Introduction
Beeline (Website) is Singapore’s first crowd-sourced bus service platform, tapping on data analytics and community demand to create direct bus routes. It provides a matching service and booking platform, while bus services are run by partner operators. Phone applications are available both on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, where commuters have to use to make booking of seats on available bus routes. Four bus routes trials are to start in August 2015, running from the towns of Marine Parade, Punggol, Pasir Ris and Marine Parade, to the Central Business Distrct.
Background
In April 2015, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) set up Beeline to gather feedback on the idea of creating bus routes based on commuter demand, where commuters indicate where they want to be picked up and their destination. Bus routes are created when sufficient people create a similar route. Routes are envisioned to be adaptive, with revisions to existing routes and new routes introduced, in response to evolving commuter needs. On 31st July 2015, Beeline announced the launch of the Beeline Experiment, with 4 bus routes to start service on the following Monday, 3 August.
Boarding The Beeline Bus
The Beeline bus service is a prepaid premium service where commuters book a seat on the bus at least a day before they ride the Beeline bus, and they are able to book Beeline rides up to the last day of the following month. This gives commuters a guaranteed chance of a seat on the bus, regardless of where they board along the route. Payment is made through PayPal or Credit Card when booking a seat via the Beeline App. Commuters are able to book either single trip rides or in a “package” of 5 rides in a week, in which the latter is cheaper by 20%. A Beeline e-ticket is saved in the app upon successful payment.
Commuters with the e-ticket can track the location of their Beeline bus on a map via the Beeline app. The Beeline bus is identified with a Beeline logo placed against the front windscreen. Commuters are required to flash their e-ticket to the bus driver when boarding the bus. No on-the-spot payment is allowed.
Beeline has ceased operations on 1 January 2020.
GrabShuttle Bus Services
GrabShuttle uses the Beeline platform to operate routes.
GrabShuttle has ceased operations on 1 January 2020.
ShareTransport
Apart from Beeline, ShareTransport has developed a platform for bus-pooling using their own commissioned app.
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