On 16 July 2026, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced the awarding of the Serangoon–Eunos Bus Package to SMRT Buses.
The 5-year contract represents the first tendered package term for the Serangoon-Eunos Bus Package. It will commence on 13 June 2027, with an option for extension of 2 to 5 years.
With this, SMRT Buses will succeed SBS Transit as the operator of 26 bus services in the Serangoon & Eunos region. It will also operate buses from the new Kim Chuan Bus Depot.
In addition, it will also manage Serangoon Bus Interchange, Eunos Bus Interchange, Woodleigh Bus Interchange, and Sims Place Bus Terminal.
Contract BC802: Serangoon–Eunos Bus Package
Serangoon–Eunos Bus Package has been operated by SBS Transit under a negotiated contract since the start of the Bus Contracting Model in September 2016.
SMRT Buses will succeed SBS Transit as the new operator of this package. Buses will also be based at the new Kim Chuan Bus Depot, instead of the existing Hougang Bus Depot.
| Incumbent | SBS Transit Ltd |
| Present Contract Term |
Negotiated Contract (Contract PT209): Sep 2016 – Jun 2027 (10 years 9 months term) |
| Upcoming Contract Term |
Tendered Package 1st Term (Contract BC802): June 2027 – 2032 |
| Awarded Operator |
SMRT Buses Ltd |
| Bus Services |
11, 22, 53/53M, 55, 58, 59, 60, 63/63M, 64, 90, 94, 101, 103, 105, 109, 134, 137, 140, 141, 146, 148, 150, 154, 158, 315 & 317 (26 bus routes) |
| Handover Date | From 13 June 2027 |
| Bus Depot | Kim Chuan Bus Depot |
| Bus Interchanges | Serangoon Bus Interchange, Eunos Bus Interchange, Woodleigh Bus Interchange |
| Bus Terminals | Sims Place Bus Terminal |
Reasons for the award to SMRT Buses were provided by LTA:
- Highest total score for its proposal
- Offered cost savings for LTA compared to the current contract
- Proposal demonstrated strong capabilities in electric bus operations and maintenance, alongside comprehensive plans to strengthen workforce development. Initiatives include:
— Implement attractive workforce recruitment initiatives to grow and diversify its local pool of bus captains, including offering a high sign-on bonus, Class 3/3A licence sponsorship, and C-U-Back at work (“CUB”) programme developed in partnership with NTUC Women and Family Division to attract more women to enter the bus sector.
— Enhance bus safety and systems maintenance through the deployment of fleet-wide AI-enabled fatigue detection and fault navigator systems to reduce fault resolution time and improve maintenance turnaround.
— Enhance commuter experience through community-focused programmes tailored to the local profile at each interchange. These include a placemaking initiative featuring the heritage of Kampung Eunos, and extending the community piano and busking sessions initiatives at Woodleigh to support local arts and community engagement.
Transition of impacted workers
Current SBS Transit employees from the Serangoon-Eunos Bus Package will be protected by the Public Transport Tripartite Committee’s Guidelines on Good Employment Practices in the Public Bus Industry and must be offered a job by SMRT Buses, the incoming operator, at employment terms that are no worse off than their current employment terms.
Affected employees can also choose to join SMRT Buses or be redeployed by their current employer (SBS Transit), where feasible.
Bid Prices
The tender for the Serangoon-Eunos Bus Package was called on 19 December 2025. The awarded tenderer and its corresponding contract sum are highlighted in red.
| No. | Company | Base | Alternative |
| 1 | SBS Transit Ltd | $635,243,284.11 | $630,345,868.51 |
| 2 | SMRT Buses Ltd | $599,528,428.00 | — |
| 3 | Tower Transit Singapore Pte. Ltd. | $644,630,098.50 | $639,290,213.50 |
The tender submissions were evaluated based on a two-envelope process, which looked at both quality and price factors. The price submissions were only opened after the quality evaluation was completed. This two-envelope process ensures that LTA gets the best value-for-money proposal without compromising on quality.
LTA also retains the option to extend the contract by between two and five years, beyond the end of the initial five-year term.
Observations
The tendered package term for the Serangoon-Eunos Bus Package will commence operations on 13 June 2027, which is 2 weeks ahead of the 27 June 2027 date initially expected, as was released by SBS Transit in a Q1 2026 business update.
