City Shuttle Service (CSS) was a group of bus services operated by Singapore Shuttle Bus Private Limited, then a subsidiary of SMRT Corporation. These services were in operation between 16 May 1975 and 28 April 2007.
A Brief History:
With the introduction of the Singapore Area Licensing Scheme (which charged drivers a fee to enter the Downtown commercial district) in 1975, City Shuttle Services (CSS) wereΒ introduced as an initiative by theΒ Government. The CSS aimed to reduce traffic congestion in the city as part of a Park and Ride scheme, by encouraging drivers to park their vehicles outside the city and transfer to connecting bus routes (such as CSS services) into the city. It was hoped that drivers would embrace the initiative by providing low fares and good service.
In reality, the CSS initiative was a failure. People who could afford a car were affluent enough to pay the congestion charge, or simply chose to drive into the City outside of peak hours. Subsequent years saw the withdrawal of low-demand routes, and others were extended into the heartlands, offering quick bus connections to the City. However, low demand forced the eventual withdrawal of all CSS routes, and the last was withdrawn in 2007.
Brief Timeline:
- 1975 (16 May): Eleven CSS services introduced, numbered in numerical order. Operated by NTUC Comfort and Singapore Shuttle Bus (SSB)
- 1975 (12 Jun): CSS services extended to HDB housing estates, CSS 10 and 11 are withdrawn
- 1987 (12 Mar): SSB is acquired byΒ Trans-Island Bus Services (TIBS)
- 1988 (25 Jun): CSS 1, 4 and 9 are withdrawn
- 1990 (30 Jun): CSS 6 is withdrawn, leaving SSB running the remain CSS services
- 1995 (24 Oct): CSS accepts Transitlink farecards. Original 25-seater buses were replaced with newer 12m buses.
- 1997 (03 Nov): CSS Services renamed with the 60X designation
- 2001 (09 Jul): SMRT acquires and merges TIBS and SSB
- 2001 (28 Oct): CSS 602 is withdrawn together with NAC buses, all remaining CSS routes were fully air-conditioned
- 2003 (03 Aug): CSS 607 is withdrawn
- 2003 (30 Nov): CSS 603 is withdrawn
- 2004 (05 Sep):Β CSS 605 is withdrawn
- 2007 (29 Apr): CSS 608 is withdrawn, marking the end of CSS services.
Detailed History:

The City Shuttle Service (CSS) was introduced in 1975 as an initiative by theΒ Government. At the time, theΒ Singapore Area Licensing Scheme was introduced, which was a urban congestion pricing scheme that charged drivers a fee for entering the Central BusinessΒ DistrictΒ (CBD). Hence, the CSS aimed to reduce traffic congestion in the city as part of a Park and Ride scheme, by encouraging drivers to park their vehicles outside the city and transfer to connecting bus routes (such as CSS services) into the city. CSS hoped that drivers would embrace the initiative by providing low fares and good service.
On 16th May 1975, 11 inaugural CSS services commenced operations. These were jointly operated by NTUC Comfort (4 services) & Singapore Shuttle Bus (SSB) (7 services), which served 16 fringe car parks, 7 city area termini and 49 selected bus stops with around sixty 25-seater single door buses. Later on, with the abolishing of the Park and Ride scheme, the CSS operators would then extend their regular services from fringe carparks to HDB housing estates. Housing districts such as Bukit Merah, Bedok, St Michael’s Estate, Marine Parade, Holland Road & Sin Ming Rd received CSS connections to the CBD. At the same time, the number of CSS routes were reduced to 9 services (6 from SSB and 3 were from NTUC Comfort) with the withdrawal of CSS 10 and 11.

On 12 March 1987, Singapore Shuttle Bus was bought over by Trans-Island Bus Services (TIBS). Operation of SSBΒ CSS routes were assimilated into thatΒ of TIBS.
