LTA awards five contracts worth $5.87m to private bus operators

There are now 20 City Direct Services.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) awarded contracts for five City Direct Services to two private bus operators under the Bus Service Enhancement Programme (BSEP), according to their media release. These services will be launched progressively from February 2016.

The contracts for three of the five services—namely, the Bedok, Clementi/Dover, and Yishun West services—were awarded to Tong Tar Transport Service for about $3.41m. Meanwhile, BT&TAN Transport received the contracts for the Ang Mo Kio and Punggol services for about $2.46m.

With the 15 City Direct Services launched in the past three years, the total number of City Direct Services is now up to 20.

LTA asserts that with fewer stops and the use of expressways, journey time for the new services will be comparable to that of taking a bus or LRT and transferring to the MRT into the city.