Return of entire bus body advertising?

In the past, SBS used to have full body advertisments, with the advertisment colours also applied to the front. This confused the passengers then as they believed the buses with such advertisments are not SBS/TIBS buses. Later the Government requirements mandated public buses to retain the coporate colours at the front of their respective companies when carrying full body advertisments.

A "Southeast Asia's First 100% Low Floor EURO V Bus" advert on SMRT's Citaro.

A "Singapore's first Hybrid Public bus" advert on the SBS Transit's Sulong Hybrid.

The recent Youth Olympic Games (YOG) 2010 held in Singapore saw several buses used to ferry Olympic personnels and athletes. Most of the buses used were drawn from existing buses from private companies, with a handful of SBS Transit's Scania K230UBs fresh out of the assembly plant.

The K230UBs were given an entire body advertisment for the duration of the Games, with the front of the bus having YOG livery applied. It also included the standard accessories for a YOG-exclusive shuttle such as the "GIVE WAY" Olympic stickers, blinker lights and YOG plate.

YOG2156 (SBS5229B) with the YOG standard equipments ready for the Games.

After the games, the buses were quickly returned to revenue services by changing the plate and having the bumper back to SBS Transit's purple.

SBS5225L with the standard SBS Transit colour bumper and EDS, with the standard YOG blinkers still attached.

SBS5192Y with the blinkers removed.

By simply having the bumper to purple and the rooftop aircon pod showing red, SBS Transit's company colours are cleverly retained. This still leaves the "face" of the bus with space for advertisments to be placed there. The Youth Olympic Games' logo being placed there is a possible spark for the return of the entire bus body advertisment, just like the good old days.

Resort Worlds Sentosa to stop free shuttles immediately: Governmment

This afternoon, the Casino Regulatory Authority issued directives to stop the heartland shuttles with immediate effect.

A Yutong coach operating on a free Choa Chu Kang/Bukit Panjang - RWS shuttle.

The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) announced on Wednesday that they are investigating the free shuttles possibly enticing Singaporeans to gamble in the casinos. Resorts World Sentosa responded with a notice of termination of their free shuttle services by Sunday night. But with the directive in efffect, the service is now terminated earlier than expected without any advance notifications.

The sudden termination today suprised many visitors to RWS. According to a news site, many were caught off guard and upset that they had to find alternatives transport means.

Demand was still strong today as the directives came into effect, with a long queue formed up at one of the many pick up point opposite Tiong Bahru Plaza. Impact will be mostly felt by the private bus operators which have bought several buses to cater for the substantial passenger load, and with the sudden termination, many drivers and buses are suddenly left out in the cold.

Mercedes Benz Citaros for SBS Transit.

SBS Transit Invests In Award-Winning Stepless Buses


SBS Transit's next batch of single-deck buses will crank up the comfort level several notches - thanks to a completely stepless aisle.
Known as a through low-floor bus, the aisle of the Mercedes Citaro is flushed flat from the front of the bus to the back . This makes it especially friendly to elderly passengers who no longer need to climb steps to reach the back of other low-floor models currently on the road. The 300 Citaros, which have won several international awards including the "2007 Bus of the Year" and the "Best Commercial Vehicles of 2010", will also have more than 10 priority seats which will be easily accessible by the elderly and the handicapped.
SBS Transit will pay $110 million for the 300 Citaros. Together with another 300 new double-deck buses from Volvo, they are scheduled to hit our local roads over the next two years starting from 2011.

The latest bus purchase of $268 million brings SBS Transit's total investment in new buses over the last five years to $854 million. It will lower the age of our existing buses from nine years to seven years.

SBS Transit Chief Executive Officer, Mr Gan Juay Kiat, said: "We are excited about our latest bus purchase. The saloon layout of the new single-deck through low-floor buses is more commuter-friendly."

Mr Gan added that when the new single- and double-deck are rolled out over the next two years, two out of every three buses in the SBS Transit fleet will be new.

"This means we will have one of the youngest fleets in Asia," he said.

As with recent bus purchases, the latest batch of new buses are Euro 5 compliant.

