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SBS Transit Ltd
Type	Public (SGX: SBSTransit)
Founded	1973
Headquarters	Singapore
Key people	Lim Jit Poh (Chairman) Kua Hong Pak (Deputy Chairman) Gan Juay Kiat (Chief Operating Officer)
Industry	Public Transport
Products	Bus and Rail Services in Singapore
Revenue	S$590.3 million SGD (2005)
Operating income	S$57.2 million SGD (2005)
Net income	S$51.5 million SGD (2005)
Employees	5698 (2005)
Website	http://www.sbstransit.com.sg

SBS Transit Limited (simplified Chinese: 新捷运; pinyin: Xīnjiéyùn, SGX: S61) is a public transport operator in Singapore. Their major competitor in Singapore's duopoly transport system is SMRT Corporation, which also operates bus, rail, taxi and other transport services.

The company (organisation) was formed as a separately-listed subsidiary in November 1997 under the name of Singapore Bus Services Limited, although it can trace its history back to the formation of Singapore Bus Service in 1973 with the merger of three bus companies. On 1 November 2001, the company's name was changed to SBS Transit Limited to reflect its status as a bus and rail operator.

Its parent company is ComfortDelGro Corporation, which was formerly known as DelGro Corporation Limited. The parent company has Singapore Bus Service as its direct predecessor.

In 2003, SBS Transit started operating the North East MRT Line of the Mass Rapid Transit system in addition to its existing bus operations.

Contents 1 History 2 Operations 2.1 Bus fleet 2.2 Bus routes 2.3 Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) 2.4 Light Rapid Transit (LRT) 3 Key operating statistics 4 TV Mobile 5 References 6 External links

Main article: Singapore Bus Service

Singapore Bus Service (SBS) was initially formed in 1973 with the merger of three private bus companies. The government-sanctioned merger was undertaken to improve service standards of the bus transport system.

With the shift towards the creation of multi-modal transport companies, Singapore Bus Service Ltd changed its name to DelGro Corporation Limited in November 1997. Bus operations were hived-off to a fully-owned subsidiary called Singapore Bus Services Limited, which was separately listed on the Singapore Exchange.

In November 2001, Singapore Bus Services Limited was renamed as SBS Transit Limited when the company formally became a multi-modal transport operator with the impending opening of the Sengkang LRT.

SBS Transit's primary business is providing public transport services in Singapore. Its more notable operations are the following.

• Bus operations in Singapore, comprising a fleet of about 2,700 buses, serving almost the entire island
• Rapid transit operations along the North East Line of the MRT network and its 16 stations
• Light Rail operations and manages the 29 stations along the Sengkang and Punggol LRT Lines of the Light Rapid Transit

SBS Transit currently operates 75% of the scheduled bus market share in Singapore with 238 bus services and has a total fleet of more than 2,700 buses. More than 92% of the buses are air-conditioned. Recently, SBS Transit ordered 500 buses from Scania as part of its fleet renewal programme, while also evaluating wheelchair accessible chassis offers from Volvo.

The route breakdown are as follows:

• 144 Trunk services
• 72 Shortworking Trips
• 29 Feeder services
• 7 Townlink services
• 2 Parks (Basic)
• 5 Parks (Basic-Plus)
• 7 Jurong Industrial Services
• 8 Nite Owl services
• 3 Express services
• 9 Fast Forward services
• 3 Chinatown Direct services
• 13 Premium services
• 8 City Shopper services
• 4 Stadium Direct services

The current bus fleet includes:

• Volvo B10BLE
• Volvo B10M
• Volvo B10TL Super Olympian (52)
• Volvo B9TL Wheelchair Accessible Bus (WAB)
• Volvo B7RLE Wheelchair Accessible Bus (WAB)
• Dennis Trident 3
• Volvo Olympian
• Leyland Olympian
• Scania L94UB
• Scania K230UB Wheelchair Accessible Bus (WAB)
• Dennis Dart
• [[Mercedes-Benz O405]
• Scania N113CRB

The company operates buses from 7 depots located at Ang Mo Kio, Ayer Rajah, Bedok North, Bukit Batok, Braddell, Hougang and Soon Lee.

