Zhongtong N12 electric buses under SMRT Buses were suspended from passenger service on 28 January 2026.
These buses operate out of SMRT’s Gali Batu Bus Depot since 4 October 2025. SMRT Buses currently has a fleet of 57 Zhongtong N12 buses, all of which were allegedly grounded on 28 January 2026.
Speculations of the bus model’s absence on Discord servers and SGwiki aligned with ground observations. Bus services that typically operate a majority fleet of Zhongtong N12, including Service 300 and Service 973, were operated with diesel MAN A22 buses on the day.
According to a user talk page on SGWiki, the buses were likely grounded due to a safety-related design flaw. There were no further details elaborated on the incident that triggered the fleetwide grounding of the bus model.
However, Zhongtong buses under other public transport operators – SBS Transit, Tower Transit and Go-Ahead, continued to operate on revenue service that day.
The buses have since resumed passenger service on 29 January 2026.
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