On 25 June 1988, NTUC Comfort, which ran 3 CSS routes, decided to withdraw 2 of its routes from Marine Parade (CSS 1 and CSS 4). This was partly due to the high maintenance cost of its buses and a decline in commuter demand due to the opening of the MRT system. On the same day, SSB also withdrew CSS 9, which operated between Bukit Merah and Lor 1 Geylang. NTUC Comfort’s remaining buses ran on their last route (CSS 6) until 1990, when the buses reached the end of their lifespan.
In 1985, the initial fleet of 25-seater buses were replaced with larger 12m buses such as the Hino HT238K, DAF SB220 and Nissan Diesel U31SCN/U31RCN. CSS was also the first bus operator in Singapore to introduce concessionary fares for senior citizens, which was eventually extended to other bus operators. CSS routes were renumbered to the “60x” series in 1997 with the standardisation of route numbering. When TIBS was bought over by SMRT Corporation in 2001, SMRT became the sole operator of the remaining 5 CSS routes, originally operated by SSB. However, SMRT chose to retain the characteristic orange livery of the CSS buses.
With more travel options such as parallel bus routes and new train lines, ridership for CSS services were declining, and one by one they were subsequently withdrawn. By the time the second-last CSS route (CSS 605) was withdrawn in Sep 2004, its existing fleet of CSS buses were downsized. The DAF SB220 buses were exported overseas, leaving only the Nissan buses in its fleet. Some of the Nissan buses registered with CSS plates were transferred to the SMRT fleet in June 2006, bearing the TIB registration.
With insufficient demand to sustain operations, the last CSS route, Service 608, was withdrawn on 28 April 2007, marking an end to the era of CSS services.Β Singapore Shuttle Bus was liquidated, and the remaining Nissan buses and the sole Dennis Lance (CSS310U) were transferred to SMRT Buses for continued operations, 2 months after its withdrawal of Service 608.
Post-Withdrawal – Replacement Bus Services:
This section applies to the last 2 CSS services withdrawn in 2004 and 2007 respectively.
Following the withdrawal of the final 2 CSS services (605 & 608), bus services were introduced or amended to replace the deleted sectors for both services.
The table below looks at the replacement bus services introduced to replace deleted sectors of the CSS services:
CSS Service(s) | Replacement Bus Service(s) |
605 |
|
608 |
|
Bus fleet:
City Shuttle Services have their own unique registration plates with the prefix CSS. The following list is retrieved from sgwiki:
- 001L – 028K: Mercedes-Benz O309 (Supreme Star)
- 029H – 038G: Mercedes-Benz O309 (Chua Heng)
- 101G: Bedford SB5
- 102D – 121Z: Mercedes-Benz O309 (Type 1 & 2 mixed)
- 122X – 144H: British-Leyland 900FG
- 145E: Bedford VAS
- 146C, 147A: Bedford SB
- 148Y – 166U: Bedford VAS
- 167S: Bedford SB
- 168P, 169L: Mercedes-Benz OF1113 (Soon Chow Demonstrator)
- 170G: Bedford VAS
- 171D, 172B: Mercedes-Benz LP1113 (Soon Chow Demonstrator)
- 173Z – 177M: Bedford SB
- Old 178K: Hino BX321 Demonstrator (with Hino body)
- Old 179H: Nissan Diesel UA20 Demonstrator
- Old 180C – 229Y: Hino BX341E (BF177) (with Hino body)
- New 178K – 211Y: Nissan Diesel U31RCN (with Fuji Heavy Industries body and Fuji/FHI AC)
- 230S – 246Y: Hino RK176 (with FHI body)
- 247U – 266P: Nissan Diesel R87 (with Fuji Heavy Industries body)
- 267L – 268J: Nissan Diesel U31SCN (with Fuji Heavy Industries body)
- 269G: Hino HT238K (With Hino body)
- 270B – 289Z: DAF SB220LT AC (Hispano body with Hispacold AC) [former TIB405Z – TIB424T]
- 290T – 293K, 295E to 300Z: Hino HT238K (with Hino body and Fuji AC) [former TIB380K – TIB389L]
- 294H: Nissan Diesel U31SCN (with Fuji Heavy Industries body and Fuji AC) [former TIB390G]
- 301X to 309A: Hino HT238K (with Hino body) [former TIB353P – TIB361R]
- 310U: Dennis Lance 245 (Duple Metsec (UMW (Malaysia)) body with Sutrak AC [re-registered as TIB1257C]
Gallery:
Operational Details:
City Shuttle services operated between 0630 and 1930 hours on Weekdays & Saturdays. On selected Sundays & Public Holidays in December during several years, CSS Service 8 had its operating hours extended to cater for the demand of shoppers during the festive season, operating between 1000 and 1930 hours.
