Singapore Shuttle Bus
| Singapore Shuttle Bus
| |
|---|---|
| Start of Operation: | 16 May 1975 |
| End of Operation: | 29 April 2007 |
| Operated by: | SMRT Corporation |
History[edit]
Singapore Shuttle Bus Pte. Ltd. (SSB) was incorporated on 16th May 1975 under the "Park and Ride" scheme introduced by the government. The "Park and Ride" Scheme was aimed at reducing city traffic congestion by encouraging car owners to park their vehicles at allotted fringe carparks and make use of the CSS services plying between the fringe carparks and the Central Business District. This, however, proved unpopular with the car owners and was abandoned on 12th June 1975. With the abolition of this scheme, SSB was called upon to provide regular bus services from the housing estates like Bedok, St Michael’s, Queenstown, Bukit Merah, Holland and Sin Ming to the CBD and vice versa and its route were reduced to 6 from an initial of 7 services.
Initially, there were 11 services initially and had a different routing system for AM Peak, PM Peak and Off Peak, serving 16 fringe car parks, 7 city area terminus and 49 selected key bus stops, with an initial fleet of 60 single-door 25 seater buses. SSB operated 7 CSS services, while NTUC Comfort operates the 4 CSS services. A month later after the CSS services began its operation, the services had proven to be under-utilised and had to be extended over to serve the HDB new towns on 12th June 1975. The CSS fleet was slowly replaced by larger and more spacious buses in 1985, together with the trial of the first 2 air-con buses on CSS 8 during the same year.
On 12th March 1987, SSB was acquired by Trans-Island Bus Services Ltd. CSS 9 was discontinued on 26th June 1988, citing high maintenance costs on CSS buses served by SSB and NTUC Comfort and low ridership on CSS 9. The last CSS service operated under NTUC Comfort, CSS 6, was discontinued on 1st July 1990.
TransitLink Farecards were accepted on CSS buses on 9th October 1995 and the roll out of Partial Air-Con (PAC) services was started on CSS 8, when the new batch of Nissan Diesel U31RCN (OAC) entered into CSS in 1993. CSS 5 was the first to receive the PAC status on 9th December 1996, when the TIBS DAF Hispanos, Hino HT238K & Nissan Diesel (OAC) were acquired by CSS, followed by CSS 2 & 7 in January 1997. Later on, when some of the NAC buses were retiring, CSS 3 was the last service to become PAC.
On 3rd November 1997, with the implementation of the Travel Information System by the authority, the remaining 5 CSS services were then re-numbered to CSS 602, 603, 605, 607 & 608 respectively.
On 9th July 2001, SMRT had announced for the proposal of the acquisition and merger of TIBS & SSB and at the end of 2001, TIBS & SSB became a subsidiary of SMRT.
On 28th October 2001, the remaining NAC buses were fully withdrawn, together with the discontinuation of CSS 602.
SSB provided public transport from the housing estates to the CBD areas. Services operated from interchanges and terminals like Bedok & Bt Merah Interchanges and Holland Dr, St. Michael's & Sin Ming Rd Terminals. The services used to operate from 6.30am to 7.30pm and does not operate on Sundays and Public Holidays. With the closure of Holland Dr Terminal in 1998, CSS 602 was re-routed to start from Shenton Way Terminal and loops at Holland Dr.
SSB’s only bus depot was at Lorong 1 Geylang (GLDEP). The central workshop was at Ang Mo Kio Depot (AMDEP) which handled all the preventive maintenance, repair works and major component overhauls.
Prior to the discontinuation of CSS 608, these were the last of the CSS Nissan Diesel U31RCN buses to pass by the old National Stadium, Maxwell Rd and old Supreme Court Building. The bus fleet was downsized gradually within the last 3 years of its service until its discontinuation on 29th April 2007.
The last CSS service, CSS 608, was initially slated to be discontinued on 31st March 2007. However, due to public appeals, the discontinuation date was pushed back to 29th April 2007.
Services[edit]
(As of time of discontinuation)
| Service | Route | Discontinuation date |
|---|---|---|
| 602 | Shenton Way - Holland Dr (loop) | 28 October 2001 |
| 603 | St. Michael's - Upp Cross St (loop) | 30 November 2003 |
| 605 | Sin Ming - Bt Merah | 5 September 2004 |
| 607 | St. Michael's - Eu Tong Sen St (loop) | 3 August 2003 |
| 608 | Bedok - Bt Merah | 29 April 2007 |
Discontinuation[edit]
- Last day of operation: 28 April 2007
- Last SSB bus departing from Bedok Int: CSS195K
- Last SSB bus departing from Bukit Merah Int: CSS180C