Background

SBS Transit operates 193 basic bus services and 53 premium and niche services. The company currently has close to 3,000 buses where one in two of its buses is new. Since our fleet renewal programme commenced in 2006, we have bought 1,450 new buses, of which 1,100 are single deck buses from Scania and 350 are double-deck ones from Volvo. All are wheelchair-accessible buses.

Exterior view of the Citaro Bus which was named "Best Commercial Vehicles of 2010 - City Bus" and "2007 Bus of the Year".

Stepless aisle in the bus

http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/press/2010-09-06-01-S.aspx

With this press release, SBS Transit has bought 300 Mercedes Benz Citaros. It is likely due to the popularity of the Citaro, coupled with an attractive quotation for the buses allowing for such a purchase to happen.

Meanwhile, SMRT Buses' SMB136C is still currently under 1 year trial. If the trial is successful it will also lead to the mass purchase of the Citaros. It will be the second time since the 1980's era that a common bus model and bodywork is being used (the first being Nissan Diesel U31 series).

Jurong East Modification Project - Phase 1 [Jurong East - Clementi]

The first phase of the Jurong East MRT Disruption between Jurong East to Cleemnti.It allowed for works on the old/new tracks of Jurong East East-West Line to proceed. Free shuttle buses were deployed to ferry the passengers to and from Jurong East/Clementi Stations

Signs and SMRT staffs/marshallers guiding the crowd to the shuttle buses:

Jurong East :

Crowds being directed to the boarding point

Bendy buses exiting the temporary stop for Jurong East.

The boarding point. Due to the early notices and alternatives given out by LTA/SMRT, the extra crowd control measures were not utilised.

SMRT bendies queueing up at the Jurong East holding area to pick up another round of passengers from Jurong East Station

SMRT staff at work

The boarding point.

On board the service to Clementi. The EZ-Link reader is put in "Out of Service" mode.

Not alot of passengers in this trip i was on.


Clementi Station:

Alighting at Clementi's terminating bay.

Each bus is allocated a bus number. Here TIB1167D is allocated Bus no. 30 out of 77 buses deployed.

At Clementi Station, notices are also put up notifying of the disruptions and alternative travel options.

The bendies U-turns here to the holding area/pick up point for Clementi.

Bendies queuing at the Clementi holding area



The U-turn point at the holding area.

Towards the pick-up point

TIB1182J, one of the Volgren bendy deployed in the mostly Hispano shuttle fleet.

The boarding point at Clementi

While the queuing area for the crowd are (thankfully) not utiliised too.

Never expected a carpark to be also "disrupted" together with the MRT disruption. Actually, part of the carpark was closed in order ot create a walkway from the MRT to the Clementi pickup point.

On the 18-19th September, the second phase of MRT disruption will see the service between Bukit Batok and Jurong East being disrupted for modification works.

Scania K230UBs everywhere!

SBS Transit
Currently the most dominant single deck operated by SBS Transit is the Scania K230UB, bodied by Gemilang Coachworks with a citybus configuration. Here SBS5225L operating on 243W shortly after its stint as a Singapore Youth Olympic Games 2010 shuttle bus together with a small fleet of newly bodied K230UBs.

They retain the YOG livery and blinker lights on the front without the bumper and "GIVE WAY" stickers due to requirements for revenue service buses to retain company colours for the front.

SBS5225L on 243W. Together with a small fleet of new K230UBs, they were deployed for the Youth Olympic Games 2010. It was given a special livery to denote it as a YOG shuttle bus..

Resorts World Sentosa/Asiatravel.com

Resorts World Sentosa uses Scania K230UBs with SC Chivalrous coach bodywork operates the shuttle routes in and out of RWS. It is operated by Woodlands Transport Asiatravel.com (thanks Ishh Ishak for the info).

PA9275U operating on a Resorts World Sentosa shuttle, ferrying visitors in and out of Sentosa. 

ComfortDelgro
ComfortDelgro operates a small fleet of Scania K230UBs as a National University of Singapore Campus A1/A2 shuttle. They are similar to the units used by Resorts World Sentosa/Woodlands Transport.

PA9575D operating on Route A2 in the NUS campus.