Government Contracting Model

There have a total of 3 bus packages announced till date and all will be operated by other operators meaning new entrants. We welcomed TT (Tower Transit) and will be welcoming Go Ahead soon. Let's have a quick look at the bus services depots and interchanges and terminals affected.

Bulim Package:

Depot Affected: Bulim Bus Depot

Interchanges: Jurong East and Bukit Batok Bus interchanges

Clementi bus services affected are 96 and its feeder service

Bus services

Feeder services:282, 284, 285, 333, 334, 335, 941, 945, 947

City Bound Services: 77 97 97e 106 143

Town linking services:41, 49, 66, 77, 78, 79, 96,, 98/98M, 173, 177, 183, 189, 990

Loyang Package

Depot Affected: Loyang Bus Depot

Interchange and Terminals: Pasir Ris and Punggol Interchange Changi Village and Changi Airport PTB2 Terminals

Feeder services: 354, 358, 359, 382, 386,

City Bound Services: 36 518

Town linking services:2 3 6 12 15 17 34 36 43 62 82 83 85 118 119 136 403

Sungei Seletar Package

Depot Affected: Sungei Seletar Depot(SBST AMDEP and SMRT AMDEP merger?)

Interchange and Terminals: Yio Chu Kang  Ang Mo Kio Yishun Temp Int Bus Interchanges

Feeder services: 261, 262, 265, 268, 269, 800, 803, 804, 805, 806, 811, 812,

City Bound Services: 70 130 133 850E

Town linking services:24 76 162 860

Total services LOST: 75 bus services

SBST: 59

SMRT: 16

SBST LOST 7 interchanges and Terminals :

1. Pasir Ris Bus Interchange

2. Punggol Temp Int 

3. Jurong East Temp Int 

4. Changi Village Terminal

5. Changi Airport PTB2 Terminal 

6. Yio Chu Kang Bus Interchange

7. Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange

SMRT lost 2 

1. Bukit Batok Bus Interchange

2. Yishun Temporary Bus Interchange

So by 2018 we will have 5 operators running the services. They are

1. SBST (Incumbent)
2. SMRT (Incumbent)
3. Tower Transit
4. Go Ahead
5. Coming soon

What are the buses ?

Same as what TT debuted with. Volvo B9TL Mercedes Benz Citaro

Alexander Dennis Enviro 500 and MAN A22

But this is yet to be seen

EX SMRT and SBST BSEP buses are also being transferred to the new operators and the new SBST buses from SBS 1 Z to 23 K will also transfer over . Perhaps the concept buses which will be finalised will also debut.

It is also sad to see bendies being removed early and being reshuffled again. The MAN A24 might as well transfer to other town services.

So let's hope for the best for the bus industries. The new DDUs installed helps to have consistent headways prevents bunching and constant frequencies. However many complain that the TT buses are slow and crawling. But this is for safety comfort and better bus services. Perhaps there should be a dedicated bus lanes everywhere. Lets hope for the best

Volvo B9TL

One of the common bus model in Singapore this was first ordered in 2002. Now SBST TT and GAG are the current operators

