16 SBS services were handed over to TIBS Holdings (TIBS) along with the tender to operate bus services in the north-east corridor, mainly the developing towns Sengkang and Punggol as well as Bukit Panjang.[5]

In 1996, TIBS began operations at the Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange, Singapore's first underground bus interchange. It was also the first bus interchange designed to accommodate articulated buses. TIBS used articulated buses, some of which were designed by world-renowned designer, Pininfarina and was known as the Habit articulated buses, on a large scale in its fleet, in contrast to the double-deckers used by Singapore Bus Service (SBS).[6][7]

In 1999, SBS Transit was awarded both bus and train services in the entire north-east corridor with the North East Line, Sengkang LRT and Punggol LRT by the Land Transport Authority, both based in Sengkang.[8] Eight bus services affected in the bus tender of Sengkang and Punggol were transferred to SBS Transit respectively.[8] In return, TIBS was awarded to operate bus services in the north-west corridor towns of Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Batok, where the handover was done in stages.[8]

TIBS and SMRT first held talks for merger in 1999, which turned out to be unsuccessful.[9] The second round in 2001 resulted in an agreement for SMRT to buy TIBS at $194 million.[10] In 2004, the merger[11] was completed, and TIBS adopted the name SMRT Buses to reflect their merger with SMRT.

On 26 November 2012, 170 bus drivers (all of whom are foreign nationals from China), refused to leave their living quarters for work. This reduced bus services to 90% of normal levels. The Ministry of Manpower considered it an illegal strike since the group failed to give a 14 days notice prior to disrupting an essential public service, as is required by the local laws. As a result, 5 of the strikers were jailed for instigating the strike, and another 29 were deported.[12][13]

On 23 April 2013, the Land Transport Authority announced that a new Bulim Bus Depot will be built by the authority itself. It will be located off Jurong West Avenue 2. It will be the first depot that LTA is developing and funding, as part of the review of the enhanced structural assistance that Government is providing the bus industry announced in Committee of Supply (COS) 2012. The depot is intended for SMRT Buses Ltd, to accommodate the additional buses that it is bringing in over the next few years. The operator’s existing bus depots and bus park are reaching full capacity, and the new facility is necessary to support the higher number of buses as the overall bus capacity is progressively increased under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP).[14]

Buses

SMRT Buses owns more than 1,400 buses[2] and operates more than 100 bus services in Singapore. It has depots at Ang Mo Kio, Bulim, Kranji and Woodlands. It is currently the only operator of articulated buses in Singapore, and introduced double-decker buses in 2014. It is also the first operator to introduce electronic destination signage (EDS) on its buses since 1990, which is now standard equipment.[15] Some of these recently acquired buses are used for Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP) since 17 September 2012.[16]

Three bus models currently form the majority of SMRT Buses' fleet:

In addition, SMRT Corporation has a minibus subsidiary Bus-Plus Services which provides some premium, free shuttle, chartered, and peak-hour peak period bus services throughout Singapore.[19][20]

Bus models[2]

Double decker buses

Articulated Buses

Single Deck Buses

Bus routes

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See also: List of bus routes in Singapore

SMRT Buses operates many different types of bus routes and bus services, taking up the smaller part of the pie of Singapore's duopoly bus system in almost all areas of Singapore especially the north and northwest areas. However, with the current Government Contracting Model, selected number of existing services run by SMRT will be handed over to the newer operators, namely Tower Transit Singapore.

References

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  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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