Routes:
Route information for the following renumbered CSS services withdrawn between 2001 and 2007 are listed below:
- Service 602:Β Shenton Way βΊ Holland Drive
- Service 603:Β St. Michael’s βΊ Upper Cross Street
- Service 605:Β Sin Ming Road β Bukit Merah
- Service 607:Β St. Michael’s βΊ New Bridge Road
- Service 608:Β Bedok β Bukit Merah
CSS Service 602 (1997 – 2001):
602 | SSB | Weekdays | Saturdays | Sundays & PHs | |||
First Bus | Last Bus | First Bus | Last Bus | First Bus | Last Bus | ||
Shenton Way Ter | 0630 | 1930 | 0630 | 1930 | No Operation | ||
Frequency | 0630 β 0900 | 0901 β 1629 | 1630 β 1900 | After 1900 | |||
Loop | 9 – 10 mins | 11 – 14 mins | 10 – 13 mins | 11 – 14 mins |
- 1997 (03 Nov): Renumbered from CSS Service 2, operating between Holland Dr Ter and Shenton Way (Loop).
- 1998: Rerouted to start from Shenton Way Ter and loop at Holland Dr.
- 2001 (28 Oct): Withdrawn.
Bus Service 602: Shenton Way β Holland Dr (Loop) | |
---|---|
|
CSS Service 603 (1997 – 2003):
603 | SSB | Weekdays | Saturdays | Sundays & PHs | |||
First Bus | Last Bus | First Bus | Last Bus | First Bus | Last Bus | ||
St. Michael’s Ter | 0630 | 1930 | 0630 | 1930 | No Operation | ||
Frequency | 0630 β 0900 | 0901 β 1629 | 1630 β 1900 | After 1900 | |||
Loop | 8 – 11 mins | 9 – 14 mins | 11 – 13 mins | 9 – 14 mins |
- 1997 (03 Nov): Renumbered from CSS Service 3, operating between St. Michael’s Ter and Upp Cross St (Loop).
- 1999 (Aug): Amended to ply Draycott Dr and Draycott Park towards St. Michael’s Ter.
- 2003 (30 Nov): Withdrawn.
Bus Service 603: St. Michael’s β Upp Cross St (Loop) | |
---|---|
|
CSS Service 605 (1997 – 2004):
605 |
SSB | Weekdays | Saturdays | Sundays & PHs | |||
First Bus | Last Bus | First Bus | Last Bus | First Bus | Last Bus | ||
Sin Ming Rd Ter | 0630 | 1930 | 0630 | 1930 | No Operation | ||
Bt Merah Int | 0630 | 1930 | 0630 | 1930 | No Operation | ||
Frequency | 0630 β 0900 | 0901 β 1629 | 1630 β 1900 | After 1900 | |||
Direction 1 | 14 – 15 mins | 15 – 17 mins | 15 – 17 mins | 15 – 17 mins | |||
Direction 2 | 14 – 15 mins | 15 – 17 mins | 15 – 17 mins | 15 – 17 mins |
- 1997 (03 Nov): Renumbered from CSS Service 5, operating between Sin Ming Rd Ter and Bt Merah Int.
- 2004 (05 Sep): Withdrawn.
