The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has put up a call for a tender for the Bulim and Sembawang-Yishun Bus Packages on 29 November 2019.
The Sembawang-Yishun Bus Package marks the fifth tendered contract for the bus contracting model, while the Bulim Bus Package is currently up for its second term under the bus contracting model.
Under the Bus Contracting Model, bus routes were bundled into bus packages, consisting of a single bus depot, several bus interchanges, the bus routes and the buses themselves. With all bus infrastructure belonging to the Government, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) would contract out the bus package, select a bus operator (through a competitive tendering process), and lease these assets to the new operator.
As part of the transition, all existing bus services in Singapore (previously operated by long-standing duopoly between SBS Transit and SMRT Buses) were divided up into 14 route packages, operating under a negotiated contract with the incumbent operator until the Bus Package is tendered out competitively.
The Bulim Bus Package was first awarded to Tower Transit in May 2015, while the Sembawang-Yishun Bus Package has been operated by SMRT Buses under a negotiated contract since September 2016.
In a response by LTA to The Straits Times, this contract includes 29 routes in the Bulim Bus Package and 27 routes in the Sembawang-Yishun Bus Package. However, the bus service numbers of these routes were not mentioned back then.
Contract PT217: Bus Contracting – Bulim and Sembawang-Yishun Bus Packages involves three components, where tenderers are required to submit bids for.
- Bulim Bus Package
- Sembawang-Yishun Bus Package
- Combined bid for Bulim Bus Package & Sembawang-Yishun Bus Package
The tender closed on 30 March 2020, at 4:00pm sharp.
Bidding Procedure
According to tender details as published on government procurement portal GeBIZ, bids were submitted by 5 hopeful operators. namely:
| S/No | Country | Tenderer |
| 1. | China | Guangzhou Public Transportation Group No.3 Bus Co., Ltd |
| 2. | Local | SBS Transit Ltd |
| 3. | Local | SMRT Buses Ltd |
| 4. | Local | The Go-Ahead Group Plc |
| 5. | Local | Tower Transit Singapore Pte. Ltd. |
This is the first time that Guangzhou Public Transportation Group No.3 Bus Co., Ltd is participating in a local bus package tender. Chinese companies have participated in all previous rounds of bus package tenders, either tendered as standalone companies or in joint venture with local companies.
All four other tenderers (SBS Transit, SMRT Buses, Go-Ahead and Tower Transit) are incumbent operators.
See Also:
Tender Award
On 30 September 2020, the tender was awarded to Tower Transit Singapore Pte Ltd.
Main Article: Tower Transit awarded Bulim and Sembawang-Yishun Bus Packages
LTA also wouldnt want to have 10 operators for 14 bus packages right if you use common sense.Foreign operators doesn’t bid because of the COVID19 and the previous 2 tenders that SBST has won.Where you heard TTS & GAS is hopeless?Horse mouth?Even SBST is also flop judging by some of their bus services.City Direct doesn’t include into the packages.TTS win the Top1 operator in 2019 and GAS is no so who is hopeless?I do agree that TTS does not lease any new diesel buses and keep on maximise their fleets but again you can always award Bulim to GAS and probably just take one more European operator next year or 2023.If you think SG market is small then why LTA have all this BCM?
4 operators for 14 route packages is just nice or simply add one more package ie Punggol package.Loyang can just do with PSR/CVT & TNTI.
What if Guangzhou PTN3 wins both tenders?Need Chinese-speaking BCs?I really hope any Japanese or HK bus company will last minute join.
Bulim all svcs & 651 653 657 . 665 974 991 not inside .
Mandai all svcs & 656 663 .
991 can stay with CCK package. 868e and 61 should be in Bulim as they don’t go anywhere near CCK.
Please not tower transit or Go ahead. Two hopeless operaters. Please give it to SMRT Buses or SBST.
I do agree that if they keep awarding SBST with the contracts, they might as well just scrap BCM and declare all packages exclusively for SBST. On the other hand, if SMRT fails to retain Sembawang-Yishun package, it means in a way LTA is trying to get rid of SMRT Buses or simply does not want them to clinch any bus package at all. Then again, if they award to TTS or GAS, and not SMRT or SBST again, it means SMRT’s presence in Yishun and Sembawang is basically reduced to an extremely small margin or none at all. As you can see also, no foreign operator wants to bid already. Could be due to a variety of reasons. Maybe not economically viable at all, considering how small Singapore’s market is. It would not make sense to have until 10 operators. Just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Yes that was about what I thought.