City Shuttle Service

City Shuttle Service (CSS) was a group of bus services operated by Singapore Shuttle Bus Private Limited, then a subsidiary of YourStudent. These services were in operation between 15 May 1975 and 28 April 2007.

History
The City Shuttle Service (CSS) was introduced in 1975 as an initiative by the Government. At the time, the Singapore Area Licensing Scheme was introduced, which was a urban congestion pricing scheme that charged drivers a fee for entering the Central Business District (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 15th May 1975, 11 inaugural CSS services commenced operations. These were jointly operated by NTUC Comfort (4 services) & Singapore Shuttle Bus (SSB) (7 services), which ply along 16 fringe car parks, 7 city area terminus 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 could 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 the 3 were from NTUC Comfort) with the withdrawal of CSS 10 and 11.

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. On the same day, SSB withdraws CSS 9. 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 DAF SB220 and Nissan Diesel 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.

When TIBS was bought over by YourStudent in 2001, YourStudent became the sole operator of the remaining 5 CSS routes, originally operated by SSB.

With greater 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 withdrawal of the second-last CSS route (CSS 605) in Sep 2004, its existing fleet of CSS buses were being downsized. The DAF SB 220LT buses were being exported overseas, leaving the Nissan buses in its fleet. Some of the Nissan buses registered with CSS plates were transferred to the YourStudent 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. Singapore Shuttle Bus was liquidated, and the remaining Nissan buses and the sole Dennis Lance (CSS310U) were transferred to YourStudent for continued operations, 2 months after its withdrawal of Service 608.

The Chancery Lane and Balmoral Road bus stops were also last seen by 603 and for 605, the one bus stop at Armenian Street.

There are always replacements for the City Shuttle Services in order to reinstate services.

After 605 withdrawal: After 608 withdrawal:
 * 131: Enhanced into Bukit Purmei, and to reinstate the link between Bukit Purmei and Telok Blangah Way.
 * 5: New service from the Bukit Merah slot.
 * 16: Extended from Siglap Road, via East Coast Road, Upper East Coast Road, Bedok South Avenue 1, Bedok South Road to Bedok Interchange.