Daimler Buses delivers SBS Transit's 300 Mercedes Benz Citaros

SBS Transit's Mercedes Benz Citaros (Photo courtesy of Diamler Buses)

Following the press release in September 2010 annoucing the order of 300 award winning stepless bus, the first batch of SBS Transit's Mercedes Benz Citaros are currently being delivered into Singapore.

It is the largest order from Asia to date for Mercedes Benz, and the Citaros are are Euro V compliant.

Read the press release from Daimler here @ http://www.daimler.com/dccom/0-5-7153-1-1385999-1-0-0-0-0-0-16694-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html

New EZlink Readers/Bus Captain's console.

SBS Transit have installed new EZlink readers on at least 2 buses as of this post date. These new readers are more aesthetically pleasing than the old design, and most of the familiar features of the current EZlink readers are rearranged and refreshed. One of the buses to recieve this new EZlink system is SBS8991M.

SBS8991M is one of the two buses as of this post publish date to recieve the new readers.

SBS Transit had changed the default blue cover for their readers to purple/red for their own readers, while SMRT Buses continues using the default blue cover. It seems that the purple/red covers are more heat tolerant than the default blue covers which some were warped with the readers getting quite hot at times during long hours of operation.

The current EZlink readers found on majority of the public buses. This reader is in its sleep mode.

The new design sees a refreshed/updated layout.

• The current monochrome screen is now a new colour LCD screen that the information can be easily seen at a glance. Information such as time/date and distance is displayed more prominently at its permanent location of top and bottom of the screen, while the centre showing the necessary information for EZlink card transactions, all in distinct colours.

The new layout is attractive and pleasing to the eye. The new design's sleep mode is shown here.

• The LCD screen is larger than the scanning area for the EZlink card, which should easily direct the commuter to the scanning area at the lower part of the reader.  

New colour graphics that shows the fare in eye-catching green boxes.

• The three "traffic" lights, red, yellow and green are now more prominently displayed at the top of the ezlink reader for better visibility. The new reader's sounds are also slightly more sharper.

Comparison of the front entrance's readers.

The current readers at the entrance.

The new readers onboard SBS8991M

Comparison of the exit door's readers.

The current exit door readers

The new exit door readers.

Comparison of the bus captain's console for the EZlink readers.

The current bus captain's console.

The new bus captain's console.

The new EZlink readers and console now has a modern and fresh look, 9 years after its introduction in December 2002 into Singapore's public transport system as a convenient and hassle free method of travelling on public transport. Its uses have been expanding to include payment for other various services such as food & beverage and Electronic Road Pricing.

It is not known whether if the new readers will be progressively installed to other buses in the future as of today (18/04/2011). The other bus, SBS8955T is said to have this new system installed but it was removed a few days later.