SBS Transit operates many different types of bus routes and bus services, taking up the majority of the pie of Singapore's duopoly bus system in almost all areas of Singapore, with the notable exception of the North and Northwest areas, where bus services are mainly run by its competitor, SMRT Corporation .

• Trunk: Routes that ply between towns. These are the basic forms of SBS Transit bus services. Fares are distance-related and differential up to 8 fare bands.
• Short working Trips (SWT): Routes that operate short haul trips between origin-destination pairs with high demand, such as the area near an MRT station. It operated a subset of the parent route and there can be more than one SWT per trunk route.
• Feeder: Services that operate within a neighbourhood, connecting outlying areas to the town centre or bus interchange. (Loops around from an interchange, around one or more neighbourhoods or towns and then terminates at the starting interchange). As a name suggest, it is to feed the commuters to the trunk services or MRT services at the terminal/interchange. A flat fare, equivalent to the first fare band is charged per entry.
• TownLink: Routes that consist of combined feeder services to provide links and improve connectivity between neighborhoods within the same town. (Somewhat identical to a feeder service except that, other than when stopping a 'session', the service will not terminate at the interchange but will re-run it's route immediately after letting passengers alight, in essence, a true loop)
• Jurong Industrial Service: Services that served mainly industrial workers in the Jurong and Tuas industrial areas. These services operate with only 5 fare bands, compared to 8 fare bands for trunk services.
• Express: Routes that stop at several nominated and sparsely located stops and generally run on expressways for faster travel between several towns. This is a basic-plus service charging higher fares.
• Fast Forward: A modification of basic trunk routes, Fast Forwards are an innovation of SBS Transit, which provides faster travel between places where there is higher demand, by calling at fewer stops and skipping low demand areas. This is also a basic-plus services charging higher fares.
• Premium: A single trip from the designated neighborhoods during the morning peak hours on weekdays to the CBD. Fees are flat rated ($2.70 or $3 depending on the distance traveled) and standing is prohibited on Premium Services. The scheduled arrival time at individual bus stops are provided.
• City Shopper: Running during daytime on weekdays and whole day on weekends, these premium services bring residents from designated new town neighbourhoods to Orchard Rd and Suntec City quickly and comfortably. Fees are flat rated ($3.30 or $3.60 for adults and $1 for child/student) and standing is prohibited on Premium Services. Headways are 30 minutes.
• Nite Owl: These are after-hour services on Fridays, Saturdays and eve of public holidays. There are only a handful of bus routes for this service and fees are flat rated.
• Chinatown Direct: Introduced in 2005, these are routes that run from suburban towns to Chinatown via the expressways. Such routes are very popular in the period before the Lunar New Year. A fare of $1.80 is charged per boarding.
• Parks: Services that run from major parks to the nearest bus interchange.
• Stadium Direct: Services that run from the Singapore Indoor Stadium to major towns after major concerts or events being held there.

SBS Transit is the operator of the North East Line since it opened in 2003. The North East Line is the third Mass Rapid Transit line in Singapore, and also the world's first fully underground and automated rapid transit line. The line is 20 km long with 16 stations.

The operating license was given to SBS Transit in order to foster competition with SMRT Corporation and to create multi-modal public transport companies, each specializing in their own district.

As the name implies, the line connects central Singapore to the northeastern part of the island. Transfer to the North South Line is provided at Dhoby Ghaut station and East West Line at Outram Park station. The rolling stock consists of Alstom Metropolis Cars.

In addition of the North East Line, SBS Transit is also operates two LRT systems, Sengkang and Punggol. Both lines connect the estate to one of two NEL Stations and is total of 29 stations including Sengkang and Punggol interchange stations.

