LTA awards contracts for six City Direct bus services

[CityFarmer]

More pilot projects for cost-plus model, IMO...

LTA awards contracts for six City Direct bus services

SINGAPORE - The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has awarded contracts for six City Direct services to five private bus operators under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP).

The six routes will operate from Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Batok/Hillview, Jurong East, Sembawang, Sengkang and West Coast to the Central Business District during the morning peak, and in the return direction during the evening peak.

An LTA statement today (Nov 9) said the new bus services will be launched progressively in the first half of next year. There will be two trips on each service during each of the peaks, with more trips to be added depending on demand.

Ren Quan Transport won the Ang Mo Ko contract at S$1.13 million and the Sengkang contract at S$1.28 million.

ComfortDelGro Bus Pte Ltd took the Bukit Batok/Hillview contract at S$0.9 million, and Loh Gim Chong the Sembawang contract at S$1.16 million.

Transtar Travel Pte Ltd clinched the Jurong East contract at S$1.45 million.

The West Coast contract went to Woodlands Transport Service Pte Ltd at S$1.23 million.

The total value of the contracts is about S$7.16 million.

LTA said the contracts for three other services - Bedok, Eunos and Hougang – were not awarded as there were not enough valid bids for an award to be made.

A new tender for the three services is expected to open by the end of the month.

LTA said with limited stops and the use of expressways, journey time on the City Direct services are expected to be comparable to that of taking a bus or LRT and transferring to the MRT into the city.

Under BSEP, private bus operators are being roped in to supplement the services of public transport operators to ease peak hour congestion and waiting time. CHANNEL NEWSASIA
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/lta...s-services

[NTL]

SMRT get nothing? Interesting to note that Bt Batok route is the lowest, while next door Jurong East is the highest.

[CityFarmer]

SMRT get nothing? Interesting to note that Bt Batok route is the lowest, while next door Jurong East is the highest.

Both SMRT and SBST are not involved.

[NTL]

IC. Just read that SMRT and SBST cannot bid as their resources are already "stretched". I take ComfortDelgro and SBS as the same entity.

[opmi]

CD and SBST legally not the same entity coz different shareholders.

Got conflict of interest if CD do City Direct bus and SBST never do?
CD compete against SBST is not in the interest of SBST shareholder?

Unless CD got already prior shareholder approval from SBS.

SMRT cannot handle MRT breakdown already, still want to do more??

[NTL]

As far as I can see, they are trying to avoid one another. Was there ever any cases where they compete with one another?

[opmi]

As far as I can see, they are trying to avoid one another. Was there ever any cases where they compete with one another?

Last time, only SBST runs buses.

Now CD is running buses. SBST also running buses. As 2 separate legal entities, they are now competing against each other in the bus business.
Even thougn CD owns most of SBST, there are still minority with possibly different interests.

My view only.

[opmi]

SMRT get nothing? Interesting to note that Bt Batok route is the lowest, while next door Jurong East is the highest.

dont know why Bedok, Eunos and Hougang not popular.

Was looking at bus routes on the tender docs. Dont know why these
3 routes not enough tenders.

[NTL]

SMRT get nothing? Interesting to note that Bt Batok route is the lowest, while next door Jurong East is the highest.

dont know why Bedok, Eunos and Hougang not popular.

Was looking at bus routes on the tender docs. Dont know why these
3 routes not enough tenders.

Read that bidding will be open later this month for the those 3 routes again.

From AsiaOne.com:
"Three of the nine City Direct services that were tendered out in June 2013 are not awarded, as they either only received bids that were not compliant with the tender requirements, or did not receive sufficiently competitive bids to comply with Government procurement principles."