The Jurong West Bus Package will be progressively taken over by SMRT Buses in September 2024.
The transfer of bus services will take place across two tranches as detailed below. This gradual transition process allowed the incoming operator to build up its operational competency in stages while minimising any potential effects on commuters.
| Former Term (PT212) | Upcoming Term (PT218B) | |
| Bus Operator | SBS Transit Ltd | SMRT Buses |
| Contract Term | Negotiated Contract: 01 Sep 2016 – 15 Sep 2024 |
Tendered Package 1st Term: 01 Sep 2024 – 2029 |
| Bus Services | 179/179A, 181/181M, 182/182M, 185, 192, 193, 194, 199, 240/240M, 241, 242, 243G/243W, 246, 247, 248/248M, 249, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 257, 258, 405, 502/502A & 974 (26 bus routes) |
|
| Bus Depot | Soon Lee Bus Depot | |
| Bus Interchanges | Boon Lay Bus Interchange, Joo Koon Bus Interchange, Tuas Bus Terminal | |
Under the Bus Contracting Model (BCM), bus routes are bundled into bus packages, consisting of a single bus depot, several bus interchanges/terminals, 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.
The successful tenderer operates these bus routes and collects fares on behalf of LTA, while maintaining the associated bus infrastructure (buses & onboard equipment, depots, interchanges & terminals). In return, the operator is awarded an operating fee from LTA, and potential bonuses via an incentive framework.
The Jurong West Bus Package is one of fourteen bus packages under the BCM, and the sixth package to be tendered out.
Bus services in the Jurong West Bus Package mainly originate from Boon Lay & Joo Koon Bus Interchanges, as well as Tuas Bus Terminal.
As the awarded operator, SMRT Buses will take over the 26 existing bus services operated by SBS Transit in two tranches on 1 September 2024 & 15 September 2024.
Bus operations for the Tendered Package would be based out of the existing Soon Lee Bus Depot, which was sold by former operator SBS Transit to the Land Transport Authority in September 2024.
Special Wrap
A special advertisement wrap was done up on several Volvo B9TL Wright buses for the takeover event.
Transitioning Dates
Similar to previous bus packages, bus services under the Jurong West Bus Package will be transferred to SMRT Buses in stages, starting from Sunday, 1 September 2024.
| Tranche | Implementation Date | Bus Services | No of Routes |
| 1 | 1 Sep 2024 | 179/179A, 181/181M, 192, 193, 194, 199, 240/240M, 241, 242, 243G/243W, 246, 249, 251, 252 & 405 | 15 |
| 2 | 15 Sep 2024 | 182/182M, 185, 247, 248/248M, 253, 254, 255, 257, 258, 502/502A & 974 | 11 |
| Total: 26 | |||
Operator Logo
In late August 2024, the operator logo on buses (SBS Transit) to be handed over to SMRT Buses were removed progressively.
Training Fleet
To facilitate the training of SMRT Buses staff to the Scania K230UB buses for the Jurong West Bus Package, 10 buses from SBS Transit were transferred to SMRT Buses in March 2024.
Main Article: Transfer of Scania K230UB Buses to SMRT Buses
Bus Fleet
SMRT Buses operates the following bus models from Soon Lee Bus Depot as part of the Jurong West Bus Package:
Single Deck Buses
Double-Deck Buses
Back to Jurong West Bus Package
There are 393 public bus routes in Singapore (according to Wikipedia).
After taking over Jurong West bus package, SMRT would have JW (26), CCK (28) and WDL (20). Altogether 74 bus routes, which means a 18.8% share of the Singapore public bus market
Meanwhile,
TT: BL (32) + YS (26) = 58. 14.8%
GA: LY (31). 7.9%
SBS will still have a dominant share of the Singapore public bus industry, at 58.5%.
LTA still need to take away around two more bus packages away from SBS, only then will SBS share of the public bus industry will go substantially below 50% (won’t go back to 50 and above due to new bus routes addition).
Suggest: the immediate ones, like Sengkang-Hougang, and Tampines (using East Coast Integrated Depot that bus depot).
Only when SBS share go substantially below 50%, then will there truly be contestability in the Singapore public bus industry.
I suspect and have a gut feel that SK-HG and Tampines will go to SMRT and GASG respectively, if LTA really has the intention to downsize SBST’s share of bus routes.
Hopefully GAS will be out after Loyang ends and handover to either SBST, TTS or SMRT. Meaning the bus market will be downsized to 3 operators. GAS extremely incompetent in handling bus services, better pack and leave Singapore. Example is bus 136 never arriving on time.
Yet again, I still hope that SMRT or SBST will win SKHG, instead of GAS.
Wonder if SMRT will organize Soon Lee Depot open house or not, after the Jurong West Bus Package is fully transferred to them.
At least a bus tour from Boon Lay Bus Interchange that loops around Soon Lee Bus Depot (with no alighting) would be nice.
It’s strange that 99, 174 and 651 are not bundled under JW package even though they literally serve Jurong West region?
Anyway, congratulations to SMRT and looking forward to its roll-out of the bus package and taking over of the buses. This will be a major undertaking as it starts to make its presence felt and pave its way towards better standards and eventually winning more packages.
All the best to SMRT!
Congratulations to SMRT for winning the tender to operate Jurong West Bus Package, and thank you SBS Transit for the service.
To be honest, SBS didn’t really operate Jurong West bus routes properly. Bus branching quite often observed. Otherwise would be over capacity, etc. Hopefully SMRT would help to right size the bus operations at Jurong West Bus Package.
As a long time resident at Jurong West, I am very disappointed that SBS Transit has failed to retain the Jurong West bus package and will soon have to relinquish Boon Lay Bus Interchange and most of the bus routes in Jurong West to another operator.
Hopefully, SBS Transit can get to return to Jurong West region in some form in the future, such as via operating the MRT Jurong Region Line.