Monthly Ridership for Bus and Rail ^[1]

Month	2003		2004		2005		2006		2007
	Bus	Rail	Bus	Rail	Bus	Rail	Bus	Rail	Bus	Rail
January	71,225,011	173,786	64,324,473	6,004,948	64,885,728	6,834,446	62,247,969	7,683,908	67,380,546	8,857,847
February	60,357,864	176,260	62,548,766	5,295,081	56,837,060	6,057,296	59,854,200	6,822,060	59,429,412	8,255,520
March	66,842,727	205,468	66,351,036	5,746,222	64,890,223	6,732,828	65,965,396	7,590,381	68,315,754	9,157,896
April	57,407,730	179,940	63,487,500	5,435,070	62,479,980	6,426,390	62,070,030	7,224,930	64,984,800	8,541,180
May	64,069,312	230,950	64,064,538	5,826,574	62,302,994	6,740,609	65,193,992	7,645,809	-	-
June	61,078,440	5,754,480	58,792,110	5,786,490	59,278,140	6,729,450	60,320,040	7,486,080	-	-
July	66,929,000	4,896,605	66,508,609	6,105,977	64,967,196	7,107,649	66,616,613	7,900,846	-	-
August	66,998,998	5,209,860	65,082,175	6,010,931	65,473,116	7,075,905	67,592,493	7,991,924	-	-
September	64,138,650	5,070,510	62,920,620	5,908,380	62,254,350	6,956,040	63,886,170	7,847,130	-	-
October	65,437,838	5,327,040	63,445,158	6,039,513	63,613,023	7,232,610	64,805,469	8,775,790	-	-
November	60,143,490	5,176,680	58,936,800	6,008,850	59,570,430	7,016,160	63,188,790	8,779,170	-	-
December	60,760,868	5,871,276	60,215,888	6,575,844	60,499,569	7,653,001	61,434,405	9,420,497	-	-
Total	765,389,928	38,272,855	756,677,673	70,743,880	747,051,809	82,562,384	763,175,567	95,168,525	-	-

Notes

• Rail ridership includes North East Line (NEL), Sengkang Light Rapid Transit (LRT) and Punggol Light Rapid Transit (LRT) rides.
• Sengkang LRT and NEL commenced revenue service on 18 January 2003 and 20 June 2003 respectively. The Punggol LRT began service on 29 January 2005.

As of 2005, TVMobile has been installed in most of SBS Transit's buses. TVMobile is an outdoor digital television station, broadcasting live news & entertainment programmes throughout the bus's operation hours. SBS Transit is the only bus operator to have installed TVMobile in its buses as of 2006.

From time to time, SBS' use of TVMobile has frequently attracted flak in the Straits Times' forum pages. Many commuters persistently hold the impression that the installation of TVMobile is the reason for increases in bus fares, even after announcements that this was not the cause. ^{[2] [3] [4]} There are also other complaints about TVMobile being noisy, as well as the suitability ^[5] and the repetitiveness of the programs broadcast.^{[6] [7]}

This is despite the fact that the infrastructure and equipment of TVMobile is not managed by SBS Transit at all, but rather, by MediaCorp TV Holdings. SBS Transit buses are just a medium on which TVMobile is installed. Contrary to popular belief that TVMobile is an unnecessary expenditure, it actually provides an extra source of revenue for SBS Transit. This is due to the royalties paid by MediaCorp.

1. ^ SBS Transit
2. ^ Gan Y. C., Save money, do away with TV Mobile, The Straits Times, May 27, 2006 Saturday.
3. ^ Chong J., Forget TV mobile, give us more frequent bus services", The Straits Times, May 19, 2006.
4. ^ Arip, A., Did TV Mobile survey include a cross-section of commuters?, The Straits Times, November 9, 2006.
5. ^ Balaguru, R., 'Desperate Housewives' on TV Mobile not good, The Straits Times, May 25, 2006.
6. ^ Tan, K.S., TVMobile repeats programmes ad nauseam. Can anything be done about it?, The Straits Times, November 26, 2005.
7. ^ Teo K.S., TVMobile is boring. Take off old shows and replace them with new ones, The Straits Times, August 28, 2006.

• Ilsa Sharp, (2005), SNP:Editions, The Journey - Singapore's Land Transport Story. ISBN 981-248-101-X

• SBS Transit official site