For this contract, the anchor interchanges / terminals that the winning operator would manage also notably excludes Changi Village Bus Terminal. The terminal is currently managed by SBS Transit under the negotiated contract of the Serangoon-Eunos Bus Package. Of the three bus services that currently terminate at Changi Village, two of these are from the Serangoon-Eunos Bus Package (59 & 109), with the other being from the Loyang Bus Package.
References
- LTA Awards Serangoon-Eunos Bus Package to SMRT Buses | Land Transport Authority [Accessed 16 Jul 2026]
Back to Serangoon–Eunos Bus Package
61/985 half KCDEP half GBDEP
103/961 half KCDEP half WLDEP
105/154 half KCDEP half SLDEP
103 no need la KC to Yishun acceptable
Smrt should just take Lor 1 Geylang/Kallang Int in future Changi Village let GAS takeover
The BCM really rojak…don’t know why 53 58,59 & 90 in this package since TPY & Bishan are near to them…
61 67 961 985 GB/WL – KC
105 154 KC – SL
Good luck
they should let lor 1 geylang be under serangoon-eunos bcm as SMRT will have services 11, 140, 141, 961 & 985 from the ter. also 64, 134 & 137 if they shift those services to kallang int. Svc 90 should be given to bishan-toa payoh bcm, in exchange 61 can shift to this bcm
Not surprised SMRT took KC, considering its close proximity to CCL’s depot also at kim chuan.
Finally.. the rumours regarding Smrt won the package were in reality…Congrats to Smrt…while Sbst I think they need to analyze or relook back what went wrong since they have lost their package back to back…from Jurong West to Tampines & now Serangoon Eunos…Also not sure Lta plan for them in future
No worries. SBS and SMRT are the OG operators of Singapore. Used to be SBS for bus services, and SMRT for MRT. They are simply giving more bus services to SMRT, and more MRT to SBS.
A bit kelong la after all under Temasek.
SBST part most probably CRL will be awarded to them
Woodlands will probably be awarded to TTS.
CCK will likely have the same deal, being retained by SMRT due to GBD.
SBST should already have some kind of back door deal with sengkang hougang, since its way overdued, extended thrice. So its likely SBST will eventually retain clementi, bukit merah & sk-hg (though rumours loyang would be farm out with sk-hg come 2028)
Loyang and Hougang ought to have been farmed out in 2022, if original BCM schedule had been followed.
I would say that LTA did them dirty for Tampines, with them losing the tender with the lowest bid. Now that they’ve focused on so-called innovations in their Serangoon-Eunos bid (which would no doubt inflate the bid), LTA went back to cost as the deciding metric and ta-da, SMRT has the lowest bid. Well played, LTA.
Lta was bias for tampines cuz gas was threatening to leave since they only had loyang .So logically to keep them give them to next tendered bus package which is tamp
Also cuz lta wants all 4 operator to have bus package that operate ebus on a large scale
Bulim likely put up for tender next with a high chance sbs gags it
Do you really think those numbers are genuine, and that they truly care about all those additional benefits such as AI and other features?
This time, they really caught Tower Transit by surprise. Tower Transit probably thought they were almost guaranteed to win this package because they were the only new entrant.
That may be why Tower Transit became more confident, hosting carnivals and even introducing a wedding bus service. Then came the surprise: they lost the Serangoon to Eunos Bus Package bid.
It was a very well-played move by the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
SBS Transit losing the bid was likely because the LTA wanted to deliberately reduce SBS Transit’s share of the public bus market to below 50%. After this package, SBS Transit’s share is around 44%, and I think that may be the lowest point they will allow. They probably will not lose any more packages after this.
SMRT and SBS Transit were both created by the government, so there is less concern about their long-term survival. However, Tower Transit and Go-Ahead Singapore are private operators, so they need to be more careful about maintaining their position in the market.
Perhaps, in the future, SMRT and SBS Transit could end up with a 50 to 50 split in both rail, with the Cross Island Line potentially going to SBS Transit, and buses, through possible transfers of packages from Tower Transit and Go-Ahead Singapore to SMRT, along with other adjustments.
If that happens, the system may return to a state of balance, almost like a yin-yang arrangement, with both sides holding equal influence.
太极生两仪，两仪生四象，四象生八卦。
八卦再推演，象征天地万物的变化。