Design:The Volvo B9TL chassis was designed based on the existing Volvo B7TL. A key difference from its B7TL and B10TL predecessors is its new 9.3-liter engine originally designed by Renault Trucks. The larger engine delivers more horsepower, an advantage over the Volvo B10TL which was notorious for its poor performance on steep ascents. Another major design change over the B10TL was the relocation of the water tank from the front of the bus (near the right front wheel) to the rear, next to engine components.The B9TL was initially offered only in a 12-meter 3-axle format. The 2-axle variant was introduced in 2006 to fully replace the B7TL, with various chassis lengths available (10.3m, 10.4m and 10.6m).The driveline comprises a Euro III-compliant Volvo D9A engine (rated at 300 or 340 horsepower), which was later replaced by the Euro V-compliant Volvo D9B engine, which relies on Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology, requiring diesel additive fluids such as AdBlue. Two versions were offered – the D9B260 rated at 260-horsepower for the 2-axle version, and a higher powered D9B310, rated at 310-horsepower, for the 3-axle version. Transmission options include a ZF 5/6-speed gearbox or a  Voith 4-speed gearbox. Wheel rims are typically supplied by Alcoa.
History As mentioned the chassis was bought by SBST Engineering counterpart Comfortdelgro Engineering in 2002. They started to build a bus.. A trial bodywork had previously been tested on a Volvo B10TL (SBS9889U), developed by SBS in cooperation with PSV International. In 2006 CDGE unveiled the first WAB and also the first purely made in Singapore CDGE bus. It started plying route 21 as it had a lot of benefits. The launch date was delayed from April to June to prepare bus stops for wheelchair boarding and alighting activities. Finally, on 27 June 2006, SBS Transit Service 21 became the first wheelchair-accessible bus service with 10 Volvo B9TL CDGEs in its fleet.SBST later ordered 50 more buses after putting some of the first B9TLs into revenue service and brought the total fleet size to 200. These buses come with the same Euro III-compliant Volvo D9A300 engine, but a four-speed Voith gearbox instead of the six-speed ZF. All units were registered just days before the government-set deadline for Euro-IV compliant diesel engines. Volvo B9TL CDGE units were registered from SBS7300P to SBS7499A. Govt. had subsidized the costs as CDGE built everything from scratch like from chassis to bodywork .

Safety features:

1. Interlocking system which means bus will not go beyond 5 kmh if doors are not closed or if wheelchair ramp is still deployed
2. Additional blinkers to be visible to motorists when bus exits bus bay

BS7321D had its ZF 6HP602 gearbox replaced with a ZF EcoLife 6AP 1410B gearbox for reasons unknown. The same make of gearbox is fitted to ZF Volvo B9TL Wrights .

Volvo B9TL CDGE transmission
ZF Ecomat 6HP 602	SBS7300P – SBS7341X, SBS7347E – SBS7402D, SBS7448Y – SBS7499A, excluding SBS7321D
Voith DIWA 864.3	SBS7342T – SBS7346H, SBS7403B – SBS7447A
ZF EcoLife 6AP 1410B	SBS7321D

However in 2010 AMDEP bus fire SBS 7440 T(AMDEP 25) was badly burnt and destroyed hence it deregistered marking the first deregistered Volvo B9TL

2011 saw an upgrade of plastic destos to LECIPs Signage which faced a outcry from public as the fonts were small.

Volvo B9TL for CDGE was completed in 2007 and 2008. 

SBST ordered another type of Volvo B9TL called Wright Eclipse Gemini 2. LTG and Sgwiki renamed into Batches. However we will label them by type of gearbox,

Gearbox	Quantity	Registration number
6 speed ZF Ecolife	150 415	BS7500D – SBS7686B SBS1Z – SBS23K SBS3449X – SBS3482Z, SBS3487K – SBS3523P SG5000E – ?
4 speed Voith DIWA 864.5	865	Low Entry, SBS7700T – SBS7729L Low Floor, SBS3000G – SBS3238M, SBS3269Z Purchased under BSEP, Low Floor, SBS3300R – SBS3329J SBS3240E – SBS3268B, SBS3270T – SBS3299L, SBS3600A – SBS3986L SBS3330D – SBS3448Z

Well which is better?

6 speed is better as the bus can have a quicker acceleration can climb hill swiftly and results in less dwelling time.

4 speed is slow in accleration as it picks up speed after 5 seconds or so

There has been a major change as the buses varies from registration numbers to numbers

The first 75xx and 76xx have seats facing each other in lower deck however after that there were two pairs of  seats with low level built,

Another feature is that after 2015 orders buses started to have straight staircases, priority seats having headrests 

BSEP buses have onboard equipments to track all kind of bus movements activities and passenger loading, GCM buses will have these too. 

There is no diff in exterior but there have been changes in interior,

They all have same aircon which is Carrier Sutrak same engine Volvo D9B310 EC06B engine

Some buses are exceptional. While other buses have SMC transit doors SBS 3921 Z has for some unknown reasons have a Ventura door sliding function. Some have Mobileye 500 for better driver guidance and enhanced road safety.Some have Volvo Bus I-Coaching equipment for driver guidance and enhanced road safety

These buses even have cooling fans and some have different EDS

SBS3189X, SBS3385X to SBS3448Z were equipped with Hanover EDS units, not LECIP units

Gemilang Coachworks also delivered a prototype. After failing LTA road tests it debuted on BBDEP 7 and has made cameo also.

SBST owns over 1600 buses but some are owned by the two new operators TT and Go Ahead. Will SMRT operate? Nobody knows.

But the 1000th Volvo B9TL is SBS 3971 D on BNDEP 168.

So this is the post about Volvo B9TL.

Thanks to LTG

Bendies in Singapore

Seen below is MAN A24. It might be the last bendy model in Singapore as LTA does not encourage and want to pursue Bendies purchases. It seems these buses are going to be the last and why LTA does not want to buy despite some advantages ? It is due to space constraint which is why SBST had rejected the Bendies sold them off as there was a need of a special bendy slots.  This also resulted SMRT having less space in depots which resulted in overnight parking at its Interchanges: Sembawang Woodlands Yishun Lor 1 Geylang. There will be a massive deregisteration and scrapping of Bendies next year until 2021. This year we might also lose 4 bendies if not wrong . Habits will be scrapped from 2017 to 2021 and this is yet to be seen. 2017 and 2018 we will lose 3 types of Bendies. Quite sad. Next year also Bendies on Yishun Feeders and Intratown might have bendies redeployed. Let's try to cherish these buses and hope to have good memories of them. Thanks to @sheeplessleaf for the photos as MAN A24 rarely comes to my place I go to.

Petition

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/preserve-not-scrap-tib832z

TIB832Z is one of the last Mercedes Benz O405. We want to preserve it instead of scrapping it as it might be the last Mercedes O405 in the world. Hence this petition wants the Land Transport Authority and Ministry of Transport together with SMRT to not scrap but put somemore where it is in good condition.

TOWER TRANSIT

LTA announced the GCM back in 2014. But in fact LTA wanted GCM long time. How did this begin?
History:
SBST and SMRT are public enlisted companies listed so whatever they earn is profit and they only cared abt profits. As such their bus services were at times neglected. So from 2009 LTA took on the central planning of bus routes and it was fully taken over in 2012 when BSEP was introduced and it introduced many routes with many controversies. And with the BSEP LTA expanded the bus fleet and added many buses. The last time when SBST introduced new routes was in 2005 where it launched many routes to provide connectivity. But in 2014 LTA decided to take over the bus industry to respond faster. Hence the first package was Bulim Package as Bulim Depot was new and completed and SMRT had just moved in. The first package was awarded to Tower Transit which promised alot of things. Next was Loyang Bus Package as the Loyang Bus depot was brand new and SBST used to park new Citaros for registration. Go Ahead was awarded. So for the BSEP and GCM the LTA tapped on SBST and SMRT orders. Mainly the Alexander Enviro500 MAN A22 Volvo WEG B9TL and Mercedes Benz Citaro. The LTA also decided to tap on MAN A95 orders too and decided to register the Batch 2 too. So in order to distngush the BSEP buses WEG B9TLS were registered from 33xx to 35xx Mercedes Benz Citaro from 63xx to 65xx and 20xx MAN A22 SMB 30xx to 31xx and E500 from 35xx to 36xx. However with the GCM being rolled out the buses were registered with SG prefix and each number on WEG were for different packages.

So Tower Transit had taken over the Bulim Depot in July 2015 and they prepared by training their bus captains everyday. They also conducted Bulim Bus Carnival to introduce themselves. Closer to May 2016 they started intensive training by going into the bus interchanges and Terminals they were in charge. Recently for the prep the Bus Interchange were repainted new equipments were brought in and the new buses which were painted in white were painted in green.

So let's welcome Tower Transit! We hope they will raise the standards in the bus industry and we have high expectations

Bus Interchanges and Terminals

We will posting some info about bus interchanges and terminals. Do look out for this space here.

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