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.

Tower Transit, which won both the Bulim (2nd term) and Sembawang-Yishun bus packages in September 2020, has already commenced its second term of the Bulim Bus Package in May 2021. It has also given up services 665 and 974 to SMRT Buses and SBS Transit as both are not part of the Bulim Bus Package. In September 2021, Tower Transit will also be taking over 28 bus services of the Sembawang-Yishun bus package from incumbent operator SMRT Buses.

Timeline of Handover

SBS & TIBS

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Year	Handover date	Operator change	Services
1983	3 April	SBS to TIBS	160, 167
	8 May		161, 164
	5 June		169
	10 July		178, 204, 208
	7 August		180, 182
	4 September		181
	9 October		372
1995	2 July	SBS to TIBS	177, 179, 184
	6 August		75, 343, 344
	17 September		5, 187
	1 October		176
	5 November		171
	17 December		59, 82, 103, 163, 214E, 214W
1999	25 July	SBS to TIBS	190
		TIBS to SBS	864, 865, 866
	29 August	SBS to TIBS	185, 300, 302, 307
		TIBS to SBS	82
	26 December	SBS to TIBS	67, 172, 175, 188
		TIBS to SBS	103, 163, 820, 821
2000	18 June	SBS to TIBS	77, 189, 361, 365, 367
	3 September		61
	24 December		106, 173

BCM

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Year	Handover date	Operator change	Services
2016	29 May	SMRT to TT	77, 106, 173, 177, 189, 941, 945, 947, 990
	12 June	SBST to TT	66, 78, 79, 97, 97e, 143, 143M
	26 June		41, 49, 96, 98, 98M, 183, 282, 284, 285, 333, 334, 335
	4 September	SBST to GA	3, 34, 43, 43M, 62, 82, 83, 84, 85, 118, 119, 136, 382G, 382W, 386
	18 September		2, 6, 12, 15, 17, 17A, 36, 354, 358, 359, 403, 518, 518A
2018	18 March	SMRT to SBST	800, 804, 805, 807, 811, 860
	25 March		803, 806, 812, 850E, 851, 852
2021	29 May	SMRT to TT	944
		TT to SBST	974
	31 May	SMRT to TT	653, 657
		TT to SMRT	665