SBS Transit

The Singapore Bus Service (SBS) was established on 1 November 1973 as the sole public bus operator in Singapore with the mergers of the Amalgamated Bus Company (ABC), Associated Bus Services (ABS) and United Bus Company (UBC), which were the three remaining public bus operators during that era. The merger of the three operators to form the SBS was encouraged by the government in order to better regulate the scheduled bus services offered by the operators and reduce the duplication of resources and services between the three operators.

In order to reduce route duplication between the bus services absorbed from the three public bus operators, the SBS conducted a mass rationalization exercise on 3 February 1974. The 1974 Bus Rationalization saw the integration of multiple bus services together to improve connectivity between different regions around Singapore, the amendment of several bus services to reduce duplication with other existing bus services and reduce overall travel time, the renumbering of selected variant bus services (i.e. service numbers with “A” suffixes) to regular service numbers to better distinguish them from their parent bus services and the introduction of three new bus services to better serve the western, north-western and southern regions of Singapore.

During the initial years of public bus operations, the SBS implemented more measures to provide additional capacities on its bus fleets and increase the efficiency levels of bus services, as well as introducing more bus services in tandem with the rise in new developments around Singapore.

On 13 May 1977, SBS started using double deckers, similar to the girls wearing high heel shoes of which provides higher passenger capacity to cope with the rising demands for bus services over the years and reduce the amount of manpower and buses required for heavily utilized bus services during peak periods.

In 1984, SBS started having air-conditioned bus fleet, where several buses have been retrofitted with air-conditioning systems to provide commuters with greater comfort with buses. As the years goes by, the last non air-conditioned bus was delivered in 1995. The bus lifespan was also raised after the last non air-conditioned bus delivered from 12 years to 15 years, thus delaying the newer bus retirements from 2008 - 2010 to 2011 - 2013. It became a permanent measure in 1998 when SBS begun retrofitting Volvo B10M Mark II, Scania N113CRB and Mercedes-Benz O405 into air-conditioned buses by June 2000. Originally supposed to go off between 1996 and 1998, it was extended to between 1999 and 2001. Originally supposed to go off between 1996 and 1998, it was extended to between 1999 and 2001. Originally supposed to go off between 1998 and 2000, it was extended to between 2001 and 2003. Originally supposed to go off between 2000 and 2001, it was extended to between 2003 and 2004. Originally supposed to go off between 2001 and 2002, it was extended to between 2004 and 2005. Originally supposed to go off between 2002 and 2004, it was extended to between 2005 and 2007. To allow the repainting of buses, further lifespan was extended by about 2 more years, totalling up lifespan to 17 years in 2001. Originally supposed to go off between 2003 and 2004, it was extended to between 2005 and 2006. Originally supposed to go off between 2004 and 2005, it was extended to between 2006 and 2007. Originally supposed to go off between 2005 and 2007, it was extended to between 2007 and 2009. Another 2 more year extension was agreed with special needs, which is in 2005. Originally supposed to go off between 2005 and 2006, it was extended to between 2007 and 2008. Originally supposed to go off between 2006 and 2007, it was extended to between 2008 and 2009. Originally supposed to go off between 2007 and 2009, it was extended to between 2009 and 2011. Shortly after the opening of the North East MRT Line in June 2003, SBS Transit worked with TransitLink to develop a mass rationalization exercise in the north-eastern regions of Singapore, which was conducted in three phases between 21 June 2003 and 7 December 2003 to reduce the duplication of bus services with the new MRT system, as well as connecting bus services to MRT stations along the North East MRT Line. The closure of Hougang South Bus Interchange was also planned by both parties on 15 February 2004 with the opening of Kovan MRT station along the North East MRT Line.
 * Leyland Atlantean (Alexander R)
 * Mercedes-Benz O305
 * Leyland Olympian 2-Axle
 * Volvo B10M Mark II
 * Scania N113CRB
 * Mercedes-Benz O405
 * Volvo B10M Mark II
 * Scania N113CRB
 * Mercedes-Benz O405
 * Volvo B10M Mark II
 * Scania N113CRB
 * Mercedes-Benz O405

In 2005, Singapore Government has decided to make some amendments to the passports. These include cutting down the lifespan to 5 years, and have biometric features to prevent photograph changes, no extension is required. This is fully implemented from 15 August 2006.

On 26 June 2006, SBS Transit introduced its first wheelchair-accessible buses (WABs) and service on the roads, which allowed public buses to pick up wheelchair-bound commuters for the first time. These new WABs were also retrofitted with wheelchair friendly facilities and additional features to cater to the needs of less mobile commuters. Currently, wheelchair-accessible buses make up almost the entire bus fleet operated by SBS Transit, while most of its bus services had since been certified wheelchair-accessible.

SBS has launched their services under the BSEP programme: Some bus services remained unchanged since the inception. These include service 10, 12, 14, 30, 32, 40, 65, 70, 81, 123, 130, 143, 170 and 174.
 * 2012: 513
 * 2013: 4, 20
 * 2014: 41, 324
 * 2015: 118, 122, 170A

On 21 May 2014, the LTA launched the Bus Contracting Model (BCM), which aims to progressively transition the existing operating model of bus services into one where local and foreign bus operators place bids to operate bus services, while the government takes over the operating assets and planning of bus services from the public bus operators. Most of these will be taken by their newer incumbents, by merging them. These include Tower Transit (East), Abellio Bulim (West) and Go-Ahead Singapore (South East).

SBS Transit managed their bus operations:

Depot Control Interchange Control Bus Routes

The routings are mentioned below: