PTO Handover Exercise

Background

SBS and TIBS

In April 1981, then Communications and Labour Minister Ong Teng Cheong announced that the goverment will grant a licence to a second public transport operator who was willing to compete with the Singapore Bus Services (SBS), which had a monopoly on all bus services in Singapore since its inception in late 1973.

In January 1982, City Shuttle Service (CSS) operator Singapore Shuttle Bus (SSB) submitted applications to the Ministry of Communications to establish a second bus operator and the Registry of Vehicles for four bus depots. Applications were granted on 12 March 1982, with the new company set to take over 11 SBS bus services plying the northern areas of Sembawang, Admiralty, Marsiling and upcoming services plying from the then developing new towns of Yishun and Woodlands. On 31 May 1982, the new operator, Trans Island Bus Services (TIBS), was inaugurated as a branch of the SSB.

The first transfer of SBS bus services to TIBS, began on 3 April 1983, starting with Services 160 and 167 at Sembawang, with an initial fleet of 37 buses and 2 bus services. During that same year, the remaining SBS bus services plying the northern areas were progressively transferred to TIBS.

On 25 August 1994, the government announced that TIBS will take over the bus services in Bukit Panjang, Jalan Kayu and Punggol from SBS, as well as being allocated the then developing new towns of Sembawang, Simpang, Sengkang and Punggol. The motives of having the transfers of these bus services are to satisfy commuters' desire to see greater competition in the public bus industry, and also to save TIBS from the impact of the rationalisation of bus services caused by the opening of the Woodlands MRT extension in 1996. These bus services were transferred to TIBS between July and December 1995 in six tranches.

On 20 May 1999, the tender to operate the North-East Line (NEL), Sengkang and Punggol LRT lines was awarded to SBS. To achieve the government's goal of having a multi-modal public transport system in the North-East Corridor, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) also reallocated the operations of the Jalan Kayu, Sengkang and Punggol bus services to SBS from TIBS, in exchange for their bus services in Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Batok. The Choa Chu Kang, Jalan Kayu, Sengkang and Punggol bus service swaps were carried out in three tranches between July and December 1999 while the Bukit Batok bus services were transferred to TIBS in three tranches between June and December 2000. This has made TIBS responsible for the operation of bus services in the northern and northwestern regions of Singapore.

Bus Contracting Model

With the implementation of the Bus Contracting Model (BCM) announced by the LTA in May 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 May and September 2016 respectively, based on the tender result of the Bulim and Loyang bus packages respectively. For Yishun bus services under the Seletar Bus Package, these bus services operating under SMRT Buses were handed over in two tranches to SBS Transit in March 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 and has also taken over 27 bus services in three tranches from SMRT Buses in September and October 2021, as part of the Sembawang-Yishun Bus Package.

In August 2023, the LTA had awarded the Bukit Merah (2nd term) and Jurong West Bus Packages to SBS Transit and SMRT Buses respectively. The second term for the Bukit Merah Bus Package will commence in May 2024, while SBS Transit will transfer the bus services under the Jurong West Bus Package to SMRT Buses from September 2024.

Timeline of Handover

SBS and TIBS

Click to expand/collapse
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		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

Bus Contracting Model

Click to expand/collapse
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
	5 September	SMRT to TT	171, 670, 853, 853M, 854, 854e, 855, 856, 857
	6 September	SMRT to SBST	652
	19 September	SMRT to TT	169, 858, 963, 963e, 963R, 965, 966, 969
	3 October		167, 656, 825, 859, 882, 883, 883M, 980, 981, NR1, NR2