Bus Services Enhancement Programme

The Bus Service Enhancement Programme, or BSEP for short, was launched announced on 7th March 2012. LTA, in partnership with Public Transport Operators (PTOs) SBS Transit and SMRT, will be rolling out new measures to significantly increase bus capacity (by 20%) and current bus service levels. The BSEP is a continuation of the quarterly review which was initiated in June 2010.

The $1.1 billion scheme will cover the purchase of 1000 new buses and 80 new bus services to be progressively introduced over the next five years. The first phase of the BSEP (comprising of 550 new buses and 40 new services) has been brought forward to end 2014. In March 2014, an expansion of the BSEP was announced, introducing 450 more buses from 2015 to 2017. This will bring the total number of government-funded buses to 1,000, and increase available resources for a new total of 80 new services. Most of the 40 expanded BSEP bus routes will be feeder or short trunk services to serve new areas of developments such as Sengkang, Punggol, Yishun and Choa Chu Kang.

Since End-Nov 2014, 510 new buses have been pumped into service and 33 new bus services have been launched.

With the full implementation of the expanded BSEP by 2017 and with help from private bus operators, the total capacity of the bus system will increase by about 35 per cent, or about 1,400 buses, in just five years.

In summary, the BSEP aims to cover a few areas to improve the bus system:
 * Better bus services for commuters
 * Better connectivity with new bus services

Purchase of new buses
Under the revised BSEP, the Government will by providing funding for 550 new buses. Together with the 250 buses that the PTOs will add to their fleet at their cost, over the next 5 years, these 800 new buses will amount to a 20% increase in bus fleet. Out of 550 buses, 300 will be used to improve existing bus routes, and the remaining 250 used for operating new routes.

The announcement of the expanded BSEP brought in 450 additional buses for a new total of 1,000 new buses.

Improvement of peak hour travel
Under the BSEP, 95% of feeder bus services will run at scheduled intervals of 10 minutes or less during the peak periods. The remaining 5% will be scheduled to run within 15 minute intervals. This will be sustained over 2 hours during both the morning and evening peak periods. Currently, only 9 in 10 (90%) of feeder bus services are required to operate at 10 minute scheduled intervals or better, and for only 1 hour during each peak period.

The PTOs will also have to improve bus frequencies across the board, i.e. feeders and trunk routes, during the peak periods. Today, all services must operate within 30-minute scheduled intervals, of which 80% must be within 10-min scheduled intervals. Under the BSEP, all services must operate within 20-minute scheduled intervals, of which 80% must be within 10-minute intervals and another 10% within 12-minute intervals.

By end 2014, commuters can expect about 10% more capacity on buses along crowded stretches of bus routes during peak hours, as the PTOs will be required to reduce the loading levels for all basic bus services to 85%, down from today’s 95% of their licensed capacity.

Basic Bus Services

 * Existing QoS: Loading levels within 95% of licensed capacity
 * By end 2014: Loading levels within 85% of licensed capacity
 * Existing QoS: 80% of all basic bus services to run at scheduled intervals of 10 minutes or less during peak periods
 * By end 2014: 90% of all basic bus services to run at scheduled intervals of 12 minutes or less during peak periods,

Feeder Bus Services

 * Existing QoS: 90% of services to operate at scheduled intervals of 10 minutes or less during peak periods (currently over 1-hour period)
 * By end 2014: 95% of services to operate at scheduled intervals of 10 minutes or less over entire 2-hour peak-hour period

All Bus Services

 * Existing QoS: maximum 30 minute scheduled intervals during peak hours
 * By end 2014: maximum 20 minute scheduled intervals during peak hours

Improvements to Existing Bus Services
The BSEP adds 550 new buses to existing bus services which are in need of capacity upgrades. As of September 2014, 144 bus routes have benefited from additional buses.

They are: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28, 29, 31, 34, 36, 39, 40, 42, 43, 45, 48, 50, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 67, 69, 70, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 84, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 98, 99, 100, 103, 106, 109, 115, 116, 123, 139, 147, 154, 155, 158, 159, 161, 162, 168, 169, 175, 176, 178, 182, 183, 188, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 228, 229, 238, 243, 246, 251, 261, 262, 265, 269, 273, 275, 284, 285, 292, 293, 302, 315, 317, 325, 333, 335, 354, 359, 372, 402, 403, 410, 700, 800, 804, 806, 850E, 853, 854, 855, 856, 857, 858, 860, 882, 900, 901, 903, 913, 920, 922, 925, 951E, 960, 961, 962, 963, 964, 965, 966, 969, 972, 975, 980, 981, 985

Most bus routes receive between one and three additional buses. The list excludes recently-introduced BSEP services which have benefited from additional buses.

New Bus Services
While the focus in the initial years will be to improve bus service levels for existing bus services, commuters can also expect better connectivity in the bus network with around 80 new bus routes introduced progressively over the next 5 years. This is a 30% increase, up from the 261 basic bus routes today.

Out of the 80 new bus routes, about 14 will be parallel bus routes that connect major HDB towns to the city area, making use of the expressways. The new parallel bus routes will be progressively introduced from the third quarter of 2012 to provide more options to commuters using stretches of the existing rail lines that experience persistent high ridership, while the ongoing rail enhancement measures are being implemented. LTA will monitor the performance of these parallel bus services closely and make adjustments where required.

Besides improvements to public bus operators, the scheme also extends to private bus operators, in the hope of augmenting the resources of PTOs. City Direct Services, Nightlife Direct Servicesand Peak Hour Services are among such initiatives, and are explained in detail in the relevant articles.

Chronology of BSEP introduction
Do note that new bus services (including City Direct services) and route extension to existing bus services count as BSEP services. In total, 50 notable services have been launched.