PTO Handover Exercise

Introduction
The second public transport operator (PTO) in Singapore, Trans-Island Bus Services (TIBS), was formed on 31 May 1982. Its primary focus was to cover the bus routes serving the outlining areas of Sembawang, Admiralty and the HDB new towns of Woodlands and upcoming Yishun.

The first handover of SBS bus services to TIBS, began on 3rd April 1983, starting with Services 160 and 167, with an initial fleet of 37 buses and 2 bus services. During the same year, the remaining SBS bus services to TIBS were gradually handed over until its last service, Feeder Service 372, which makes TIBS to fully control its bus services coverage.

On 25th August 1994, the Singapore Government had announced that Bukit Panjang, Jalan Kayu and Punggol under SBS, will be taken over by TIBS, in order for the expansion of its bus service coverage boundary in the north-western and north-eastern parts of Singapore. However, on 20th May 1999, the contract for the operation of the North-East Line (NEL), Sengkang and Punggol LRT lines were awarded to SBS. In contrast of the contract, SBS and TIBS had made a one-on-one exchange with the bus services serving Choa Chu Kang, Jalan Kayu, Sengkang and Punggol, whereby Choa Chu Kang services which were previously operated by SBS were given to TIBS and Jalan Kayu, Sengkang and Punggol, which were under TIBS were given to SBS.

Another round of the TIBS takeover was made in 2000, whereby TIBS would entirely made responsible of its bus operations at the north-western parts of Singapore. The Bukit Batok bus services were handed over to TIBS in 3 phases, making TIBS completely responsible within the north-west and the northern parts of Singapore.

With the implementation of the Bus Contracting Model (BCM) announced by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in 2014, the routes were handed over to the 2 new BCM public transport operators (PTOs), namely Tower Transit Singapore (TT) and Go-Ahead Singapore (GA) in 2016, based on the bidding result of the Bulim and Loyang bus packages respectively. For Yishun bus services under the Seletar Bus Package, these bus services operating under SMRT were handed over to SBS Transit in 2018.