Another bus company goes into history
After 31 March 2007, Singapore Shuttle Bus (SSB) Pte Ltd walks into history with the withdrawal of its last and only service running, City Shuttle Service (CSS) 608.
History
SSB was born in 1975 under the Park and Ride scheme, an initiative to get Singaporeans to park their cars at alloted city fringe carparks and catch a CSS to the Central Business District (CBD) to alleviate traffic congestion in the city. 25-seater Mercedes buses. With the abolition of the Park and Ride scheme in 1976 due to low popularity among car owners, SSB was called upon to provide regular bus services from the housing estates like Bedok (Service 608), St Michael’s (Services 603 and 607), Queenstown (Service 602), Bukit Merah and Sin Ming (Service 605) to the CBD and vice versa. SSB became a subsidary of TIBS in 1987. The 25-seaters were slowly replaced by a fleet of modernised Hino, Nissan UDs and DAF buses from 1985. The new buses were painted in orange SSB livery and given registration plates with a 'CSS' prefix. Marked withdrawal of CSS bus services began in the late 1990s due to the greying population in housing estates that CSS buses plied to. The matured housing estates, together with the lukewarm response to the Park and Ride Scheme, meant that the lower demand for travel between the city boundary/matured housing estates and CBD no longer justified the operation of CSS services, which were meant to supplement trunk routes opearted by SBS and then-TIBS.
With the withdrawal of CSS 608, public bus operators, namely SBS Transit and SMRT Buses, would operate in a duopoly. Bus enthusiasts, myself included, hope that the press would feature an article on SSB. Letting SSB walk into history silently is much a pity and a shame.
(credits go to SMRT website, with additional editing done by the blog owner)
History
SSB was born in 1975 under the Park and Ride scheme, an initiative to get Singaporeans to park their cars at alloted city fringe carparks and catch a CSS to the Central Business District (CBD) to alleviate traffic congestion in the city. 25-seater Mercedes buses. With the abolition of the Park and Ride scheme in 1976 due to low popularity among car owners, SSB was called upon to provide regular bus services from the housing estates like Bedok (Service 608), St Michael’s (Services 603 and 607), Queenstown (Service 602), Bukit Merah and Sin Ming (Service 605) to the CBD and vice versa. SSB became a subsidary of TIBS in 1987. The 25-seaters were slowly replaced by a fleet of modernised Hino, Nissan UDs and DAF buses from 1985. The new buses were painted in orange SSB livery and given registration plates with a 'CSS' prefix. Marked withdrawal of CSS bus services began in the late 1990s due to the greying population in housing estates that CSS buses plied to. The matured housing estates, together with the lukewarm response to the Park and Ride Scheme, meant that the lower demand for travel between the city boundary/matured housing estates and CBD no longer justified the operation of CSS services, which were meant to supplement trunk routes opearted by SBS and then-TIBS.
With the withdrawal of CSS 608, public bus operators, namely SBS Transit and SMRT Buses, would operate in a duopoly. Bus enthusiasts, myself included, hope that the press would feature an article on SSB. Letting SSB walk into history silently is much a pity and a shame.
(credits go to SMRT website, with additional editing done by the blog owner)
