Tower Transit has taken over operations of Jurong East Bus Interchange today. 5 bus services formerly operated by SBS Transit have also been transferred to Tower Transit in the second tranche of the Bulim Bus Package. Services 97 / 97e and 143 / 143M are categorized as one service each.
Bus services started smoothly this morning, with the first bus trips of all 5 bus services departing timely. The first Tower Transit bus was seen departing Jurong East Bus Interchange at 5:45am on Service 97.
The successful tenderer of the Bulim Bus Package started operations in Singapore on 29 May 2016 on 9 existing bus services originating from Bukit Batok Bus Interchange. By the end of the month, Tower Transit will take over all 26 bus routes under the Bulim Bus Package.
Tower Transit deployed buses with its in-house bus wrap advertisements on some of the Jurong East services to increase awareness of its operations.
The bus operator took over 69 Volvo B9TL and 53 Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro buses from SBS Transit a day before (11 June 2016). This is on top of 4 Volvo B9TL buses and a Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro bus transferred to Tower Transit in early June. Unlike the first tranche where inspection was conducted overnight, buses were inspected in the day instead. The twitter account @hellofromSG posted live updates of the transition using the hashtag #ttstransition. The transition started as early as 10:30am, where photos of buses being driven into the inspection pit were posted.
Second Tranche Bus Services
| Service | Destination 1 | Destination 2 | Type |
| 66 | Jurong East | Bedok | Trunk |
| 78 | Jurong East | ↺ Clementi Ave 3 | Trunk |
| 79 | Jurong East | ↺ Boon Lay | Trunk |
| 97 | Jurong East | Marina Centre | Trunk |
| 97e | Jurong East | Marina Centre | Express Variant |
| 143 | Jurong East | Toa Payoh | Trunk |
| 143M | Jurong East | ↺ Jurong Town Hall Road | Trunk Route Variant |
Start of the Day
As the Anchor Operator of Jurong East Bus Interchange, Tower Transit has taken over the main Passenger Service Counter (PSC) from SBS Transit. The PSC for SBS Transit was shifted over to the adjacent smaller room. Additionally, Route Information boards at Jurong East were updated to display Tower Transit Bus Services.
Bus Deployments on First Day of Service
| Service | Deployment |
| 66 | SBS3304E SBS3354K SBS3356E SBS3388M SBS3427J SBS3431X SBS6355M SBS6380P SG5001C SG5016K SG5034H |
| 78 | SBS6312L SMB3512E SG5004U SG5010B SG5011Z SG5019C SG5032M |
| 79 | SBS3336M SBS3351T SBS3381G SBS6386Z SMB3034T SG5029Z SG5031R |
| 97 | SBS3311J SBS3372H SBS3382D SBS3391C SG1001D SG5007L SG5012X SG5017H SG5021U SG5026G SG5038Y |
| 97e | Commences operations on Monday, 13 June 2016 |
| 143 | SBS3325U SBS3341Y SBS3375A SBS3376Y SBS3379P SBS3394U SBS3396P SBS3399G SG5002A SG5008J SG5009G SG5013T SG5024L SG5025J SG5036C |
| 143M | SBS3351T SBS3364G SBS3423U SBS6377A SBS6378Y SG5005S SG5016K SG5023P |
| Buses marked in Green are the very first buses of each service to depart from Jurong East Bus Interchange. | |
Additional Observations:
- Buses with Tower Transit’s corporate logo stickered over SBS Transit / SMRT logos were not seen today (12 Jun 16).
- Former SBS Transit buses were running in SBS Transit corporate colours with the company logo peeled off, which was removed in the week upcoming to the takeover by Tower Transit.
- Similar to the first day of operations of Tower Transit at Bukit Batok, Bus Captains had trouble logging in to the Common Fleet Management System (CFMS) which resulted in the delayed departure of many buses.
- Instances of missing buses across the various Tower Transit bus services at Jurong East resulted in long headways. Service 78 was observed to have no buses departing Jurong East for over an hour.
Gallery
I prefer if you swap out 143 with 160
I think there were no bus 78 seen departing from Jurong East Temp Int because this is the first day and the fleet only have 1 SBS , 1 SMB (Funny) and the rest all SG. Buses which are in SG, those drivers are not familiar with the routes so there was an prolonged headway of no buses departing Jurong East Temp Int due to this