Fleet Restrictions

Route limitations, sometimes called fleet restrictions, usually refer to bus services that have regulations on fleet deployments, such as vehicle length, vehicle height, or various environmental factors. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) may also set restrictions on the buses deployed on certain bus routes by the public bus operators.

Physical Limitations

Bus routes in Singapore are subject to physical limitations of road infrastructure. Some roads have various design limitations that would be difficult or impossible for larger buses to pass through. Hence, for safety reasons, fleet restrictions are put in place to forbid certain models of buses from being deployed on routes with limitations.

The following list is not exhaustive; nor does it reflect the most up-to-date restrictions in place, as bus operators are at liberty to add or remove such restrictions. More details are in the Disclaimer section below.

Unconfirmed Fleet Restrictions

The so-called ‘ban’ on various types of buses on certain bus services is subject to debate. Since fleet restrictions are part of the internal affairs of the LTA and are not publicly disclosed, it is difficult to know for sure whether a ‘ban’ exists. For example, areas like Depot Road and Upper Aljunied Road do not see the use of double-deck buses and articulated buses respectively. It is hard to know for sure whether the ‘ban’ will be lifted, as the exclusive deployment of single-deck rigid buses to various bus services plying these areas may be due to other factors (such as a lack of strong demand). As such, most fleet restrictions are ‘speculated’ based on the operating trends of various bus services.

For feeder bus routes, most routes use single-deck buses exclusively, likely due to the fact that most commuters travel short distances on these bus services. Double-deck buses are slower at loading and unloading large numbers of passengers quickly. Thus, it is more difficult to determine if high capacity double-deck and articulated buses are not deployed on feeder services due to actual route limitations or their short distances.

Prior to the full retirement of older public buses without wheelchair-friendly facilities in 2020, a wheelchair-accessible bus quota for wheelchair-accessible bus routes (WAB) state that a WAB route must operate with a fleet of at least 50% wheelchair-accessible buses, so wheelchair-bound passengers can get a WAB within the waiting time of two buses. Another unique fleet restriction is the cross-border fleet restriction, which demands that all buses serving on cross-border routes have to be registered with Malaysia’s Land Public Transport Commission or SPAD. These buses are retrofitted with a third brake light and carry additional documents/labels in order to meet Malaysian traffic regulations (3rd brake light is not compulsory in Singapore). These SPAD-registered buses can serve on any bus route in Singapore, but only SPAD-registered buses can be deployed on cross-border routes.

Deployment Restrictions for Articulated Buses

With the retirement of the older Mercedes-Benz O405G articulated buses in favour of more double-deck buses by the LTA, unofficial restrictions have been imposed by the LTA on the deployment of the newer MAN A24 articulated buses currently in operation that were transferred to SBS Transit and Tower Transit under the Bus Contracting Model (BCM) in 2018 and 2021.

Unofficial Deployment Restrictions on Airport Bus Services (Oct 2017 – Sep 2021)

In Oct 2017, unofficial restrictions were imposed by the LTA on the bus models deployed on bus services serving Changi Airport. The new restriction required buses deployed on airport bus services to be retrofitted with an internal announcement system.

At the time, only Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses were fitted with such announcement systems. Massive redeployments were made for Bus Services 27, 53 and 858, swapping out the remaining Scania K230UB and MAN A22 (Euro 5) buses for Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses. Bus Services 24, 34 & 36 were already operating a full fleet of Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses under their respective BCM route packages, while Bus Service 110 was launched with a full fleet of Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses in Oct 2017.

Buses procured by LTA since 2018 are retrofitted with announcement systems, which eventually reduced the need for such a restriction on bus deployments for airport bus services.

In Sep 2021, Tower Transit took over the operation of Bus Service 858 under the Mandai Bus Package, operating a fleet of MAN A22 (Euro 5) buses without such announcement systems. Therefore, this indicated the unofficial discontinuation of fleet restrictions on airport bus services by the LTA.

Former Fleet Restrictions on Bus Services

The following defunct bus services operated with no double-deck or articulated buses due to the following route limitations. Non-deployment of high capacity buses on bus services due to insufficient passenger demand are excluded from the table below.

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