Short-Trip Services

Short-Trip services, previously referred to as Short Working Trip Services (SWTs), are short-haul supplementary trips that ply segments of their parent route rather than the full route of their parent service. Due to the lengthy nature of most bus routes, Short-Trip services are needed to cater to specialised sectors, rather than improving bus frequencies throughout the route. This helps to better allocate resources to where they are needed.

Most Short-Trip services cater to sectors of bus routes encountering high demand, for example, between transport nodes and high-activity areas (e.g. between MRT stations and housing estates, industrial areas or educational institutions). These Short-Trip services operate during the weekday peak hours. Other Short-Trip services operate late at night, after the last bus of their parent service has departed. These services usually cater to residential sectors or half-trips of long trunk routes. Finally, there are Short-Trip services that only operate on weekends and special occasions, catering to unique sectors of route encountering high demand.

Short-Trip services can be identified by adding an alphabetical suffix at the end of their parent service number, with the letters A, B and C currently in use. The suffix M is usually reserved for Route variants and not for Short-Trip services. However, not all A and B suffixed routes are Short-Trip services; exceptions include Bus Services 502A, 518A, 859A/859B and 900A.

Currently, Short-Trip services can be divided into five broad categories based on their operating hours:

1. Weekday & Saturday Peak Hour Short-Trip services:
   3A, 5A, 5B, 9A, 9B, 13A, 15A, 27A, 29A, 31A, 33A, 33B, 34A, 34B, 36B, 45A, 53A, 55B, 58A, 58B, 60A, 68A, 68B, 70B, 72A, 72B, 78A, 80A, 85A, 88A, 88B, 89A, 90A, 94A, 95B, 96A, 96B, 98A, 98B, 100A, 102A, 102B, 105B, 106A, 109A, 113A, 116A, 117A, 118A, 118B, 125A, 131A, 137A, 138B, 139A, 142A, 145A, 147A, 154A, 154B, 158A, 159A, 159B, 160A, 163B, 169A, 169B, 178A, 179A, 180A, 183B, 189A, 190A, 195A, 196A, 200A, 222A, 222B, 240A, 241A, 268A, 268B, 268C, 269A, 302A, 307A, 382A, 386A, 807B, 811A, 856A, 856B, 857A, 857B, 858B, 882A, 883B, 925A, 962B, 962C, 965A, 969A, 975A, 975B, 991C
2. Weekends, Public Holidays and Special Short-Trip services:
   14A, 21A, 60A, 114A, 138A
3. Daily Short-Trip services:
   2B, 7A, 7B, 17A, 198A, 807A, 912A, 912B
4. “Last bus” Short-Trip services:
   3A, 36A, 51A, 63A, 70A, 79A, 112A, 127A, 163A, 173A, 180A, 189A, 200A, 307A, 857B, 858A, 870A, 966A, 972A, 973A, 974A, 975C, 983A, 991A, 991B, 992A

This list of Short-Trip services in the table below is not exhaustive, and some Short-Trip services can fall into multiple categories.

Route Table

This list does not include bus services that use the ‘T’ suffix to denote a terminating trip (36T, 60T, 73T, 83T, 291T, 293T, 307T, 358T, 359T, 811T, 812T, 859T, 860T, 911T, 913T & 965T).

In the past, prior to the Bus Contracting Model, bus operators (SBS Transit and SMRT Buses) withdrew Short-Trip services when they were no longer needed. Usually, there are no press releases and the services will cease to operate. Information regarding the Short-Trip services will be removed from company websites and from en-route bus stops.

On rare occasions, ‘withdrawn’ Short-Trip services (which actually cease to operate without any official announcements) may make a comeback. Such was the case of SBS Transit Bus Service 158A, which was briefly discontinued in 2006 due to the temporary relocation of Dunman High School. With the reinstatement of Dunman High School at its original site along Tg Rhu Rd, the short trip service was relaunched in 2009.

Refer to the Defunct Short Trip Services article for more information on short trip services that were operated in the past 2 decades.

Temporary Suspension of Short-Trip Services

During the Singapore COVID-19 Circuit Breaker Period, some Short Trip Services were not operated, due to reduced demand for public transport, and the redeployment of Bus Captains to other bus services amid a labour shortage. This was in part due to the effects of the Movement Control Order implemented by the Malaysian Government, and several COVID-19 clusters that emerged in bus depots and interchanges.

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