Even as the island’s fourth public bus operator Go-Ahead Singapore began its services earlier this month, commuters will see the debut of more new players down the road.
Interest in the third and latest government bus tender, called in June, is strong with at least five companies and consortiums – all new to the local public bus industry – looking to throw their hats into the ring.
They are Australia’s Busways, Singapore’s Woodlands Transport, Britain’s National Express and two consortiums, Kumho Buslines-Tian San Shipping, and Travel GSH- Jiaoyun Group, The Straits Times has learnt.
Travel GSH and Tian San are local firms, while Kumho is from South Korea and Jiaoyun from China.
The potential bidders, with the exception of National Express, have taken part in previous tenders, making this their second or third tries.
They are up against SBS Transit, SMRT, Tower Transit and Go- Ahead, which have expressed interest in competing for the Seletar tender package, comprising 26 routes.
National University of Singapore transport researcher Lee Der Horng expects that there could still be more competitors. He told The Straits Times: “Since the industry has completely moved into the bus contracting model, we can expect more (bus) contracts to be released in the future. Companies will want to come in early to ‘exercise’ their bids, and get themselves familiar with the local market.”
On Sept 1, the public bus industry was restructured to a contracting model, in which bus routes are tendered out to operators in packages. All bus assets and infrastructure are owned by the Government, which pays winning bidders a fee to run the services.
Commuters can expect more reliable services as the operators have to meet standards, failing which they can be penalised financially. If they do well, they will be given monetary incentives.
While three bus packages have been put up for tender, with two awarded, there are 11 others currently run by incumbents SBS Transit and SMRT. Their contracts range in durations of between two and 10 years, and these packages will be put up for tender as they expire.
For the third tender, Dr Lee predicts that price will be one of the important factors. Tower Transit won the first tender, the $556 million five-year Bulim package, while Go-Ahead clinched the Loyang deal for $497.7 million.
Go-Ahead’s tender offer was the lowest among the eight short-listed bidders in that round, and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said then that the overall bids were “closely matched” in quality.
Dr Lee said: “It shows the operators are closely matched in technical capabilities, for example, in terms of how they schedule and monitor buses, and their plan for recruiting bus captains.”
With the Seletar tender closing on Oct 6, potential bidders are gearing up for their submissions.
A Busways spokesman said: “We have been researching other markets… We have visited London, France, Germany and Hong Kong to study ‘best practice’ operators… We have learnt a lot that is relevant to improving our offer to Singaporeans.”
This article was first published on Sep 12, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.
