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SINGAPORE – The Land Transport Authority (LTA) awarded the Bulim and Sembawang-Yishun bus packages to Tower Transit Singapore (TTS) on Wednesday (September 30), and the routes previously operated by SMRT will now be delivered to the British operator.
The five-year, $ 1.03 billion contract for 56 bus routes will start progressively from the second quarter of 2021, and is a win for TTS as it expands its presence in the transportation landscape here.
Along with bus services, TTS will also continue to manage the Bukit Batok and Jurong East bus interchanges, as well as the Sembawang and Yishun bus interchanges, which were previously managed by SMRT.
The LTA said of the award in a statement: “TTS was awarded the contract for the combined package, because it received the highest overall score, taking into account both price and quality factors in its proposal.
“TTS demonstrated an excellent understanding of operational considerations and a strong commitment to improving inclusion and the traveler experience.”
The authority praised TTS’s “strong competence” in bus service scheduling, its plans to hire more people with disabilities as “customer experience and inclusion officers,” its commitment to hire more Singaporeans, and its plan to work with Other agencies to help seniors and commuters have more confidence when using Singapore’s public transport.
Some 720 buses travel the routes of the two packages. The approximately 320 buses on the Bulim package ferry travel daily in Clementi, Jurong East and Bukit Batok along 29 routes, and operate from the Bulim depot.
It is already operated by TTS.
The Sembawang-Yishun package consists of about 400 buses running on 27 routes and is now operated by SMRT.
The change of operator means that SMRT employees involved in these routes will receive a job from the incoming operator, TTS.
The Good Labor Practice Guidelines stipulate that TTS’s employment conditions cannot be in a worse condition than those set out in your current agreement with SMRT.
The tender, called in November last year, was the first time that LTA had simultaneously called for bids for two packages, which it said could achieve “economies of scale.”
Operators had to bid for each package separately, but they also had to bid for a combined Bulim / Sembawang-Yishun package.
Walter Theseira, a transport economist at Singapore University of Social Sciences, said the final bids confirmed this goal.
“From the offers it appears that TTS was able to promise this to a greater extent than some of the competitors … But all parties incorporated a discount for the joint offer compared to the single offers,” he said.
TTS bid about $ 482 million for the Bulim bus package and $ 582 million for the Sembawang-Yishun package, and $ 1.03 billion for the combined package.
SMRT bid $ 540 million for the Bulim bus package, $ 700 million for the Sembawang-Yishun bus package, and $ 1.19 billion for the combined package.
The LTA also said that the entry of new operators like TTS and Go-Ahead Singapore has created more jobs for bus workers and “leveled the industry.”
He cited the fact that TTS equips its technicians with tablets so they can enter maintenance data into the fleet management system to minimize data entry errors.
These technology-using practices “are now more prevalent in the bus industry,” the LTA said.
On the near doubling of TTS bus routes, SUSS transportation researcher Park Byung Joon said it would have been a very different story if SMRT and SBS Transit had won, suggesting that “it would have been the end of the tender for buses in Singapore “and going back to the era of having only two bus operators.
“TTS is not and will never be in a position to compete with the two local giants,” he said, adding: “TTS will be as big as what LTA will allow it to be.”
SMRT, in response to inquiries, said it was disappointed that it did not receive the package, but will work with the relevant agencies for a smooth transition.
The LTA can extend the term of the contract for another two years at the end of the five-year contract.
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