Yes, I just have nothing better to do. This is a different story
of SG public transport system, which is purely
fictitious. This story is based on real events.
In 2014, the SBST purchase of Citaro Batch 2 stopped at
SBS6787A for production batch, and SBS6500K for BSEP batch. LTA
decided to buy Volvo B9L instead.
In the same year, SMRT received their first double-decker
buses, 10 MAN ND323F A95 buses, which debuted on
service 972. LTA had purchased 500 MAN ND323Fs the year before,
which were to be distributed mostly to SMRT, but also some to
SBST, and the first 2 GCM operators.
Over the next 1 1/2 years, SMRT received 230 MAN ND323Fs,
SBST received 50. Unfortunately, no SBST bus depot except BBDEP
wanted to take in the MAN ND323Fs, so BBDEP took all of them in, in
exchange for B9TL CDGEs. Tower Transit, the newest bus operator in
Singapore which won the Bulim bus package, received 10 MAN
ND323Fs.
In 2016, Go-Ahead Group, which won the Loyang bus package,
received 10 MAN ND323Fs, but they attempted to transfer them to
Tower Transit in exchange for Volvo B9TLs. LTA rejected the
request.
The standard fleet for GCM bus operators was Volvo
B9L, B9TL, and MAN A22, A24, A95. Yes, there are
bendies.
SBST did not receive any new SDs, they were told by
LTA to use the Citaros displaced from handed over GCM services to
replaced the Volvo B10Ms, while BBDEP attempted to throw
all their Citaros to the other depots, for Scania K230UBs. They did
a mass fleet upgrade of Service 5 so the Scania K230UBs could
replace some Citaros.
Later that year, when Go-Ahead Singapore took over all the
bus services in Pasir Ris and Punggol, 20 bus captains resigned,
and another 15 decided to strike in protest to the interlining
system where bus captains drove multiple bus services in the same
day. They had to borrow 45 bus captains from SBST and SMRT, as they
hired more new bus captains.
90% of the bus captains preferred to stick to one service
per duty, while 10% preferred the interlining
duties.Rather than scrapping the interlining concept
entirely, Go-Ahead used a mix of interlining and the single-service
duties based on the proportions stated above. Interlining would be
useful for short services like 84.
For instance, 84 had two permanent duties for AM/PM, and two
buses which would sometimes crossover from 83, which did continuous
trips of 83/84 before taking a 10-minute break in Punggol, instead
of the 8-minute break if they drove 83 alone.
To be continued...