On 14 March 2024, 10 Scania K230UB buses from SBS Transit were transferred to SMRT Buses. Spotted at Woodlands Bus Park, these buses have the SMRT Buses logo affixed on all corners of the bus, while retaining the original white-orange-purple SBS Transit livery.
An unusual sight to behold, mixed livery buses (“rojak buses”) are not a new phenomenon in Singapore’s bus fleets. However, these Scania K230UB buses, originally purchased by SBS Transit, are being operated outside of SBS Transit for the first time.
SMRT Buses will be taking over the Jurong West Bus Package in September 2024, which is formerly operated by SBS Transit. Leading up to the takeover, these buses have been transferred to facilitate training and familiarisation of Bus Captains and Technicians.
The buses transferred are:
- Scania K230UB (Euro IV):
SBS8198L, SBS8331T, SBS8367R, SBS8457P & SBS8460D - Scania K230UB (Euro V):
SBS8625X, SBS8628M, SBS8699H, SBS8902X & SBS8930P
the replacements for these buses at Soon Lee Bus Depot were MAN A22 buses drawn out from the LTA Storage bus fleet in January 2024, namely: SG1737P, SG1767C, SG1796T, SG1824X – SG1830C
Gallery
with SMRT Buses Logo
with SBS Transit
Would be cool if some of them got smrt livery or repainted into the lush green livery. Overall its nice to finally have another operator have k23u0bs
the Scania buses still have no fleet of Tower transit and Go ahead buses
Never thought I’d see the day SMRT took control of K230UBs!
These buses were probably the ones that had refurbishment recently, therefore not wise to remove from service, since the replacement components are still so new.
Actually, the Scania K230UB buses, are quite comfortable, although nowadays due to ageing, the engine sound quite loud already. Due to this reason, actually, they should deploy these buses to the Tuas industrial bus services 182, 247 and 248 only. Maybe that’s why they were transferred to SMRT to use at the Jurong West bus package.
Looks terrible, please send them back to SBST in exchange for MAN A22s.
These buses are part of the Jurong West fleet and it’s LTA’s instruction that these buses get transferred to SMRT. The KUBs go over first for staff training and familiarisation as this is a bus model that is considered new to SMRT (new as in new to SMRT). This is pretty much the same as Seletar and Mandai where buses new to the incoming operator go over first for staff training before the rest gets transferred over. The MAN A22s will eventually still go to SMRT at a later date.
Aren’t the KUBs SBS Transit purchased and owned buses? They’re not supposed to be part of the BSEP fleet. If KUBs are part of the BSEP fleet, then some SMRT spec Citaros should have been equally transferred to Tower Transit too during the Mandai handover. Instead, SMRT spared the Citaros and handed A22s instead.
Nope. It’s a temp replacement for the 10 KUBs that went over.
Once SMRT starts operation, those buses are likely to return back to LTA Storage, as seen from TTS when they took over Mandai.
Both TTS and SMRT are notorious for not leasing new buses, as they maximise the usage of 1 bus.
The storage buses are mainly reserved for the replacement of the E4 B1 KUBs retiring end of this year.
The reason why LTA will not paint the buses into Lush Green is most like because LTA wants to budget. If you like Lush Green buses, can choose other Single deck model like Citaro and Man A22.
Then explain why the CDGE B9TLs all were repainted lush green despite being close to retirement.
That being said, I’m surprised that €4 buses were requisitioned. Didn’t LTA say pre-€5 public buses were being retired by the end of next year? The €4 KUBs have probably less than a year left to serve.
Those E4 KUBs that went to SMRT are probably already refurbished and the components are in good condition, then those not refurbished would be facing scrap soon?
CORRECT
smrt has it