Bus Service 605: Sin Ming Rd βΒ Bukit Merah | |
---|---|
Direction 1 | Direction 2 |
|
|
CSS Service 607 (1997 – 2003):
607 | SSB | Weekdays | Saturdays | Sundays & PHs | |||
First Bus | Last Bus | First Bus | Last Bus | First Bus | Last Bus | ||
St. Michael’s Ter | 0630 | 1930 | 0630 | 1930 | No Operation | ||
Frequency | 0630 β 0900 | 0901 β 1629 | 1630 β 1900 | After 1900 | |||
Loop | 10 – 12 mins | 12 – 15 mins | 12 – 14 mins | 12 – 15 mins |
- 1997 (03 Nov): Renumbered from CSS Service 7, operating between St. Michael’s Ter and New Bridge Rd (Loop).
- 2003 (03 Aug): Withdrawn.
Bus Service 607: St. Michael’s β New Bridge Rd (Loop) | |
---|---|
|
CSS Service 608 (1997 – 2007):
608 |
SSB | Weekdays | Saturdays | Sundays & PHs | |||
First Bus | Last Bus | First Bus | Last Bus | First Bus | Last Bus | ||
Bedok Int | 0630 | 1930 | 0630 | 1930 | No Operation | ||
Bt Merah Int | 0630 | 1930 | 0630 | 1930 | No Operation | ||
Frequency | 0630 β 0830 | 0831 β 1659 | 1700 β 1900 | After 1900 | |||
Direction 1 | 10 – 14 mins | 11 – 18 mins | 12 – 13 mins | 12 – 13 mins | |||
Direction 2 | 13 – 15 mins | 11 – 17 mins | 13 – 15 mins | 14 – 16 mins |
- 1997 (03 Nov): Renumbered from CSS Service 8, operating between Bedok Int and Bt Merah Int.
- 2002 (08 Feb): Amended to ply Stadium Walk/Cres with the partial closure of Stadium Blvd to facilitate the construction of Circle MRT Line.
- 2004 (20 Apr): Amended to ply Mountbatten Rd, Geylang Rd, Kallang Rd, Victoria St, Jln Sultan and Beach Rd due to the Nicoll Highway collapse.
- 2004 (06 Dec): Route reinstated along Nicoll Highway.
- 2006 (18 Feb): Amended to ply Stadium Cres with the full closure of Stadium Blvd to facilitate the construction of Circle MRT Line.
- 2007 (29 Apr): Withdrawn.
Bus Service 608: Bedok β Bukit Merah | |
---|---|
Direction 1 | Direction 2 |
|
|
External Links & References:
- Singapore Shuttle Bus – SMRT (Access via Wayback Machine)
- City Shuttle Service – Wikipedia
- Singapore’s Old Bus Interchanges / Terminals – Remember Singapore
- CSS Routes in 1975 – SGWiki
- CSS Guides 1981 – SGWiki
- Singapore Shuttle Bus – SGWiki
- History of City Shuttle Services – SGWiki
- Singapore Bus Fleet – SGWiki
Back toΒ Bus Models
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CSS290-309 are a mix of former Tibs NAC and OAC buses. I have compiled the following but with some are unknown whether if its NAC or OAC:
CSS290T NAC
CSS291R OAC
CSS292M OAC
CSS293K NAC
CSS295E OAC
CSS296C NAC
CSS297A OAC
CSS298Y
CSS299U
CSS300Z
CSS301X OAC
CSS302T OAC
CSS303R OAC
CSS304M OAC
CSS305K NAC
CSS306H
CSS307E
CSS308C
CSS309A NAC
Does anybody have any chassis numbers for the Hino RK176 buses with Hino bodies operated in Singapore by CSS and TIBS between 1983 and 1993. Even one or two would be most welcome. There were almost 700 of this model made with the majority (about 335) going to Australia, a large group (60 at least) to Hong Kong, 70 to New Zealand and 12 to Cyprus. It is said that some went to Hong Kong for small coach operators.